Andy Ganigan
THE REAL “HAWAIIAN PUNCH” WAS NO SOFT DRINK!
San Francisco, CA– Having already drank my ZMA 5, a Victor Conte SNAC.com product that I take to insure a good nights sleep, I got an email that while it wasn’t unexpected, it still packed a punch, a “Hawaiian Punch.” The sad news was that the hardest hitting Filipino fighter I had ever seen in my life, Andy Ganigan had died at the age of 59. His death comes almost two years after being attacked and beaten severely by some 21-year old nearly 300 lb. punk Matthew Kupa. The beating essentially turned the Filipino-American into a vegetable. Kupa reportedly received 1 & 1/2 years in jail for what is alleged to be an unprovoked attack.
ANDY HIT PAYDIRT ONCE…ALMOST TWICE IN SUCCESSION!
It was the last week of October 1981 and Pat O’Grady, the sleazy father-manager of Sean O’Grady, had a fight on network TV, I’m thinking it was CBS. The opponent was supposed to be 1976 Olympic champ and team MVP Howard Davis Jr. With the fight signed some six to eight weeks prior, Sean worked exclusively with orthodox (right handed) fighters who could glide around the ring with ease like Davis.
HALLOWEEN FIGHT A NIGHTMARE FOR O’GRADY CLAN!
Pat O’Grady was such a piece of ****, that I could write a voluminous piece on his dastardly actions if so inclined. Anyway, preparing for Davis, who Pat had called a runner, old man O’Grady, may he not rest in peace, installed a 15-foot ring in the Little Rock, AR Convention Center. In that phone booth like ring, the thought was that Davis could not run.
THEN CAME WORD THAT DAVIS WAS OUT!
Although I don’t remember what brought about Howard Davis pulling out of the fight, it was in the last week of October. Unwilling to scrap the date, cancel the arena, as it appears Pat O’Grady did not have “cancellation insurance,” he needed a last minute opponent that the TV people would approve.
OLD MAN O’GRADY OUTSMARTED HIMSELF!
In came the Filipino-American southpaw Andy Ganigan, a hard hitting lefty who could crack with the left cross and the right hook. In the midst of trying to keep the fight alive, Pat committed a fatal error when he forgot about the ring size. Against a puncher like Ganigan, Sean needed as big a ring as he could get to utilize the movement he would need to box Andy at a distance. I was told that Pat O’Grady didn’t realize his gaff until the morning of the afternoon fight.
GANIGAN PULVERIZED SEAN QUICK STYLE!
After chasing O’Grady for the better part of the opening round, Ganigan closed the distance in the second round. Scoring with right hooks and straight lefts, the one-time tough chinned O’Grady was put in a horizontal position three times, prompting referee Larry Hazzard to halt the contest at the 2:08 mark.
NEXT CAME A WBC FIGHT WITH ALEXIS ARGUELLO
In May 1982, I checked into the old Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas with my then girlfriend Maria Ramirez Franco. The fight was on CBS TV and Arguello knew that he would have to bring his A-game as Andy could punch as his 34-3, 30 KOs record would attest to. Arguello was customarily a slow starter coming out of the block. While the WBC lightweight (135 lbs) champion may have won the opener, Andy was closing the distance.
IT WAS “BOOM” & ALEXIS WAS DOWN!
In the second stanza, Ganigan got close enough and landed a combination of punches that dropped Arguello as hard as I had ever seen him go down. Arguello got up and stayed vertical for the remainder of the second round, but he was “buzzed.”
“HARDEST I WAS EVER HIT”
Andy Ganigan-Alexis Arguello
When I spent a week with Alexis in the summer of 1999, the Ganigan fight, a scheduled 15-rounder on May 22, 1982, came up in conversation. Although Arguello was dropped in the second, Andy hit him the “hardest he was ever hit in his life in the third” round, even though he didn’t go down. Eventually, Arguello stopped Andy in round five.
ONE MORE FIGHT & ANDY WAS THROUGH BOXING!
Eleven months later, Ganigan faced the up and coming Jimmy Paul of Detroit, MI and Emanuel Steward’s Kronk Gym. At 16-0 with 15 whacks, Paul stopped Ganigan in what was his final fight in round six. Shortly thereafter, Andy Ganigan retired at 34-5 with 30 KOs.
GANNIGAN WAS RESPECTFUL & GRACIOUS
I remember talking to him briefly after the Arguello fight. Still in a world of hurt, Ganigan praised Arguello for being such a great champion, and Arguello reciprocated and said he was as close to being knocked out as he had ever been. Unlike other retired fighters, I don’t remember Ganigan getting in trouble or anything like that.
WENT TO HAWAII & TRIED TO SEE ANDY
In July 1990, after doing a TV show with Charles Jay that turned out to be the last boxing card held at the Seattle Superdome, I flew off to Hawaii to receive the North American Boxing Federation Writer of The Year Award. While I was there, I asked Hawaiian resident and WBC honcho Chuck Williams if he could arrange a meeting with Ganigan. Williams tried, but it never happened.
THERE WERE HOOKERS & THEN MY-EX WIFE!
Each night I went out to various clubs, I kept running into prostitutes that I had FI’d (Field Interrogation cards) while a San Francisco Policeman. So after four nights of that, I took an early morning flight to Los Angeles. Who do you think was getting on the same plane with me from LAX to San Francisco, my-ex wife whom I had recently slapped with divorce papers. Still, hookers and the ex-wife aside, my real disappointment was not getting to see Andy Ganigan, whom I to this day consider the hardest punching Filipino (American) who ever laced them up. Take care Andy, you were class personified!
Pedro Fernandez