How Things Have Changed for Fans the Last 50 Years

By Sherman Lambert

This weekend most boxing fans had two opportunities to see live matches. A couple of world class featherweights were fighting, Juan Manuel Lopez and Israel Vasquez. Unfortunately they were not fighting each other. Their respective opponents were unranked by almost all ratings. If you were properly connected and were comfortable with Spanish the Vasquez fight was “free”. The Lopez fight was part of a $39.99 pay per view.
When I started following boxing in the early 60’s Ring magazine was the “Bible of Boxing”. Only eight divisions were recognized but each, expect for middleweight, had one champion. Any boxing fan could name the champs, even foreign guys like Eder Jofre and Pone Kingpetch. There was no need for pound for pound ratings because the champions were almost all undisputed and they defended their titles often against real top ten contenders.
Today all the champions of my youth are in the hall of fame except for Paul Pender, Davey Moore, and Pone Kingpetch. Davey should probably be in the hall, but unfortunately he’s remembered for his tragic last fight than for a career in which he compiled a 59-7-1 record. It took ring a while to recognize junior divisions but junior lightweight champion Flash Elorde is also in the hall of fame.
Trilogy matches are a big deal today but some of these hall of fame guys like Ray Robinson and Gene Fullmer fought each other five times. . Emile Griffith and Luis Rodriguez fought four times. Both guys were highly skilled and they finished their careers with over 100 fights. Rodriguez also beat Rubin Carter twice and split a trilogy with future hall of fame champion Curtis Cokes.
Most of these matches between future hall of famers were on free television’s Friday Night Fights. ESPN and even Tuesday night fight quality matches rarely made the cut for the Gillette Fight of the Week. You had to watch commercials but you saw regularly saw matches that today would be called pay per view super fights. As a kid at home I watched Willie Pastrano take the title from Harold Johnson. I also got to see Rubin Carter knock out Emile Griffith. I was a big fan of Griffith after watching his fights with Rodriguez. The only fights that cost money for the fan were live matches in the area and the heavyweight title matches on closed circuit television.
The 50th street Madison Square Garden regularly had quality matches with two real top ten guys. The tickets weren’t cheap but my dad could afford to take me toseveral big shows. My favorite was George Chuvalo’s upset knockout of Doug Jones.
Jones was a very skilled light heavyweight. His losses were almost all to top ten and champion heavyweights. Anyone who saw Doug Jones fight knows he would be a real challenge to today’s best. He fought between 171 – 188 pounds so he always gave away weight to the heavies.
George Chuvalo is remembered today as a tough heavy handed puncher with a big heart. He was getting out boxed by Jones for most of the fight. If it was a ten rounder Jones would have earned a decision. The bigger Chuvalo started wearing Jones down and he finally got him in the 11th round.
Local areas hosted the ESPN quality fights in my youth. At Sunnyside Gardens I watched guys like Bob Stallings and Bob Cassidy who fought their hearts out trying to crack the top ten. Sadly, most local areas are closed. The Indian casinos have replaced the small areas but many of the casinos are too distant for local fans.
Finally, one of the biggest changes since my youth is the scarcity of amateur boxing gyms for kids. When I grew up in Queens, New York almost every YMCA had a youth boxing program. Today, living in Los Angeles, there are still PAL programs but they are many miles apart. The closest boxing gym in my area sells equipment and promotes themselves as personal fitness trainers. Youth boxing is only for paying customers. It could be lower demand from competition with other sports but fewer gyms mean fewer American boxers in the future. I mourn the loss.

Sherman Lambert is a life-long boxing fan and an amateur boxing historian and used to regularly attend shows at Madison Square Garden in the 1960’s where he watched guys like Harold Johnson, Willie Pastrano, and an up and coming Joe Frazier. Please e-mail comments to slambert@lausd.net.