By kiki
A cross-town amateur rivalry between Tony Baltazar and John Montes had been building up in the late '70s. Both had been getting some good amateur wins, so it was just a matter of time before they fought. On our part, we were ready to fight Montes at any time.
John Montes came into the junior boxing program scene in the early '70s, whereas Tony started in '64 and by the mid- '70s (1976) had already won a National Junior Olympic title. So we felt that Tony was too experienced for John at that point.
Felix Villareal, the amateur matchmaker at the Olympic Auditorium, called me on Monday and said that the Montes people wanted John to fight Tony on Thursday's night pro/am boxing card; I said okay. Felix then told me it had to be at '32; again, I said okay, Tony can make '32 if that's what they want. I told Felix. On Thursday morning, Tony, Frankie, and I went to the weight in's. Frankie was with us because he was fighting the night's pro-main-event against Shig Fukuyama. Both Frankie and Tony made weight easy.
That night before the fights started, I ran into my Uncle Florentino, my dad's brother, at the Olympic. He was with a group of Montes fans. He told me that Tony better win as he was betting all of his friends who were backing Montes. Tony ended the fight, which we expected to be a close battle, with a spectacular left hook in under a minute and a half of the first round. Montes was out for over 5 minutes. And Frankie also had a great night; he stopped Fukuyama in the fourth round.
What I find amazing about this period of Californian boxing is not just the number of world class fighters that cam from the state but the number of world class brothers that came from California. The Baltazars, Montes, Quarry, etc.
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