NOTHING BUT VIOLENCE & SIX OUNCE GLOVES
San Francisco, CA– Having been to Vegas only a handful of times prior, this trip from the “City by The Gay” to “Sin City” was at the time, May 1982, a huge event for me. With a four day weekend from my SFPD duties, I did what some guys refer to as, “bringing a sandwich to a picnic.” Translation: My girlfriend Maria Ramirez (now Franco) was making the trip with me.
ALEXIS LOOKED LIKE RACE HORSE AT SCALE
Arguello, looking both extremely cut and thin, was a gentleman with Ganigan, shaking his hand and doing something I could never do as a fighter, wish the other guy good luck! But that was Alexis, a man that had no real malice for his opponent. Arguello, he was just doing his job. A different breed who read some of the great literary work of the 19th and 20th century’s, there was this thing with Alexis, an aura if you like, something few men possess. And I bet you didn’t know it, but AA smoked cigarettes every day of his adult life!
GANIGAN WAS VERY WELL PREPARED
Andy looked ripped and that got a few rail birds running off to bet him at 5-1. He was a southpaw, Alexis was rumored to have problems with such, at least that was the thought seeing he went 15 in taking the WBC lightweight (135) title from Jim Watt. The Brit was old, slow, and the only reason he was still champion is that he had INTENTIONALLY butted Sean O’Grady in a fight where Sean was well ahead. The butt-cut caused the fight to be stopped and the nearsighted referee ruled it a TKO loss for O’Grady.
RAY ROBINSON DID IT WITH HENRY ARMSTRONG
The Arguello-Watt fight went 15 rounds for one reason, that being Alexis wanted it to. It was his way of not embarrassing the old champion he was dethroning, like Roy Jones coasting with Mike McCallum, some guys show their respect in this way.
ALADDIN THEATER HAD OLD SCHOOL WAY ABOUT IT
Because it was an aging structure that was torn down a decade or so later, the Aladdin Theater had that old Las Vegas feeling to it. A venue where The Rat Pack had played, there was excellent seating throughout. Being a hustler with a pair of $50 seats, I didn’t like the distance so I sat Maria in an empty third row seat on the stage where the ring was. Nobody was going to tell a beautiful chick to move, and besides the main event was seconds away from starting. It turned out to be a smooth move.
DIDN’T TAKE LONG FOR FIREWORKS TO GO OFF
A notoriously slow starter, hence his being stopped in the opening round of his professional debut, Alexis was slow to get off the mark against Ganigan, who at 34-3 had 32 KOs, 16 coming inside of three rounds, was the rabbit to Arguello the hare. The Filipino got off early and decked Arguello. The joint, quiet at first as Arguello moved about, was now in a frenzy as he pulled himself off the canvas.
ALEXIS’ AGE STARTED TO SHOW?
Still not quite in the flow of things was Arguello, all the while Andy Ganigan was looking like the current Filipino phenom Manny Pacquiao (both lefty’s) as he rocked Arguello hard and multiple times in the second round. Sensing the urgency and the smell of an upset, Alexis, who repeated what he said in 1982 in 1999 to me, that Andy Ganigan hit him harder in that second round then anybody had done in his 90 professional fights, he began connecting with his long right on the shorter Ganigan.
ARGUELLO REACHED INTO BAG OF TRICKS
Once the long right started landing with force, then came the other weapons in the Arguello arsenal, to the head, body, the man was a machine. But still, there was Andy winging and trying all the way until the fight was stopped in round five. He was a puncher, Arguello a master boxer who could punch, thus towards the end it was one-sided. When the fight was called by referee Carlos Padilla, the crowd was on their feet and a CBS television audience was thrilled as well!
FILIPINO’S “GENERATION ME” LACKS HISTORY
Andy Ganigan had one more fight, a loss to Jimmy Paul for the IBF 135 lb. trinket and retired. He is said to be living in Hawaii. With all the rage about Manny Pacquiao, the Generation Me sect of Pac fans, they know nothing about the great history of fighters like Andy, Rolando Naverette, and of course, the immortal Flash Elorde, to name just a few fistic stars prior to the Internet..
ARGUELLO CAME BACK A COUPLE OF TIMES
After the losses to Aaron Pryor in 1982 & 1983, the late Alexis Arguello had a few fights here and there. His last fight ended a comeback that was supposed to match him with Julio Cesar Chavez, was in January 1995 at Caesars Palace when he was beaten on points by the also deceased Scott Walker.
HERE’S PART I IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Pedro Fernandez