East Los Angeles amateur fighter, Rudy S.

By kiki
                                                            

In the mid-'60's, I was training an amateur middleweight fighter out of East Los Angeles named Rudy S (respecting Rudy's privacy, I will not divulge his last name or what part of ELA he was from.) 

Rudy, about 18 years old, had two of the most enormous hands I have ever seen, and he could punch like a mule. 

Training at the Teamsters Gym, we had difficulty keeping sparring partners in the ring with him. So finally, after about a year of training, I took him to the Chino State Prison for their monthly fight cards, where he scored two quick first-round K.O.s. After that, I thought I had a diamond in the rough; work on the rough edges, and I have a champ.

After a couple of more wins via the K.O. route, I thought he was ready for the 1966 Los Angeles Golden Gloves; which was set for early March; I told him that I was going to enter him in the novice class, I said to him that he was too inexperienced to be boxing in the open class. He said he understood but preferred to fight in the open class and go to the nationals. He told me that he had never been out of Southern California and rarely out of East L.A. and that now was his chance to see how other folks lived. I told him he would have to wait until the following year; he agreed to fight in the novice class. 

That year, the Golden Gloves tournament was held at the now-defunct Valley Garden Arena in the San Fernando Valley. Again, Rudy got off to a great start, scoring two wins, the first by K.O. and the second by decision. He was now in the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, he fought a guy whose name I need help remembering out of the Jake Horn/Red Shannon stable. Bell rang, and Rudy immediately went out and nailed his opponent with a beautiful right hand; down went his opponent! Another quick K.O., I thought. Rudy's opponent made it to his feet before the referee could count to ten; with Rudy's opponent leaning on the ropes and seemingly out on his feet, referee Lou Bernal called the fighters back into action. Rudy rushed out of the neutral corner and ran into a big right hand thrown by his opponent. Rudy went down like he had been shot and was out for about 5 minutes. Rudy's opponent back in the dressing room didn't remember knocking Rudy out; he thought he had gotten knockout. After the fights, I protested, tongue in cheek, to Lou Bernal and told him that he should have stopped the fight when Rudy's opponent went down and that the guy was out on his feet; his reply was, "out on his feet? Hell, he K.O.'d your guy" I told him I knew that, but had he stopped the fight when Rudy's opponent went down, I would still have an undefeated fighter "buy me a beer," he said to me as we walked towards the beer bar, I did…As for my diamond in the rough, Rudy never fought again; in fact, I never saw Rudy again...I really thought I had a champ!!