Joe Bradley Boxing
Joe Bradley Boxing
OSCAR DE LA HOYA PHOTO ABOVE.
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I was 18 and the youngest professional boxing promoter in the state of California. (my goodness, that was slightly over 50 years ago during the ice age). There was this sports writer that I swore he did not like me. He ran an article after interviewing me that was titled, “Heavyweight promoter with lightweight ideas, or is it the other way around?” I guess he didn’t like what he thought was my “lofty” ideas. No matter what caliber of a show I put on, he found a way to cut it down. I promoted California Championship Bouts, a World Title fight, was involved in helping with a Indianapolis, Indiana North American Boxing Federation Middleweight Title fight and had many interesting well-known fighters that fought on my boxing shows,(Like Leon Spinks) the guy who beat Ali ) That sportswriter disappeared out of writing about the things I did in boxing as the years flew by. I went on to manage many fighters, and co-trained some, and trained, of course, the Female World Bantamweight champion that retired with a 16 and 0 record (Zebra Girl Tucker). I worked also with a few amateurs also, one being my 16-year-old grandson.
I owned a few boxing gyms and I always had other trainers there working with my fighters and handling certain specifics like, footwork, or mitts, or other aspects of the ring-man-ship. One of the trainers was Al Lemay. I kind of got away of directly working with the training and relied more on him and some of the other trainers to handle my fighters, as I was off working on my big “lofty” promotional ideas in Professional Boxing.
When I turned the promoting over to my wife and got my managers license, I proceeded to sign up some pretty good talented fighters (some that were in the top 10 of the world). Some I managed alone and some I managed with Tony Reed. There are many things that stick in my mind of those boxing years of yesteryear (40 and 50 years ago), but one kind of funny thing I remember was when the lightweight champion of the world, Sean O’Grady, was an invited guest to one of my fights that my wife promoted ( I was managing fighters on the show as in California you cannot promote and manage at the same time) and when he was introduced in the ring, that he kissed my wife on the cheek. Looking back over the many years, I guess I acted too jealous when my wife and I got home when I said I didn’t like it. As a side note O’Grady’s dad, Pat, and I became friends and even got involved in a ratings organization he started and one I started, (if I recall correctly).
Another thing I fondly remember is when I received a phone call from Angelo Dundee, (for those not in boxing, he was the one that worked with Mohammad Ali and other great fighters) telling me that the two Puerto Rican fighters I had, were under contract to him. Dundee and I made a deal where we partnered on the management of them. The fighters frankly didn’t really do much, and I eventually sent them back to Florida, but I think the thing I liked the most was how Dundee and I started a telephonic friendship and how he had almost had a fatherly air about him when he spoke to me.
Photo of Oscar De La Hoya on the left.
I THINK IT WAS 1992 THAT I WAS INVITED BY A FRIEND (A WRITER) TO TRAVEL TO MONTEBELLO TO OSCAR DE LA HOYA’S HOUSE.
HAVE I EVER SPOKEN TO OSCAR? NO. HAVE I EVER BEEN IN THE SAME ROOM WITH HIM? NO. BUT:-RIGHT AFTER OSCAR WON THE 1992 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL AND TURNED PROFESSIONAL, I RECEIVED A CALL FROM A WRITER I KNEW AND HE SAID HE WAS GOING TO MONTEBELLO, CALIFORNIA TO OSCAR’S HOUSE TO MEET HIS FATHER AND TALK ABOUT DOING AN EXCLUSIVE BOOK CALLED “GOLDEN BOY”. HE ASKED IF I WANTED TO GO ALONG..MY WRITER FRIEND SAID THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING ELSE HIS FATHER WANTED TO TALK TO ME ABOUT., I WAS AMAZED WHEN I GOT TO HIS HOUSE.. I GUESS IT WAS HIS DAD’S HOUSE,, BUT OSCAR STILL LIVED THERE AT THE TIME… OSCAR WAS NOT THERE AND I REMEMBER THE GOLD MEDAL WAS ON THE WALL TO THE RIGHT GOING UP THE STAIRWAY. WE ALL SAT IN HIS LIVING ROOM AND WATCHED A HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHT ON HIS TELEVISION AND HAD THE DISCUSSIONS MENTIONED ABOVE. I NOTICED IN HIS DRIVEWAY THERE WERE TWO BRAND NEW CARS.(DIDN’T APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN DRIVEN) AND IN THE GARAGE THERE WAS A NEW CORVETTE WITH PLASTIC STILL ON THE SEATS LIKE IT HAD NOT BEEN DRIVEN YET.. I ASSUMED THOSE ALL CAME FROM PROMOTIONAL DEALS FOR OSCAR..
ON THE WALLS IN THE GARAGE ON ALL FOUR SIDES WERE PHOTOS IN FRAMES OF OSCAR STARTING AT A VERY YOUNG AGE (SOMETHING LIKE 5 OR 6 YEARS OLD) IN HIS BOXING GEAR LEADING UP TO THE CURRENT TIME PERIOD OF HIM WINNING THE GOLD MEDAL IN 1992. I WAS IN AWE OF THE DEDICATION OF OSCAR AND HOW IT ALL PAID OFF FOR HIM. MY FRIEND NEVER GOT THE EXCLUSIVE TO WRITE THE “GOLDEN BOY” STORY, BUT I WAS JUST HAPPY THAT I GOT TO MEET OSCAR DE LA HOYA’S DAD, AND SEE THE PLACE OSCAR GREW UP AT AND SEE HOW MUCH HE HAD ACHIEVED UP TO THAT POINT WITH “POSITIVE ACTION.”
OSCAR DE LA HOYA:
Mexican-American fighter Oscar De La Hoya won the lightweight gold medal at the 1992 Olympics. He had promised his mother, who died of cancer, to win the Olympic title and did so by defeating [Marco Rudolph], who had beaten him in the 1991 World Championships final. De La Hoya turned pro, eventually winning ten world titles in six different divisions. In 1994, he took the WBO super-featherweight and WBO lightweight titles. In 1996, the super-lightweight belt (WBC) followed, and he gained the welterweight title (again WBC) by defeating [Pernell Whitaker] on points. He lost this title to Felix Trinidad in 1999, and was unable to regain it against Sugar Shane Mosley. Mosley also robbed De La Hoya of his WBC super-welterweight title in 2003, but the Golden Boy won the WBO middleweight title fight the next year. His last title win came in 2006, when he took the WBC super-welterweight title. He lost his last title bout to [Floyd Mayweather, Jr.], but walked away with a 50 million dollar purse. Following a TKO loss in late 2008, De La Hoya decided to retire and focus on other interests, which included a clothing line, a singing career and co-ownership of the Houston Dynamo soccer team, as well as boxing promotions.. He is the first American of Mexican descent to own a national boxing promotional firm and one of the few boxers to take on promotional responsibilities while still active.[
BABS MC CARTHY / NABF JR MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION:
In the early 1980’s my friend Tony Reed and I co-managed briefly until his accidental death by drowning, Babs McCarthy. I could not find any photos of him on the internet and Tony was looking for an old photo of him and I meeting Babs at the airport (prior to my eye issues). The photos here are a poster of one of his fights, and a boxing magazine mentioning his death.
McCarthy, 35, had fought as a welterweight and junior welterweight. He began his career in 1976 and continued fighting until 1981, when he won the U.S. Boxing Association welterweight title with a sixth-round technical knockout over Greg Stephens in Las Vegas. Within weeks of the victory, he was ranked No. 6 among welterweights by the World Boxing Council. Among junior welterweights, his WBC ranking was No. 4.
Here are my friend and co-manager with me of Babs , own words about when he met Mickey Duff, the manager of world champion Maurice Hope, and how he met Tony at the Los Angeles airport to discuss a world title fight for our fighter Babs and Maurice Hope.,
“My wife Rosie and I spent a whole day with Mickey watching the Super Bowl on TV together! Had lunch and dinner with him! The reason we were there is because someone told him that I had a fight film of Babs beating Bill Slaton’s fighter at the Showboat in Vegas when you and me managed a fighter that won the UNITED STATES welterweight title that Tommy Hearns vacated when he Beat Pipino Cuevas for the world title!
Duff told me that he had been told that Babs could beat anyone on a given night and wanted to see the film to see if he wanted his fighter to fight Babs for the world title! He called me a week later and said he was going to pass on Babs! If Mickey hadn’t seen the fight film Joe and I would have had a world champion! Babs is the one who told Mickey Duff that I had the film showing him knocking out Ken Norton’s stable mate, Greg Stephens!”
After the fight with the world champion fell out, then a well known promoter started putting pressure on Babs to leave us and go with him… This happens in this business. So Babs went his own way and also started losing some fights, then sadly in 1983 he was found having drown in the Sacramento river. It was a sad ending to what could have been……YOU CAN SCROLL FURTHER DOWN FOR A MAGAZINE ARTICLE AND FIGHT POSTER ABOUT JOE "G" BRADLEY'S NABF MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION, BABS MCCARTHY.
