History of California Boxing in Photos

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Frank,

Do you have a photo of 1960s welterweight John Newman?

He fought from 1960-1964 and compiled a record of won 18 (KO 11) + lost 1 (KO 1) + drawn 0 = 19. His only loss was by second round KO to Curtis Cokes.

Dan

Dan,

Sorry, but it looks like I don't have photo on Johnny Newman.

[Dan1213]

Thanks anyway Frank. It's funny how certain fighter photos never surface even though there is plenty of fight coverage on them. Newman is one of those!

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Eddie Machen v Zora Foley

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Irish Bob Murphy

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Manuel Ortiz

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Courtesy of Bruce Smith




Jimmy Lester was actually a middleweight who fought out of S.F. from 1963-1973, ending with a record of 41 wins with 31 KOs 20 losses 2 by KO and 2 draws. I read a quote once that said, "Nobody comes out of a Lester fight unmarked."
Jimmy, known as the Bayview Blaster was the son of Jimmy "Top Row" Allen who also fought under the name Vernon Lester during the years 1943-1952, he lost a split decision to Jake LaMotta and ended his career with a KO loss to Sugar Ray Robinson. The nickname "Top Row" has two stories behind it, one is that he hit so hard that you could hear it from the "Top Row" and the other was that is was a certain position he held in a local jail. Since "Top Row" only had eight KOs in fifty fights you can come to your own conclusion.
Jimmy Lester Vs. Denny Moyer was the first professional fight I ever attended and at the age of nine I was hooked on boxing for life. I later met Jimmy while training at Newman and Herman's Gym in S.F. he was one of those people with a naturally muscular build and always looked good training and was good to us younger guys, a real gym favorite.
Jimmy fought many contenders and a couple of champions, I believe he was once ranked as high as number 4 or 5 middleweight by The Ring. Amongst his opponents were Curtis Cokes, Luis Rodriguez, Bennie Briscoe, Nate Collins (cross town rival), Charlie Shipes who he drew with, Lonnie Harris, Stan Harrington, Rafael Gutierrez, Art Hernandez, Charlie Austin and of course Andy Heilman twice.
The first bout with Heilman was the fight of the year in the Bay Area, promoter Don Chargin said it was one of the best fights ever in the Bay Area and poet Tom Smario wrote this about the fight;
"Heilman threw punches like a claustrophobic madman with a baseball bat and Lester was; like a man swinging an axe in wide arcs and roundhouse that tear meat from the bone."
Jimmy's biggest win was over Florentino Fernandez who had koed future light-heavyweight champ Jose Torres, Lester Koed Fernandez in the second round and the buzz in the crowd was "fix" but in the morning paper they read that Fernandez had a broken jaw and Lester had a broken hand.
I last ran into Jimmy in a seedy part of San Francisco he was standing at a residential hotel where he lived and I stopped to say hi to him, he would never have recognized me even if he hadn't suffer several strokes but when I told him that I had seen him fight many times he pulled me into the lobby and told everyone sitting around that I recognized him, he was very happy that someone had stopped to say hi, and I told everyone there what a great fighter he had been, I slipped him twenty bucks and told him thanks for some great memories.
Jimmy died of a heart attack in 2006

Bobbin & Weavin

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Mickey Rooney and Art Aragon

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Manuel Ortiz vs Harold Dade

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Los Angeles Times Golden Gloves team boarding a train to the Chicago Tribune tournament, 1948
ALL ABOARD FOR CHICAGO -- The Times Golden Gloves team entrained yesterday for Chicago Tribune tournament. Left to right, kneeling, Coaches Leo Pope and George Latka; standing, Hugh Davidson, Hank Herring, Joe Burzenes, Enoch Lee and Rudy Garcia; on steps, Clarence Henry, Jay Caldwell, and Ruben Smith.

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Harold Dade and Manuel Ortiz

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Mando Ramos, teaching kids to boxes

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Ike Williams

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Joe Rivers -AKA- Jose Ybarra

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Women's Amateur Lightweight Boxing Champion Billie Bachelis
giving a bag punching demonstration at The May Company in
Los Angeles, Calif., 1931