Los Angeles has been regarded as one of the
greatest boxing cities in the world for over a century. With a large fan
base, Los Angeles also has been the home of many of the best and most
exciting boxers.
Boxing in the Los Angeles Area 1880-2005 is
a pictorial history of the sport in Los Angeles County and speaks about
Los Angeles area boxers such as Jim Jeffries, Solomon “Solly” Smith,
“Mexican” Joe Rivers, Fidel La Barba, Jimmy McLarnin, Henry Armstrong,
Enrique Bolanos, Art Aragon, Armando “Mando” Ramos, Bobby Chacon, Danny
“Little Red” Lopez, Armando Muniz, Oscar De La Hoya, “Sugar” Shane Mosley
and others. In addition, there were many boxers who were not residents of
the Los Angeles area who became popular among local fans. They included
Tommy Burns, George Godfrey, Alberto “Baby” Arizmendi, Ricardo “Pajarito”
Moreno, Jose Becerra, Raymundo “Battling” Torres, Ruben Olivares, Jose
Napoles, Carlos Zarate, Jose “Pipino” Cuevas and Julio Cesar Chavez.
The Los Angeles area has been the site for
a number of notable bouts such as the 1906 Tommy Burns-Marvin Hart
Heavyweight Championship fight, the controversial 1912 Ad Wolgast-“Mexican”
Joe Rivers bout and the 2000 contest between "Sugar" Shane Mosley and
Oscar De La Hoya.
About the Authors
Tracy Callis
has been researching boxing history and the records of boxers for 45
years and has produced rare, updated records for many boxers. He possesses
an outstanding knowledge of boxing history and has a strong interest in
boxers of all weight classes from every historical period.
Callis is the Director of Historical
Research for The Cyber Boxing Zone (www.cyberboxingzone.com) internet
website and an Elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He is
also a member of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) and
a contributor to the British Boxing Board of Control Yearbook.
In the past, he was a contributing editor
to the Ring Record Book for a number of years and a member of the World
Boxing Historians Association (WBHA). In 2002, Tracy co-authored the book,
Philadelphia’s Boxing Heritage 1876-1976, and was a historical consultant
on the Jim Jeffries book, A Man Among Men.
Charles E. “Chuck”
Johnston developed a strong interest in boxing and its history
when Muhammad Ali made his storied comeback during the early 1970s. While
attending the University of California at Santa Barbara in the middle
1970s, Chuck became interested in doing research on the history of boxing
with a great emphasis on his home state of California. He would go on to
find unrecorded bouts of numerous boxers who were active from 1880 to
1945.
Chuck is a member of the International
Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) and an editor on the Boxing Records
internet website (www.boxrec.com). In the past, he was a contributing
editor to the Ring Record Book for a number of years and a historical
consultant on the Jack Johnson biography, Unforgivable Blackness, The Rise
and Fall of Jack Johnson, by Geoffrey C. Ward.