Orlando De La Fuente

[kikibalt]

Hap

Remember this guy Orlando ( Roy ) De La Fuente ?

[gregbeyer]

yeah frank i remember de la fuente. looks something like jesse james leija here. orlando had a great amateur career. did not have enough power for the pros. he was out pointing nate collins before 2 late knockdowns swung the cards in nates favor. he also lost to top middleweight andy heilman and ray "windmill" white at lightheavy.
greg

[kikibalt]

Greg
Yes Orlando ( Real name is Roy ) had
a great amateur career, he went to the
Nat. G.G more then once , i seen the
Heilman fight , i agree with you that
he did't have much power to stay
with the top pro's

Frank B.

[DonGee]

Frank:

I visited the Teamsters' Gym, 7th and Stanford, every day and that's where that young man got his christening as a boxer. His dad Bob de la Fuente worked out there daily, and he and Louie Jauregui ran the gym.

Jimmie Fitten, Lauro Salas' co-manager, played handball there too, because it wats he onlly dowwntown gym with a handball court.

Sorry to say I never saw Orlando fight as a pro, because he came along after I had left Hollywood Legion Stadium, as did Frankie Bielma, Joey Orbillo and Hank Aceves. It was rumored at that time that the de la Fuente family was related to Tony Fuentes, the best looking Mexican heavyweight fighter of the early days in the state's boxing history.

Art Aragon's first fight after he and Carmen Basilio had set a gate record for California in their match at Wrigley Field ($238,000) was against Frankie Bielma, who held him to a 10-round draw at, (of all places) Fresno!

Incidentally, the "kiddie fights" were fun to watch at both the Teamsters' Gym and the gym at the CYO basement in the church on 12th and Los Angeles streets, in LA. Al Barnes developed his terrific prospect Paul Armstead in those days. I believe Rick Faris had his first matches as a kid in those youth programs also.

regards

hap navarro

[kikibalt]

Hap
I first went to the Teamster's gym in 1949 , I trained
with Louie Jauregui , i met all the guys who
used to work out there at that time
The kiddie fights , how can i forget them? there
was the JR. G.G. to looked forward too , my
three sons fought in the JR. G.G's tournament
I later run the JR . G.G tourament for Louie
Handball, we used to spent all day on Saturday's playing
Hap i do believe Bob De La Fuente was related to
Tony Fuentes , anyway thats what i heard

Frank B.