* CutMeMick visits the World Boxing Hall of Fame 2008 *

[CutMeMick]

What's going on fellas & fellarates...

Yesterday was the 29th Annual World Boxing Hall of Fame induction celebration. I again, was not able to attend the dinner ceremony due to a family engagement I had last night...
However I was able to attend the Memorabilia event which was held early morning into mid afternoon

The inductees this year were:
Lennox Lewis
Pernell Whittaker
Marvin Johnson
Greg Haugen

Both Lennox & Pernell were a no show... I was gutted at that but said to myself fuck it, just make the best of it. And I did I quickly forgot all about those 2...

I gotta say it was fucken amazing man... I had an oppourtunity to talk and meet one of my all time favorite fighters. A fighter whom I've learned a lot about since becoming a hard core fan. A fighter whom I've defended time and time again. He's an ALL TIME GREAT and fighter who fought them all. A fighter who beat adversity and when he lost he came right back and got himself back to the top.

Tell you what I'll stop typing here and just post the pictures and put some words to it...

[CutMeMick]

Alright so I'm saying hello to Armando Muniz as I walk he happened to be at the door. So were talking about the event and were talking about the Martinez-Bunema fight as he was there in attendance that night.

Then right in the middle of our conversation I see none other the the man, the myth, the legend....

"Terrible" Terry Norris. It was fucken mind blowing to see him. It was really surprising to see him there. He was great man, I told him I had nothing but love for him. He shook my hand and we took a picture. Then I saw he had Terry Norris gloves so I bought one from him and he autographed it for me. I quickly chatted with him about his fight vs. Mugabi. He said he was so excited when he caught with the shot and he felt he was flying in the sky from excitement. We also talked about his fight with Curry briefly...
Terrys condition is good, he does slur but you can still understand him and you can see his hands/fists are pretty stiff from the punching.

[CutMeMick]

The glove...

[CutMeMick]

After chatting with Terry, I put my glove in my bag and wish him well.
Turn around and I see Paul Gonzalez, someone who I read a lot about and heared a lot about growing up in East L.A.
For those who don't know Paul was part of the 1984 US Boxing team and the Light Flyweight gold medalist. He was team mates with Steve McCrory, Pernell Whittaker, Mark Breland, Tyrell Biggs, Meldrick Taylor, Frank Tate, Henry Tillman and Holyfield.

As a pro he did not have the same success as he did in the Olympics having a short lived career. He did get a shot at the title vs. Orlando Canizalez but lost via TKO on cuts as Canizalez was able to catch him early on and cut him up to force the stoppage.

[holmcall]

After chatting with Terry, I put my glove in my bag and wish him well.
Turn around and I see Paul Gonzalez, someone who I read a lot about and heared a lot about growing up in East L.A.
For those who don't know Paul was part of the 1984 US Boxing team and the Light Flyweight gold medalist. He was team mates with Steve McCrory, Pernell Whittaker, Mark Breland, Tyrell Biggs, Meldrick Taylor, Frank Tate, Henry Tillman and Holyfield.

As a pro he did not have the same success as he did in the Olympics having a short lived career. He did get a shot at the title vs. Orlando Canizalez but lost via TKO on cuts as Canizalez was able to catch him early on and cut him up to force the stoppage.

Man, I am one jealous cat. Was Frank Baltazar there? Did you remeber to say hello for me? Also, Haugen is a good friend and a great guy. I plan to put one of your photos up on my site if its ok with you.

Again, thanks for sharing.

[Spicoli]

After chatting with Terry, I put my glove in my bag and wish him well.
Turn around and I see Paul Gonzalez, someone who I read a lot about and heared a lot about growing up in East L.A.
For those who don't know Paul was part of the 1984 US Boxing team and the Light Flyweight gold medalist. He was team mates with Steve McCrory, Pernell Whittaker, Mark Breland, Tyrell Biggs, Meldrick Taylor, Frank Tate, Henry Tillman and Holyfield.

As a pro he did not have the same success as he did in the Olympics having a short lived career. He did get a shot at the title vs. Orlando Canizalez but lost via TKO on cuts as Canizalez was able to catch him early on and cut him up to force the stoppage.

Simply put,these are absolutely out-f!!!!-standing Mick.Great pics and it sounds like a blast.Count yourself lucky my man,many would give a lesser limb to have that experience.Your enthusiasm comes through,love the Norris Pic especially.Glad he is doing well after a career of excitement.

I love to see these events,The past older greats meshing & blending with the current greats really puts the huge greatness of this sport into one focus....and why we love it .Anything On Marvin Johnson,Did he show up for induction?Love watching his battles with Saad,Lopez etc.Just classics.

Griffith looks great...Happy!!Good to see Gonzalez as well.I thought he got shafted a bit in second fight with Canizales,butting heads like billy goats.Seemed injury prone but solid,just did not pan out.Just noticed Danny Lopez...man he looks like he is ready to answer the bell in that one . Thanks for sharing dude.Awesome insight as always.

[Andre]

Thanks for sharing mate, what a day; you meet in one day more fighters than we get to in our whole lives and you get to meet not just fighters but the legends!

[CutMeMick]

Holy crap man. I bet you hated to see that day end. Awesome stuff there.

Thanks Dean.
I really was gutted when I had to leave especially since I wanted to see if I could talk some more with Emile but I had to get going...

[CutMeMick]

All I can say is thanks for sharing that with us, you certainly get about mate. You have so many pics with all these boxing greats/legends it makes me insanely jealous

Cheers mate, I just take advantage of every opp. that comes my way and I live it up and make the best of it.

Who takes all the pics anyway?

I've got a personal photographer with me all the time.

seriously, I just ask anyone whos standing around near by. For the most part everyone knows the rule that if someone asks you can you take a pic. for me you say yes and at one point or another someone will return the favor.

[CutMeMick]

Simply put,these are absolutely out-f!!!!-standing Mick.Great pics and it sounds like a blast.Count yourself lucky my man,many would give a lesser limb to have that experience.Your enthusiasm comes through,love the Norris Pic especially.Glad he is doing well after a career of excitement.

You know the deal Spicoli, I make the best of it and just take it all in.
Norris is doing good and it also showed in how busy he's been touring.

I love to see these events,The past older greats meshing & blending with the current greats really puts the huge greatness of this sport into one focus....and why we love it .Anything On Marvin Johnson,Did he show up for induction?Love watching his battles with Saad,Lopez etc.Just classics.

Marvin was there and was busy as hell signing autographs. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a pic. with him.

Griffith looks great...Happy!!Good to see Gonzalez as well.I thought he got shafted a bit in second fight with Canizales,butting heads like billy goats.Seemed injury prone but solid,just did not pan out.Just noticed Danny Lopez...man he looks like he is ready to answer the bell in that one . Thanks for sharing dude.Awesome insight as always.

Gotta love Emile...
Gonzalez was fun to talk with and was up for the pic. moment sharing a good story.
Danny Lopez was solid man, and serious but at the same time very talkative...

[CutMeMick]

After meeting and chatting with Paul for a bit I made my way straight away to the table were all the boxers sit...

There I 1st met "cut man" Miguel Diaz I'm sure you've seen him. He's one of the best around. I couldn't stop telling you how many times I've seen him in a corner. He's been with Cotto for yrs. and he will be working Pacquiaos corner vs. ODLH come Dec.

Diaz was great man, we spent easily about an hour talking about boxing and some of the worst cuts he's had to work on. He talked to me about how he got started and were it's taking him. He really is great to talk with and was all laughs.

[CutMeMick]

Next up I met Alberto Reyes, he's the 4th son of Don Cleto Reyes the creater of the greatest glove ever made. He runs the company now and was there as he along with Miguel Diaz were inducted in the expanded catagory.

Albertos a very smart man, I asked him a few questions about his dad and how his father got started with boxing gloves. He said his dad was always into boxing and then he realized that in gyms gloves had only a certain lifetime span and gloves would get busted easily then they either threw them away or tried to fix them, he soon began to take gloves and was reparing them and he learned about the stitching and how the gloves were being made and realized he could make them become more durable and better and he did. Today Cleto Reyes is easily known as the best and the premier boxing glove. I love me some Everlast and I know it's been around longer then Cleto but if you've ever put on some Cleto and some Everlast gloves you can feel the difference. Cleto is the punchers glove and the way they are made are with a precise fight.

I even served for Alberto Reyes as a translater for him I'll tell you more about that later.
(For my services he gave me a that Cleto Reyes glove you see me holding)

[CutMeMick]

Right next to him was one of my favorites to watch a fighter who always gave it his all and fighter who was a fan favorite and whom we recently had a good chat about when Danny_G posted one his more famous pictures.

It was Danny "Little Red" Lopez, wow! what a treat it was to talk with him about his fights with Salvador Sanchez I probably talked to him for another good hour, asking him about the fight and how he felt as the fights went on. He said he felt he had enough to come on strong late in the fight but that his body just did not respond to him like he would have wanted. I aksed him about his fight Olivares he smiled and said what a fight that was, I said I agree it was a sweet battle he said the Forum was just jammed packed to the top that night. He said Olivares shots were hard but he said he knew he hit harder them him and that he knew if he caught him with the right shots he'd win.



I had Lopez sign one of my gloves...

[CutMeMick]

After giving a quick walk through the table of boxers, the crowd was bigger there so I decided to give the room a complete walk through since I hadn't done that yet so I wasn't sure what else or who else was there.

As I start walking I notice from a distance Tommy "The Duke" Morrison.
No shit!!! I was like holy shit this is the day of surprises I'm just seeing people whom I did not even expect here.

I didn't really chat with the Duke as he was real quiet and just pretty straight forward. I just asked if he was fighting again and he said he wasn't sure. I did notice he had 2 HUGE slits/scars on his arms/biceps.
Anyone know anything about that?

[CutMeMick]

Last and def. not least I met one of my all time fav. fighters.

Someone who honestly I never thought I'd meet since I knew he's based in NY and now with his age the traveling becomes harder and harder to do. But my god what a moment this was for me...

My heart stopped beating and I put my bag down on the floor and just stared in amasement. I just could not believe my eyes that he was there...
A fighter whom epitimizes the word boxer in every sense of the word. Someone who saw it all and someone who fought the best and premier fighters of his era and as we discussed has one of the best resumes all time in boxing.

When his family 1st migrated from the Virgin Islands he was forced to get a job from a very young age. He started working at a hat factory and there one day it was hot and he asked his supervisor if he could take off his shirt cause he was hot. His supervisor said go ahead, he takes off his shirt and he sees this kid who's fucken built like truck. Thick neck, broad shoulders, wide chest... Just built, well his supervisor just happened to be friends with Gil Clancy, Gil began training the kid and Gil over the years did not enter any of his amateurs into tournaments on the 1st year of training but he saw this kid was something special so in 1957 he entered the kid into the NY Golden GLoves and the kid lost in the finals.
The next year he entered the kid again int he NY Golden Gloves and this time he took it all he won the tournament...
That very same year he turned pro and with just 24 fights and a record of 22-2 he fought for the World Welterweight title and won via TKO in the 13th round and would begin one of the best/most tragic trilogy ever.

Seeing him was just something very special to me and getting to talk to him and meet him was mind blwoing...
THE LEGEND that is Emile Griffith...






It was hard to understand him but I got most of it as I tied words with one another... It was great to see him it really was.

Now here's where I served as a translater for Alberto Reyes as he talked with Emile. Alberto just wanted to meet him and exchange some words him so I served as a translater for Alberto as his English is not good.