The Card in T.J.

By Rick Farris

Personally speaking, if I truly wanted to see that card in Tijuana, I'd order a ticket and go. I would cross the border, find the venue, and attend the fight. When it was over, I'd leave, cross back over the border. What's the big deal? Personally, even if I were given two ringside seats by Bob Arum himself, I wouldn't cross the street to watch J.C. Chavez Jr. let alone the border.

The only guy on the card I like is Fernando Montiel. Nobody wants trouble, but lets be honest, a lot of people on this side of the border are afraid of their shadows. Sadly, today's events may have one interesting competitive match, then a card full of crap. On this thread we talk of boxers can no longer fight as those from past eras, and that there are no trainers to teach boxing. We can take that a step farther by saying that there are no longer great promoters or matchmakers.

These days, in the ring you won't see a Enrique Bolanos or Manuel Ortiz, and in the corner there are no Jackie McCoy's or Johnny Forbes. However, even if they were still aound, there is no George Parnassus, Aileen Eaton or Hap Navarro to promote the event. When we bought a ticket to see Ruben Olivares or Mantequilla Napoles in a title defense, we didn't have to sit thru a half dozen crap fights to get to the main event. Aileen, George and Hap knew how to enhance the main event with a super undercard.

When Mando Ramos took on his former stablemate Raul Rojas in a ten round grudge fight, Eaton could have still sold out the house with a weak undercard, but she didn't just put on one good fight, she put on several. Frankie Crawford and Armando Muniz were also on the card. When Hap Navarro had Enrique Bolanos fighting Eddie Chavez in the main event, he pitted two hot shot up & comers, Keeny Teran and Gil Cadilli in the semi. When George Parnassus matched Mantequilla Napoles with Hedgeman Lewis in a welter title fight, he opened with a bantam title fight between the great Ruben Olivares and Jesus Pimentel.

You really got your mony's worth in those days. We not only had great boxers and trainers, but great matchmakers. Lucky for me they were still around when I was coming up.