Remembering LA’s Dynamite Jackson, a Big Man Inside and Outside the Ropes

Published

2 years ago

July 16, 2023

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Dynamite Jackson wasn’t a great fighter, but he was good enough to win the California Heavyweight Title and he left a large footprint when he left the California boxing scene. With the passage of time, a footprint tends to fade away, obscured by layers of dust, but nowadays anyone who subscribes to a newspaper archives website can brush away some of the dust and the footprint becomes less opaque.

Dynamite Jackson was the first black person to become a licensed boxing referee in California and purportedly the first man of his color to hold this distinction anywhere west of the Mississippi. But let’s start at the beginning.

The man who was cloaked with the ring name Dynamite Jackson was born Ernest Bendy in Oklahoma City. At the age of 14 or thereabouts, he arrived in LA with his mother and was enrolled in the city’s predominantly non-white Jefferson High School. He was still attending classes there when he launched his pro career in 1927.

Jackson’s early opponents were a mixed bag of novices and veterans. When it came to black-on-black competitions, constraints were looser and promoters had few qualms about sending a true professional in against a man right off the street. Unlike in many other parts of the country, however, there was no formal opposition to mixed matches and Jackson had many white opponents.

H.C. Witwer reportedly tagged Bendy with his ring name. Witwer was a prolific author of pulp fiction. In the silent film age, many of his magazine stories were adapted into serials by Hollywood studios. In his boxing stories, he dressed his protagonists with fanciful names, e.g., One-Round O’Toole and the Chickasaw Bone Crusher.

Dynamite’s colorful manager Wirt Ross, a fast-talking Kentuckian who claimed to be a distant relative of the famous outlaw Jesse James, took it a step further. Ross told reporters that Jackson’s grandfather was a Sioux Indian who was at the Battle of Little Big Horn where General Custer was killed. “[Dynamite Jackson’s] veins run thick with the fighting blood of ancestors who roamed the plains with a tomahawk and a scalping knife, ready for action against man or beast,” said a 1931 story in the Los Angeles Times. (Wirt Ross managed two future world title-holders in Chalky Wright and the great Henry Armstrong, but sold off both, purportedly to satisfy gambling debts, before they became champions.)

Jackson was at his peak in June of 1931 when he defeated Jack Redman and Les Kennedy in 10-round bouts spaced three weeks apart at the Olympic Auditorium.

Redman, who was from Baton Rouge, was supposedly discovered by Jack Dempsey who proclaimed him “the greatest living negro heavyweight.” Dynamite won wire-to-wire, saddling Redman, reputedly 25-0-2 coming in, with his first defeat and avenging a loss to him the previous month in San Diego. Les Kennedy, a Long Beach (CA) stevedore by way of Butte, Montana, owned wins over such notables as John Lester Johnson and Meyer “KO” Christner. Dynamite dominated their fight which was stopped by the ring physician after four rounds with Kennedy a bloody mess. He and Kennedy had split two previous meetings.

The rubber match with Les Kennedy earned Dynamite Jackson the California Heavyweight Title as certified by the state athletic commission, but his reign didn’t last long. Three months later, the belt passed to Ace Hudkins who beat him decisively before an overflow crowd at the Olympic. Bleeding from cuts above both eyes, Dynamite rallied late, but too late to salvage a draw.

Ace Hudkins, the Nebraska Wildcat, was very good, arguably the best boxer produced by the Cornhusker State until the arrival of Terence Crawford. However, it did not redound well to Dynamite that he was fighting a much smaller man. Carrying 205 pounds on his six-foot-one frame, Jackson had a 31-and-a-half-pound weight advantage over the five-foot-nine Hudkins who was a lightweight when he first started out. A harsh defeat the following year to New Jersey journeyman Jim Braddock (yes, the future Cinderella Man) was another stain on his legacy. Per boxrec, Jackson concluded his career with a record of 51-14-2 (26 KOs).

California circa 1930 was a world apart from the rest of the country. With no major league sports franchises and no pari-mutuel horseracing, boxing got a big play in the sports section of the papers. When Jackson retired from boxing, he cashed in on his fame by going into the cocktail lounge business. In this regard, he was following a well-worn tradition. Back in the bare-knuckle age and beyond, the most celebrated boxers invariably became saloon-keepers. Jackson and his partners would eventually have two watering holes on Jazz-infused Central Avenue, the main ribbon of LA’s black belt, plus a package liquor store that bore his ring name.

Dynamites

To be a ring official in California, one had to pass a civil service exam. Jackson took the exam in 1946, reportedly passed it with flying colors, and would go on to judge hundreds of prizefights and referee dozens more. In 1957, he was one of six nominees for Southern California’s “Leading (Black) Citizen Award,” an annual award, sponsored by a distillery, given to “the person who has contributed the most in spirit and deed toward betterment of the community.” Dynamite was cited for his work with youth groups, particularly the Boy Scouts.

Dynamite Jackson, aka Ernest Bendy, passed away in 1967 at the UCLA Medical Center from complications of obesity. By then, he had lost his Central Avenue properties in a bitter dispute with his business partners and was selling real estate. The obits said he was 55 years old. One suspects that he may have been a bit older as that would have made him 15 years old when he launched his pro boxing career.

Regardless, he was quite an interesting personality during an interesting phase of West Coast boxing.

Arne K. Lang’s third boxing book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” rolled off the press in September of last year. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher or via Amazon.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

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1 day ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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