By Ted Sares: Many writers claim they watched Monday and Friday night fights “with their dads,” but if they did, they better be my age. I recently noted one renowned writer as claiming he grew up watching Friday Night Fights. That’s hogwash. He wasn’t even born.
Back in 1949, we had a pitifully tiny TV set on which my Dad and I (and some of my friends) would watch different programs, but the one that we enjoyed the most were the fights. They were televised from New York or Chicago and names like Madison Square Gardens, St Nicholas Arena or Marigold Gardens were commonplace. Some programs aired boxing matches on Monday. By far the most popular was “Gillette’s Cavalcade of Sports,” spotlighting the “Friday Night Fights” from Madison Square Garden.. The Cavalcade lasted until 1960, a 14-year period which was the longest continuous run of any boxing program in television history. The show’s theme song was the “Look Sharp/Be Sharp March by Mahlon Merrick and we would always chime in with Sharpie the Parrot who would squawk, “Look sharp! Feel sharp! Be Sharp! With Gillette razor blades before the fights were telecast. The bell would sound and Jimmy Powers at ringside would announce, “Friday night fights are on the air!”
These fights meant names like Yama Bahama, Del Flanagan (130 fights), Gaspar Ortega (who fought 176 times and was only stopped twice), Chico Vejar (116 fights), Joey Giardello (134 bouts), Bobby Dykes (149 outings),Ralph “The Ripper” Zannelli (147 bouts), the exciting Johnny “Honey Boy” Bratton, the great inside fighter Eugene “Silent” Hairston, and Johnny Saxton. It also meant watching Tony DeMarco, Virgil Honey Bear” Akins (92), Ralph Dupas (135), Billy Graham (126), Carmen Basilio, the Fullmer’s and the Jordan’s, Spider Webb, Rory Calhoun, Bobo Olson (115), and many others too numerous to cite.
But there was one guy who seemed to be the exemplar for this great period. Oh, he had an alias; namely, “The Cuban Hawk,” but everyone knew him as Kid Gavilan. In 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson moved to middleweight and Johnny Bratton captured the welterweight title. He defended against The Kid in 1951 and was defeated The Kid, who was Cuba‘s loss and America‘s gain, went on to make seven successful title defenses until losing to Johnny Saxton in one of the worst decisions in boxing history.
The synopsis in The International Boxing Hall of Fame (in which The Kid was inducted in 1990) states, in part: “Gavilan is the man credited with inventing the bolo punch. He said the punch, which was half hook and half uppercut, was developed by years spent cutting sugar cane with a machete in his native Cuba.”
While not a fight ender, it produced ooohs and aaahs and impressed judges throughout the world.
He had a record of 107 wins, 30 losses and 6 draws, with one no contest and 27 wins by knockout in a career that spanned 143 professional fights. But the thing that stands out is that The Kid was one of the few high profile boxers in history who was never stopped. Yes, in 143 professional fights, he never lost by stoppage. He also possessed great stamina.
Two of his more notable wins came against college graduate Chuck Davey, 37-0-2 at the time and the darling of the white collar set. Gavilan proceeded to destroy Chuck decking him 4 times before the televised slaughter was stopped. He would later beat Davey’s point counterpoint Chico Vejar, who was a big blue collar favorite back in the 50’s.
If you throw a dart at the list of his opponents, you would come up with such names as ultra rugged Eduardo “Zerdo” Lausse, Garth The Toy Bulldog” Panter, Randy “The Leamington Licker” Turpin, Rocky Castellani, Tony Janiro, Frenchman Robert Villemain, and the great Beau Jack.
The Kid fought in 15 different states and D.C. and in 10 different countries. He was an attraction in just about every great venue in the world. These included Madison Square Garden, Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Olympic Auditorium in LA, The Chicago Stadium, The Boston Garden, The War Memorial Auditorium in Syracuse, and Miami Stadium, As well, he fought numerous times in Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Palais des Sports in Paris, Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, and of course the Palacio de los Deportes in Havana.
He was 26-2 when he fought for the first time in the U.S. in November 1946. He would go on to fight until 1958. During that time, he thrilled boxing fans throughout the world with his stylish skills and ability to go the distance.
These days, when I think of Cuban boxing, I think of Felix Savon and Teófilo Stevenson Teofilo and what could have been. I think of “Kid” Chocolate, “Feo” Rodriguez, ‘Sugar” Ramos and Jose “Mantequiila” Napoles. But most of all I think of Kid Gavilan’s bolo punch and the flash and daring with which he launched it.
There will be only one “Kid.”