January 2002 - March 2004 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

it also means avoiding it. When you call someone a dog (or dawg), it now means
he is a stud or "Romeo" or successful with the ladies, like Sugar Ray Robinson.
But you could say a boxer who holds, circles around, hardly throws any punches
and doesn't work hard is dogging it. Yes, there were and are thousands of
good Mexican-American boxers from the West Coast, too. Some include Mando Ramos,
Bobby Chacon, Ruben Navarro, Art Aragon in the 40s and 50s, Ernie and Little Red
Lopez (actually they were from Utah originally and part native American)-- I
should be able to list 50 more, but I'm too damned old. The ringside announcers
always made a big thing about how Mexican boxers were taught "the liver punch"
as children -- this claim sounded a little racist. There was one tough Mex-
American heavy named Joey Orbillo who came up with JQ as a rival, and friend.
Joey may have reached the Top Ten and I remember he fought Liston in the
twilight of Sonny's career. In interviews, Sonny pronounced his name "Orbillio",
and then KOed him, if I remember right. Joey later lost a showdown with JQ, who
said for once he hesitated and didn't want to knock his old buddy flat. Then
Joey became a policeman and may still be doing it. I guess Manuel Ramos
qualifies as a good heavy but not a great one. Alexandro Lavorante was from
Argentina, I think. He was highly touted around 1962 but lost to Cassius Clay,
and then a month later got KOed by a ham-and-egger (average fighter or
"journeyman")named Johnny Riggins. Lavorante hit his head on the ring turnbuckle
(where the ropes come together), suffered a basal hemorrhage and died soon
after. This is the most common reason for ring deaths -- not a punch but hitting
the turnbuckle. I think Cassius Clay did the original damage that made Lavorante
vulnerable. But who knows? I regard Ali as a very heavy puncher. Not in the
category of Foreman, Cleve Williams, or the big bangers, but probably as
forceful as Frazier and the second tier hitters. The difference is that Ali had
the crisp snap that immediately cut off the CNS (central nervous system), and
most of the others had bludgeoning blows. It used to be (and maybe still is)
that a lot of Thai boxers were highly-ranked in the lighter divisions, too.
Massimo, Shaq, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and many others live in
Bel Air, a couple of miles down Sunset Boulevard from me. When you see Shaq or
any 7-footer on the street or in a restaurant, it's unbelievable at first.
One last question -- I always heard some heavyweights train with middles or
even welters for speed. True or false? If true, who are some of the guys who did
this? Oh, and I didn't have relatives named Bruce Buell, but for decades,
one of the announcers on classical station KPFC-AM/FM had that name. |
|10/26/03 02:35:43 AM|Paul|Sydney, Australia||PlMls4@aol.com||||10|George - I
was reading a book covering the Lionel Rose v Olivares fight and it called Rubin
'Rockabye' Olivares. To be honest, I did not know that was his nickname until I
read that. I can't recall that nickname being used when he fought. Lionel Rose
is alive and well and is about 54 years old. A friend of mine knows him well and
I got to meet Rose about two years ago at a fight night in Sydney. I was lucky
enough to enjoy a number of beers over several hours with him. At the time he
was living 100 kilometres from Sydney in a placed named Ulladullah. Like many
ex-champions, Lionel is not wealthy but he doesn't complain and he battles on.
He smokes too much. I understand that he sold the bantamweight title belt that
he won. After the Olivares fight, he had a few more bouts which he lost. He then
made a record singing an ordinary song and playing the guitar. On the night we
were with him none of us (including Lionel) could recall the name of the song.
Lionel is a very friendly and likeable man. Evonne Goolagong is also alive and
well. I think she still lives in Sydney, but she keeps out of the limelight and
we never see her. In her youth she lived in a suburb in Sydney called Roseville,
just a few streets from me. But I've never seen her in person. She was a
wonderful tennis player. No one has a bad word for Lionel or Evonne in
Australia. You are right about Ali. He had terrific snap in his punches. |
|10/26/03 02:47:56 AM|Paul|Sydney, Australia||PlMls4@aol.com||||10|George - I
forgot to answer all of your questions, particularly in regard to whether there