BOXING ICON FOSTER NOT QUITE RODNEY DANGERFIELD
World Champion Bob Foster
San Francisco, CA– The recent passing of former light heavyweight champion Bob Foster got it’s share of media attention. Few penning a column today had the chance to spend time with “The Sheriff” of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was probably the greatest light heavyweight champion in history. The few who did get to know the historically shortchanged Foster include myself.
THERE STOOD THE “GREAT” BOB FOSTER
When I first met Bob Foster, it was in Albuquerque, NM in the 80s, he was still refereeing an occasional fight and held a position as an Albuquerque Deputy Sheriff. Being me, I chased Foster around until I saw a spot where I can get his undivided attention. Once the champion sat down, he fired up a cigarette. “OK, you got me. What do you want to know?” If you approached Bob and he felt “good vibes.” Foster was accessible. So from that point forward, he would call me, “Pablo.”
NEW MEXICO BOXING/COMBAT SPORTS HAS HAD GOOD RUNS!
There were some good times in Albuquerque in the 90s and early part of this century as Frankie Archuleta did well, while Danny Romero and more notably Johnny Tapia soared to great heights wearing boxing gloves, while another Albuquerque boxing champion, Holly Holm just plastered MMA’s biggest star Ronda Rousey in less than six minutes of fighting a fortnight ago. With all this, still in the background of the New Mexico boxing scene was this iconic champion unbeaten in 15 title fights and retiring as champion after a Draw over 15 rounds with Jorge Victor Ahumeda (40-5) in 1974. Foster won the belt when he defanged the great Dick Tiger of Nigeria in a 1968 upset.
COULD NOT MATCH THE HEAVYWEIGHT MUSCLE MASS
“The big guys, both Ali, (Joe) Frazier, were just too big across the back for me. I was 6’3, taller than them. Nobody lifted weights back then. (Michael) Spinks did it. I would have knocked out Michael Spinks. He couldn’t pull that bull s*it on me. I’da walked him down and punished him. I know he was the only light heavy to win a heavyweight championship, but again, I’da ran his ass out of the ring. The fights I lost in and around my prime were to Ali and Frazier and they were both people say were in their prime.”
FOSTER “STRUGGLED” TO WEIGH 175
“I had problems with the weight….I used to have to drink a beer every night in training to keep near weight or I’da dropped more weight. Some of those fights when I was ’75. I was really 70, 71, 72. Back to Spinks, he showed what he was made of with (Mike) Tyson. He quit, didn’t even even get hit. I never laid down. I think they will look at us years from now and realize Spinks couldn’t beat me ever. Against Ali, I had him hurt and cut. I just was too damn’ skinny to fight heavyweight.”
THE JOHNNY TAPIA RUN IN ALBUQUERQUE
After Danny Romero crashed and burned, Johnny Tapia was the rage in New Mexico. But with Johnny came the erratic behavior, drug overdoses, people dying all around him, when I brought up Tapia (who was still alive) in one of our last chats, Foster took a drag on a filtered cigarette and said, “Johnny’s all ** cked up. Good fighter, great skills, but he ‘s nuts. The promoter (Lenny Fresquez) and Johnny’s wife (Teresa Tapia), the crap he put them through around fights. You never knew what or how Johnny would respond
Mike Quarry “Out Cold” Close To 10 Minutes
when you talked to him. With me, not so much, but other people. It won’t be a pretty ending for Johnny.”
BOB’S GREATEST HITS INCLUDE
Outside of losses to heavyweights Zora Foley, Ernie Terrell, Ali and Joe Frazier, Foster
Foster & Chris Finnegan
enjoyed an incredible run at light heavyweight going unbeaten from 1963 to his 1974 retirement. The punctuation mark at 175 for Foster was a one punch KO 5 of unbeaten (35-0) Mike Quarry in Las Vegas under Ali-Jerry Quarry in a 1972 fight the “establishment” thought and wanted the younger caucasian Quarry to win. “I understood people were picking Quarry over me,” said Foster who added, “People, they find it hard to give me the credit I feel I deserve.”
FOSTER “SO PROUD” BEING IN HALL OF FAME
At the International Boxing Hall of Fame circa 1991, there was almost a dreamy clash of light heavyweight greats. In one room at Graziano’s in Canastoda, NY, the famed eatery and watering hole of those attending the ceremonies held on the second weekend of June each year, stood Bob Foster, while light heavyweight counterpart Archie “The Old Mongoose” Moore held court in an adjacent section of the joint.
MOORE-FOSTER WERE LIKE GASOLINE AND MATCHES!
There was a reason these two men, Foster and Archie Moore were not in the same room, they did not like one another. Especially Moore, who very much willing to engage in confrontations with media, (I know) despite his seemingly calm demean even then in his 70s. So with Moore expanding eloquently on the Yvon Durelle war, et al, Foster was flat out telling people, “Archie Moore couldn’t hit me in the ass…..with a ping pong paddle. He’s too short to fight me. My jab would’ve kept him at range…Archie Moore would have been knocked out.”
ARCHIE MOORE-BOB FOSTER SET TO FIGHT IN 1991!
Unbeknownst to me, I was being an antagonist when I sat down with Moore and read the aforementioned quotes of Foster. “Where’s he at” Archie asked as he rose, took off his hat and coat and did some Yoga-like stretch and says, “I’ll take care of that mother…..” It is at this point I realize that this 70-something year old man was ready to go off and fight Foster right there at Graziano’s.
“OLD MONGOOSE” AN “OLD HOT HEAD”
And while it’s not a secret that I like to stir the pot, my intention was to not have two great men who were being inducted into the Hall slugging it out. It took me a couple of seconds to realize I had pushed him too far, even though in reality I hadn’t even come close to that threshold for a normal person. Archie, enjoying the attention that came with his cornering a come backing George Foreman, once got in my face in Richmond, CA as I only had seven minutes of satellite time for the upcomin g Foreman-Evander Holyfield infomercial. It was supposed to be Foreman and Moore. But George screwed up the date twice, so we had retakes that took up the entire Cable Vision window.
HISTORIANS SHOULD RATE FOSTER NUMERO UNO!
With Archie tightening up his neck, I knew that I had started something here. Not knowing what to do, I physically got in the doorway and blocked Archie saying, “I was just kidding Archie. Just a joke…I’m sorry.” Fired up, Moore went on a spiel about Foster (56-8-1, 46 KOs). When I told Bob about this years later and after Moore’s death. “He was jealous, he knew he couldn’t beat me. You told him he couldn’t hit me in the ass with a ping pong paddle. Shit, I don’t think he coulda’ hit me with a tennis racket. I could have dominated any light heavyweight era,” concluded Foster. That last quote, looking at it from an historical point of view, I believe to be true, Bob Foster was the greatest light heavyweight champion in history period.
Pedro Fernandez
Note: Mr. Fernandez is an award-winning writer, TV commentator, radio talk show host, former San Francisco Policeman, licensed California Private Investigator and four-time Golden Gloves boxing champion, who also pens feature stories for the R & B band Tower of Power. Comments regarding this submission can be left below.
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CHAMPION BOB FOSTER CAREER, DEATH OF AN ICON