Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Boxing's November ring classics

November Ring Moments: 

- by Brian Zelley.

The Fantastic Fifties:

*The month of November provided a few title fights around the globe.

For the west coast crowd, one of those bouts would feature one of 
their own ART "Golden Boy" ARAGON would face JIMMY CARTER
in a lightweight title fight in Los Angeles.  At the end of 15 rounds it
was the champion Carter who would get the decision in 1951.  In
November '53 Carter would go to another fighters home base, but
the results would be the same with Jimmy winning against the
Canadian ARMAND SAVOIE at Montreal.


On Nov. 1, '50, Islington's own TERRY ALLEN, the former world
flyweight champion would face the new champion DADO MARINO
for 15 rounds in Honolulu.  

*Then came a fight to remember when JOHNNY BRATTON faced
welterweight champion KID GAVILAN.  In  an earlier fight, Bratton
suffered a broken jaw, but that had no effect on his perfomance
on Friday the 13th , November '53 at the Chicago stadium.

*1/955 - CARMEN BASILIO, the new welterweight champion, would
give former champion TONY DEMARCO  a rematch in Boston
 and win by a stoppage in round 12.

1956 - FLOYD PATTERSON, the middleweight Olympic gold medalist
was now a heavyweight and would win the vacant title with a great
victory over light-heavyweight champion ARCHIE MOORE.


The Sizzling Sixties and the November happenings:

BANTAMWEIGHT BOXER from BRAZIL would set the stage
for the Sixties ring action when he held a piece of the 
bantamweight title with a victory over Eloy Sanchez in
November 22, 1960 in Los Angeles. And his name was
EDER JOFRE.  But, fast forward to 1964 and it was 
WILLIE PASTRANO winning big in Manchester, England
against TERRY DOWNES.  And, in November '65 the
old gave way to the new when heavyweight champion
MUHAMMAD (Cassius Clay) ALI defended his title
against fomrer two-time champ FLOYD PATTERSON.

There would be other good fights in that year with
Carols Ortiz over Ismael Laguna, and Fighting Harada
over Alan Rudkin. And in 1967, champion DICK TIGER
would stop ROGER ROUSE in a light=heavyweight bout.


November 1970:

Two important fights would kick-off November 1970:
CAROS MONZON stops NINO BENVENUTI and
JOE FRAZIER stops BOB FOSTER.


The Ground Level: the novice juniors.

*Far removed from the world champions such as 
MUHAMMAD ALI to EDER JOFRE,  are those 
amateur boxers at the ground level when many are
often in their first tournament such as that which took 
place on November 5th., 1983 at the Boxing BC
training centre in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
The tournament  was the 1983 Bronze Gloves for 
junior novice boxers.

Following the competition, the boxer to be selected as
the "Bronze Boy" was Queensborough Boxing club boxer
CLINT DUMAIS.  The runner-up as the best boxer was
from the Kingsway boxing club of Vancouver and his name
was MIKE MARRELLO, and the best bout was against
Daryl Dickson of Williams Lake vs David Slack of the
Langley/Aldergrove club.  One of the novice junior boxers
that 11 years later would be part of Canada's Commonwealth
Games boxing team would be ALLAN BAYNE.  Ringside officials
in that novice tournament would be:
Bert Lowes, Sid Knopp, Rudy Bianco, Larry Krangle, Brian Zelley,
Lindy Lindmoser, Jack Mellor, Vic Murdoch, Earl Vance and
Bob Necombe.


Back To The World Stage IN THE EIGHTIES:

It was just the previous month in October 1980 when a kegebd
fell and theat was when LARRY HOLMES stopped "The Greatest:
named MUHAMMAD ALI in 11 rounds.

But, for the champions and contenders, there would be many
interesting bouts throughout the eighties with the first big
name fight in November 1980 took place in New Orleans and
Sugar Ray Leonard would defeat Roberto Duran in a 
welterweight title fight and in a split title division of the
lightweights JIM WATT would stop SEAN O'GRADY and
HILMER KENTY would stop V. Fernandez. And, in 1981
MICHAEL SPINKS would stop VONZELL JOHNSON in the
light-heavyweight division. 

In November 1982, lightweight RAY MANCINI would stop
Duk Koo Kim in Les Vegas.  And has the decade continued
there would be others engaged such as MARVIN HAGLER  and
HECTOR CAMACHO.  And in the heavyweight division it was
LARRY HOLMES rolling along whn he stopped BONECRUSHER
SMITH in November 1984

BACK TO THE THIRTIES 

* But, we must travel back in time for see the legends of boxing in action.
In November 1930 TONY CANZONERI woudl defeat KID CHOCOLATE in
a lightweight bout in New York City while featherweight champion 
Bat Battalino was winning in Chicago.  An in 1933, it was light-heavyweight 
champion MAXIE ROSENBLOOM earning a victory over the aging 
MICKY WALKER.  To close out the thirties, it was 1939 when the great
BLLY CONN would outbox GUS LESNEVICH to retain the light-heavyweight
title