John Martinez and the gloves

By kiki

Around 1977, my son Frankie was fighting the main event at the Olympic Auditorium, and around 8:30, Norm Lockwood came into the dressing room and handed me the gloves. I gloved Frankie up so he could begin warming up. Forty minutes or so later, Lockwood stuck his head in the dressing room and yelled, "ring time" I told Frankie, "let's go," "wait! Wait! I have to take a piss," Frankie said to me; well, we didn't have time to take one glove off so he could take a piss, this fight was on live TV, and the TV people had everything down to the minute, so I looked at my assistant, the late John Martinez, he looked at me. He said, "no, no, no, not me! "I said, "yes, yes, yes, that's what I'm paying you for (I wasn't paying him). I'll wait outside" - Most fighters get butterflies in their stomach; Frankie got 'em in his bladder.

I put my arm around John when they came out of the dressing room. I asked him, "Well, John?" his reply was, "you sonofabitch" I told him, "don't worry, John, I won't tell anybody, and I'll buy you a beer and a hot dog after the fight for been such a nice guy" By the following day all our friend knew about it!!

John and Bob

                                                     John and Bob

By kiki

In 1980 my brother Mando and I were planning a 7-day motorcycle road trip for Memorial Day. About ten days before the start of our trip, I ran into my friend Bob King, and I mentioned our upcoming trip to him; and knowing that he rode a motorcycle, I asked him if he would like to go, he told me he would think about it and that he would get back to me later with an answer. He called me a few days later and said that, yes, he would ride with us. He then asked me if he could invite a friend named John. I told Bob, “of course, invite him and others if you want to.”

We got together at my place on the Saturday morning of the Memorial Day weekend to start our trip. Bob and his friend John came early, and once everybody had arrived and had had some coffee, we got on the road. We rode all over NoCal during the week. By Friday, we were about 150 miles from home. We planned to ride home Saturday, so we needed to find a campground to spend our last night on the road, which we did at Lopez Lake, north of San Barbara.

As we set up our tents, Bob came to me and told me that he and John were heading home that night. I asked him why, and he told me that John had told his live-in girlfriend in the morning that we had started our trip, that he was going to the store to buy the newspaper and cigarettes, and that he would be right back !! So he was gone for a week buying the newspaper and cigarettes … LOL!!!!

“Brick Wars”

By kiki

One late 1940s summer day, the guys from up the hill came down to El Hoyo for a brick fight; I was behind a small dirt mount, about 3 feet high. I would get up, throw a brick, get down fast for the incoming bricks. The action slowed down, no incoming bricks, so I figured they had gone back up the hill; I figured wrong, because as I stood up to see if indeed the guys had gone up the hill, "POW" I got hit in the chest with a brick, I went down on my butt, couldn't get up for a while. That’s how we kid's spent the summers at the Simons Brickyard.

What a set of pipes

By kiki                                                   

"kiki! kiki!!" Connie was screaming at the top of her lungs at me. Man! Does that woman have a set of pipes on her?

"Yes, dear," I answered.

"What did you do to my blouse!?" she asked me as she held up a dark blouse for me to see. It was a dark blue blouse with some white spots that looked like they didn't belong there.

"I didn't do anything to your blouse, dear," I told her as I began to sweat.

"You do the laundry, don't you!?"

"Of course I do," I said.

"Well, look! You ruin one of my favorite blouses. Did you get some bleach on it!"

"It wasn't my fault," I told her.

"Whom's fault was it? The dogs? They are the only ones here with you during the day".

"If you want to believe that, that's okay with me," I told her as I walked away.

What a set of pipes!!

Willie, Joe, and Jack-In-The-Box

By kiki

                                               

 I once knocked a Jack-In-The-Box out. Even though that's only a short part of this story, let me tell you how. In 1970, I drove with other boxing trainers and guys with junior boxers to Phoenix, Arizona, for a junior boxing show. At that time, I had a 1966 Chevy pickup with a camper. One of the guys making the trip was my late brother-in-law Willie (he was married to my sister Annie). When I asked Willie if he would like to go to Phoenix with us, he said yes, that he would like to go, but said I had to promise him that I would take a picture of him with a Native American woman; I promise him I would; not knowing how I would accomplish that feat. One of the other guys was my wife's late brother-in-law, Joe. 

When we left home, Joe and Willie were riding in the back, inside the camper with the junior boxers; when we made our first stop, Willie jumped out of the camper yelling, "I ain't riding with that sonuvabitch no more" I told Willie he could ride in the cab. We got back on the road, and two hours later, we made another stop, and everybody got out to stretch their legs, and like lovers, Joe and Willie made up, they were now both going to ride in the camper again, they said. At the next stop, it was Joe that jumped out yelling; now Joe was riding in the cab; damn, I was beginning to feel like "Dear Abby," with Joe and Willie burning my ears off, telling me the other one was crazy!

We pulled into Phoenix at four in the morning, and we saw one of those 'open 24 hours Jack-In-The-Box restaurants' I was half asleep when I pulled into the drive-thru and hit the clown and knocked him on his ass; Jack was out cold before he hit the ground, I hit Jack because the camper was too high for the drive-thru! After we parked, I went inside for a cup of coffee, and what was the first thing I saw? Two Native American women! They were almost about Willie's size, too, 250 lbs. or more, but shorter, way shorter! I ran outside, got my camera, and told Willie, "Willie! I found your Native American woman" I got Willie inside, and I asked the bigger of the two women if it was okay for me to take a picture of her with Willie; she said yes, but that we would have to buy her and her friend a cup of coffee, we did. Afterward, she kept calling Willie "Mijo," Willie asked me not to show Annie the pictures, which was, of course, the first thing I did...

The morning after the kids fought, we left Phoenix and stopped in Buckeye for breakfast; some of us ordered pancakes, others ordered a bacon and eggs breakfast, 

Willie ordered half a dozen pancakes with a half dozen eggs, an egg in between each pancake, "AND" a side order of bacon and eggs, with hash brown and toast, and two beers; he ate "EVERYTHING," He then slept all way home.

That boy could eat! But maybe that's why he weighed in close to 280 pounds.

Going Fishing

                                                     By kiki

This morning I reminded Connie that in two weeks I was going fishing for a few days, I asked her if she was going to miss me.

“Babe, I’m going to be gone for a few days, are you going to miss me?”

“Hell no, I going to rest! I won’t have to come home and cook! And I won’t have to listen to you whining about how every bone hurts you”

Damn!!

Tony Baltazar, Raul Bencomo and Jimmy Montoya

By kiki

On March 19, 1981, on a card headlined by Kiko Bejines vs. Franco Torregoza at the Olympic Auditorium, Tony fought Jimmy Montoya's fighter Raul Bencomo in a scheduled ten-rounder. Bencomo proved to be a lot tougher than we expected. The fight was pretty even going into the fifth round. Around mid-round, Bencomo backed Tony against the ropes and, rushing in for what he thought was the kill, ran into one of Tony's patented short left hooks; Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas. A rematch was in order.

The rematch didn't occur until the following year, June 26, 1982, on a card headlined by Frankie and Tony, also at the Olympic Auditorium. The fight was again scheduled for ten rounds. This time Tony did short work of Bencomo. Tony hit Bencomo again, this time in the second round, with his patented left hook. Again Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas…Frankie, too won by second-round KO vs. Abe Perez.

After the fights in the Olympic's catacombs (dressing rooms), Jimmy told Bencomo not to worry about losing and that he would get him a 3rd fight with Tony. Bencomo told Jimmy: "fuck you! You fight him; the sonofabitch is crazy; he is trying to kill me!"