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Avila Perspective, Chap. 94: Eddie “Animal” Lopez and the Power of Boxing

Most people around the world like boxing. It’s a fact that goes unnoticed by American newspapers and television outlets that cover sports, but not in other countries.
Team sports have the upper hand when it comes to media coverage. But the sweet science has its devout followers too.
Years ago I accidentally discovered that boxing, especially prizefighting, had a somewhat secret following even in UCLA’s prestigious halls of academic learning.
Back before the Internet was publicly known, newspapers were a primary source for information and several student newspapers provided me with opportunities to learn the craft of writing and news gathering.
As students we would gather inside the office reading major newspapers like the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, looking for possible stories to adapt or follow up. On one particular day I came across a story that involved a heavyweight fighter named Eddie “the Animal” Lopez. He was quoted saying that he would fight Muhammad Ali for $1 dollar.
That caught my attention and when I mentioned it the others laughed. I asked the editor-in-chief of the La Gente newspaper if it would be OK to pursue the story. He thought it was a great idea and another writer asked to go with me.
We made some calls and found a day that we could drive to downtown Los Angeles to the historic Main Street Gym. It was during the early 1980s; it could have been 1980 when we walked into the second story gym with a camera in my hand and a note pad.
It wasn’t my first time visiting the gym but it had been years since I had been there. At the top of the stairs we were greeted, or to be more accurate, acknowledged by someone who asked for the person we were trying to find. After we told this person, he yelled out something and a few minutes later Eddie “The Animal” Lopez arrived like magic. He wasn’t a very tall heavyweight and you wouldn’t describe him as physically cut like Ken Norton. But his ability to work his way inside against taller fighters and his mental toughness were things you could not teach.
Lopez was a unique character. He was raised in East L.A. near the Ramona Projects and despite having a hard edge was one of the most affable prizefighters I ever met. He showed us around and was eager to introduce us to Alberto Davila who he called a great boxer. A few years later Davila would win the bantamweight world title.
We asked Lopez about his encounter with Ali at the Beverly Hills press conference and he was kind of impressed that we knew about it. He mentioned the name of the sportswriter who penned the story and said that he was looking for a fight and would love to fight the great Muhammad Ali.
After about 20 minutes of interviewing we asked permission to take photos of Lopez while training. The gym wasn’t really conducive for photographs but we managed to obtain a few decent photos.
One week after the interview we published the story in La Gente newspaper and it was circulated throughout the UCLA campus and in a few news stalls in the nearby areas like Santa Monica, West L.A. and Beverly Hills. We drove to the Main Street Gym and dropped off a few copies for the gym and Lopez.
Later that week we drove through the streets of East L.A. and dropped off more copies to various restaurants like Manuel’s El Tepeyac, Ciros, Andy’s Super Burger, Chronis and Troy’s Burgers. We made a habit of delivering newspapers to news stands on Whittier Boulevard in East L.A. My family lived about four blocks from Garfield High School in East L.A. It’s a school I attended for a semester before getting booted out.
Lopez would soon fight former world champion Leon Spinks to a split draw after 10 back and forth rounds in a heavyweight fight at The Aladdin in Las Vegas. His last fight was against the very tough Tony Tucker in 1984 and he would lose by knockout in the ninth round. If you knew anything about Lopez it was that he could take a punch.
The rugged East L.A. heavyweight passed away nearly three years ago. I saw him one time after a fight at the Olympic Auditorium. He was a very popular fighter and fans loved him.
Power of Boxing
Students enjoyed the story and made me realize that boxing’s appeal was universal, even with university students. I kept that knowledge handy so when big fights emerged we invited fellow students to our large three-bedroom apartment in Palms near the MGM Studios in Culver City, California. We packed the apartment with students on the night that Thomas Hearns fought Sugar Ray Leonard on September 16, 1981.
The popularity of our fight party for UCLA students got me thinking the next time a big fight arrived – we could charge for admission. Not that we were making money for profit, but enough to buy pizza, beer, soda and rent a room at a nearby hotel that carried a new cable network HBO. Nobody at UCLA had HBO.
On November, 1982, the next mega fight arrived and matched two legendary fighters in the fearsome Aaron Pryor and Nicaragua’s Alexis Arguello. Their first encounter took place at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
As part of a UCLA Latino student newspaper La Gente we shared an office with the Afro-American student newspaper Nommo and became very close friends. When Pryor met Arguello it was a perfect opportunity to have another fight party and we organized a good one.
Of course most of the Latinos cheered for Arguello and most of the Black students cheered for Pryor and when it was over we all agreed we saw one heck of a fight. It would happen again 10 months later and we organized another party.
The memory of all of us students cheering and enjoying two great prize fights remains one of my fondest memories. Many of those students are still good friends of mine. We’ve lost a few over the years, but man, we had some good times.
Everywhere life would take me I discovered the power of boxing. When I took a part-time job at an outdoor news stand near Beverly Hills called Robertson News and Magazines on Robertson Avenue and Pico Boulevard, I met many customers there that shared my love for boxing. Some of the patrons were famous actors, musicians, dancers and writers and all had immense interest in prizefighting like Michael Jackson, Bubba Smith, Gene Simmons, Milton Berle and many others.
Strangely, because I was working at a news stand, I would glance through various newspapers from around the country. I noticed that almost all were void of boxing news. I remembered this information when I later was hired as a journalist for weekly throw-away newspapers and later still as a writer for daily newspapers. I would use this information much later when I pursued a career in journalism.
Fans
What Americans fail to realize – especially news media outlets – is the popularity of boxing worldwide. It’s an ignorance that has continued for three decades. But the arrival of streaming has made boxing’s universal appeal more obvious to even the most ignorant. Boxing will always be around even when team sports disappear.
Fans of boxing don’t wear t-shirts with emblems of their favorite fighters or display pennants in their bedroom. Some may have a photo or poster of their favorite fighter but the lack of boxing coverage keeps prizefighting in somewhat darkness. But then a big fight comes along and suddenly the mania begins.
Can the sport survive today with this pandemic? Will fans watch a prize fight that has no fans in the audience?
I would not bet against boxing.
Even though most gyms have closed, two boxing compounds remain functioning but keep outsiders from coming in. Abel Sanchez has the Summit Gym in Big Bear, California and despite only having two boxers in residence at the moment, they are both still training and ready to battle like Navy Seals.
Cecilia Braekhus the unified welterweight champion of the world has been in Big Bear since the beginning of the year. She has a tentative date against Chicago’s Jessica McCaskill who also remains in training.
In Riverside, several boxers remain on a training compound including Vergil Ortiz Jr. and WBC super lightweight titlist Jose Carlos Ramirez. Both stay and reside at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy compound and have not stepped off the property. Both have kept training despite the lack of a fight date. But they are ready to go.
“We won’t really have a problem as all the guys are living, eating and training together so it’s not going to affect us too much. Jose Ramirez always wants to spar Vergil Ortiz, because he gets the best work from him,” said Robert Garcia to Matchroom Boxing’s Anthony Leaver.
But fighting without fans present has become an important factor to survive at the moment.
“Having millions of people watching on TV is just not the same as having the live crowd cheering your name, or against you which can motivate you, it’s something boxing needs but we’re going to have to deal with it and teach our fighters how to handle it,” Garcia said.
Most fans have never been to a live boxing event. When you consider this fact, you realize that boxing will continue to thrive, but not in the normal capacity for a short while. Still, watching on television or through streaming devices carries immense appeal.
For decades my huge family always gathered around for the big fights. Whether in East L.A., San Antonio, or even Las Vegas you know that other families look forward to boxing events. Today, any individual with a smart phone can watch live boxing at the click of an app.
It’s the power of boxing.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
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Sam Goodman and Eccentric Harry Garside Score Wins on a Wednesday Card in Sydney

Australian junior featherweight Sam Goodman, ranked #1 by the IBF and #2 by the WBO, returned to the ring today in Sydney, NSW, and advanced his record to 20-0 (8) with a unanimous 10-round decision over Mexican import Cesar Vaca (19-2). This was Goodman’s first fight since July of last year. In the interim, he twice lost out on lucrative dates with Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue. Both fell out because of cuts that Goodman suffered in sparring.
Goodman was cut again today and in two places – below his left eye in the eighth and above his right eye in the ninth, the latter the result of an accidental head butt – but by then he had the bout firmly in control, albeit the match wasn’t quite as one-sided as the scores (100-90, 99-91, 99-92) suggested. Vaca, from Guadalajara, was making his first start outside his native country.
Goodman, whose signature win was a split decision over the previously undefeated American fighter Ra’eese Aleem, is handled by the Rose brothers — George, Trent, and Matt — who also handle the Tszyu brothers, Tim and Nikita, and two-time Olympian (and 2021 bronze medalist) Harry Garside who appeared in the semi-wind-up.
Harry Garside

Harry Garside
A junior welterweight from a suburb of Melbourne, Garside, 27, is an interesting character. A plumber by trade who has studied ballet, he occasionally shows up at formal gatherings wearing a dress.
Garside improved to 4-0 (3 KOs) as a pro when the referee stopped his contest with countryman Charlie Bell after five frames, deciding that Bell had taken enough punishment. It was a controversial call although Garside — who fought the last four rounds with a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads in the opening frame – was comfortably ahead on the cards.
Heavyweights
In a slobberknocker being hailed as a shoo-in for the Australian domestic Fight of the Year, 34-year-old bruisers Stevan Ivic and Toese Vousiutu took turns battering each other for 10 brutal rounds. It was a miracle that both were still standing at the final bell. A Brisbane firefighter recognized as the heavyweight champion of Australia, Ivic (7-0-1, 2 KOs) prevailed on scores of 96-94 and 96-93 twice. Melbourne’s Vousiuto falls to 8-2.
Tim Tsyzu.
The oddsmakers have installed Tim Tszyu a small favorite (minus-135ish) to avenge his loss to Sebastian Fundora when they tangle on Sunday, July 20, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Their first meeting took place in this same ring on March 30 of last year. Fundora, subbing for Keith Thurman, saddled Tszyu with his first defeat, taking away the Aussie’s WBO 154-pound world title while adding the vacant WBC belt to his dossier. The verdict was split but fair. Tszyu fought the last 11 rounds with a deep cut on his hairline that bled profusely, the result of an errant elbow.
Since that encounter, Tszyu was demolished in three rounds by Bakhram Murtazaliev in Orlando and rebounded with a fourth-round stoppage of Joey Spencer in Newcastle, NSW. Fundora has been to post one time, successfully defending his belts with a dominant fourth-round stoppage of Chordale Booker.
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Thomas Hauser’s Literary Notes: Johnny Greaves Tells a Sad Tale

Johnny Greaves was a professional loser. He had one hundred professional fights between 2007 and 2013, lost 96 of them, scored one knockout, and was stopped short of the distance twelve times. There was no subtlety in how his role was explained to him: “Look, Johnny; professional boxing works two ways. You’re either a ticket-seller and make money for the promoter, in which case you get to win fights. If you don’t sell tickets but can look after yourself a bit, you become an opponent and you fight to lose.”
By losing, he could make upwards of one thousand pounds for a night‘s work.
Greaves grew up with an alcoholic father who beat his children and wife. Johnny learned how to survive the beatings, which is what his career as a fighter would become. He was a scared, angry, often violent child who was expelled from school and found solace in alcohol and drugs.
The fighters Greaves lost to in the pros ran the gamut from inept local favorites to future champions Liam Walsh, Anthony Crolla, Lee Selby, Gavin Rees, and Jack Catterall. Alcohol and drugs remained constants in his life. He fought after drinking, smoking weed, and snorting cocaine on the night before – and sometimes on the day of – a fight. On multiple occasions, he came close to committing suicide. His goal in boxing ultimately became to have one hundred professional fights.
On rare occasions, two professional losers – “journeymen,” they’re called in The UK – are matched against each other. That was how Greaves got three of the four wins on his ledger. On September 29, 2013, he fought the one hundredth and final fight of his career against Dan Carr in London’s famed York Hall. Carr had a 2-42-2 ring record and would finish his career with three wins in ninety outings. Greaves-Carr was a fight that Johnny could win. He emerged triumphant on a four-round decision.
The Johnny Greaves Story, told by Greaves with the help of Adam Darke (Pitch Publishing) tells the whole sordid tale. Some of Greaves’s thoughts follow:
* “We all knew why we were there, and it wasn’t to win. The home fighters were the guys who had sold all the tickets and were deemed to have some talent. We were the scum. We knew our role. Give some young prospect a bit of a workout, keep out of the way of any big shots, lose on points but take home a wedge of cash, and fight again next week.”
* “If you fought too hard and won, then you wouldn’t get booked for any more shows. If you swung for the trees and got cut or knocked out, then you couldn’t fight for another 28 days. So what were you supposed to do? The answer was to LOOK like you were trying to win but be clever in the process. Slip and move, feint, throw little shots that were rangefinders, hold on, waste time. There was an art to this game, and I was quickly learning what a cynical business it was.”
* “The unknown for the journeyman was always how good your opponent might be. He could be a future world champion. Or he might be some hyped-up nightclub bouncer with a big following who was making lots of money for the promoter.”
* “No matter how well I fought, I wasn’t going to be getting any decisions. These fights weren’t scored fairly. The referees and judges understood who the paymasters were and they played the game. What was the point of having a go and being the best version of you if nobody was going to recognize or reward it?”
* “When I first stepped into the professional arena, I believed I was tough. believed that nobody could stop me. But fight by fight, those ideas were being challenged and broken down. Once you know that you can be hurt, dropped and knocked out, you’re never quite the same fighter.”
* “I had started off with a dream, an idea of what boxing was and what it would do for me. It was going to be a place where I could prove my toughness. A place that I could escape to and be someone else for a while. For a while, boxing was that place. But it wore me down to the point that I stopped caring. I’d grown sick and tired of it all. I wished that I could feel pride at what I’d achieved. But most of the time, I just felt like a loser.”
* “The fights were getting much more difficult, the damage to my body and my psyche taking longer and longer to repair after each defeat. I was putting myself in more and more danger with each passing fight. I was getting hurt more often and stopped more regularly. Even with the 28-day [suspensions], I didn’t have time to heal. I was staggering from one fight to the next and picking up more injuries along the way.”
* “I was losing my toughness and resilience. When that’s all you’ve ever had, it’s a hard thing to accept. Drink and drugs had always been present in my life. But now they became a regular part of my pre-fight preparation. It helped to shut out the fear and quieted the thoughts and worries that I shouldn’t be doing this anymore.”
* “My body was broken. My hands were constantly sore with blisters and cuts. I had early arthritis in my hip and my teeth were a mess. I looked an absolute state and inside I felt worse. But I couldn’t stop fighting yet. Not before the 100.”
* “I had abused myself time after time and stood in front of better men, taking a beating when I could have been sensible and covered up. At the start, I was rarely dropped or stopped. Now it was becoming a regular part of the game. Most of the guys I was facing were a lot better than me. This was mainly about survival.”
* “Was my brain f***ed from taking too many punches? I knew it was, to be honest. I could feel my speech changing and memory going. I was mentally unwell and shouldn’t have been fighting but the promoters didn’t care. Johnny Greaves was still a good booking. Maybe an even better one now that he might get knocked out.”
* “Nobody gave a f*** about me and whether I lived or died. I didn’t care about that much either. But the thought of being humiliated, knocked out in front of all those people; that was worse than the thought of dying. The idea of being exposed for what I was – a nobody.”
* “I was a miserable bastard in real life. A depressive downbeat mouthy little f***er. Everything I’ve done has been to mask the feeling that I’m worthless. That I have no value. The drinks and the drugs just helped me to forget that for a while. I still frighten myself a lot. My thoughts scare me. Do I really want to be here for the next thirty or forty years? I don’t know. If suicide wasn’t so impactful on people around you, I would have taken that leap. I don’t enjoy life and never have.”
So . . . Any questions?
****
Steve Albert was Showtime’s blow-by-blow commentator for two decades. But his reach extended far beyond boxing.
Albert’s sojourn through professional sports began in high school when he was a ball boy for the New York Knicks. Over the years, he was behind the microphone for more than a dozen teams in eleven leagues including four NBA franchises.
Putting the length of that trajectory in perspective . . . As a ballboy, Steve handed bottles of water and towels to a Knicks back-up forward named Phil Jackson. Later, they worked together as commentators for the New Jersey Nets. Then Steve provided the soundtrack for some of Jackson’s triumphs when he won eleven NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
It’s also a matter of record that Steve’s oldest brother, Marv, was arguably the greatest play-by-play announcer in NBA history. And brother Al enjoyed a successful career behind the microphone after playing professional hockey.
Now Steve has written a memoir titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth. Those who know him know that Steve doesn’t like to say bad things about people. And he doesn’t here. Nor does he delve into the inner workings of sports media or the sports dream machine. The book is largely a collection of lighthearted personal recollections, although there are times when the gravity of boxing forces reflection.
“Fighters were unlike any other professional athletes I had ever encountered,” Albert writes. “Many were products of incomprehensible backgrounds, fiercely tough neighborhoods, ghettos and, in some cases, jungles. Some got into the sport because they were bullied as children. For others, boxing was a means of survival. In many cases, it was an escape from a way of life that most people couldn’t even fathom.”
At one point, Steve recounts a ringside ritual that he followed when he was behind the microphone for Showtime Boxing: “I would precisely line up my trio of beverages – coffee, water, soda – on the far edge of the table closest to the ring apron. Perhaps the best advice I ever received from Ferdie [broadcast partner Ferdie Pacheco] was early on in my blow-by-blow career – ‘Always cover your coffee at ringside with an index card unless you like your coffee with cream, sugar, and blood.’”
Writing about the prelude to the infamous Holyfield-Tyson “bite fight,” Albert recalls, “I remember thinking that Tyson was going to do something unusual that night. I had this sinking feeling in my gut that he was going to pull something exceedingly out of the ordinary. His grousing about Holyfield’s head butts in the first fight added to my concern. [But] nobody could have foreseen what actually happened. Had I opened that broadcast with, ‘Folks, tonight I predict that Mike Tyson will bite off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear,’ some fellas in white coats might have approached me and said, ‘Uh, Steve, could you come with us.'”
And then there’s my favorite line in the book: “I once asked a fighter if he was happily married,” Albert recounts. “He said, ‘Yes, but my wife’s not.'”
“All I ever wanted was to be a sportscaster,” Albert says in closing. “I didn’t always get it right, but I tried to do my job with honesty and integrity. For forty-five years, calling games was my life. I think it all worked out.”
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – will be published this month and is available for preorder at:
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329
In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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Argentina’s Fernando Martinez Wins His Rematch with Kazuto Ioka

In an excellent fight climaxed by a furious 12th round, Argentina’s Fernando Daniel Martinez came off the deck to win his rematch with Kazuto Ioka and retain his piece of the world 115-pound title. The match was staged at Ioka’s familiar stomping grounds, the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.
In their first meeting on July 7 of last year in Tokyo, Martinez was returned the winner on scores of 117-111, 116-112, and a bizarre 120-108. The rematch was slated for late December, but Martinez took ill a few hours before the weigh-in and the bout was postponed.
The 33-year-old Martinez, who came in sporting a 17-0 (9) record, was a 7-2 favorite to win the sequel, but there were plenty of reasons to favor Ioka, 36, aside from his home field advantage. The first Japanese male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka was 3-0 in rematches and his long-time trainer Ismael Salas was on a nice roll. Salas was 2-0 last weekend in Times Square, having handled upset-maker Rolly Romero and Reito Tsutsumi who was making his pro debut.
But the fourth time was not a charm for Ioka (31-4-1) who seemingly pulled the fight out of the fire in round 10 when he pitched the Argentine to the canvas with a pair of left hooks, but then wasn’t able to capitalize on the momentum swing.
Martinez set a fast pace and had Ioka fighting off his back foot for much of the fight. Beginning in round seven, Martinez looked fatigued, but the Argentine was conserving his energy for the championship rounds. In the end, he won the bout on all three cards: 114-113, 116-112, 117-110.
Up next for Fernando Martinez may be a date with fellow unbeaten Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the lineal champion at 115. San Antonio’s Rodriguez is a huge favorite to keep his title when he defends against South Africa’s obscure Phumelela Cafu on July 19 in Frisco, Texas.
As for Ioka, had he won today’s rematch, that may have gotten him over the hump in so far as making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. True, winning titles in four weight classes is no great shakes when the bookends are only 10 pounds apart, but Ioka is still a worthy candidate.
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