One of the earliest boxing magazines that I purchased at
the local news outlet was back in 1964. One of those was
the October 1964 issue which featured a variety of curren
stories of 1964 and some flashbacks of previous years.
The main active bout reported was a preview of the
light-heavyweight title fight between
WillIe Pastrano vs Terry Downes.
Some of the fight results reported included:
*Dick Tiger vs Jose Gonzalez, Percy Hayles vs Paulie Armstead,
Johnny Bizzarro vs Frankie Narvaez, Sugar Ray Robinson vs
Art Hernandez, Cleveland Williams vs Sonny Banks and
Jose Stable vs Gabe Terronez.
FLASHBACKS;
*Two old fights recalled from the past included the
middleweight bout between Rocky Graziano and
Tony Janiro, and the flyweight title fight between
Jimmy Wilde and Pancho Villa.
A featured piece: "THE LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS"
by Boxing Illustrated's managing editor Robert Thornton.
The article was very well presented and covered every
title fight from the 1903 Jack Root vs Kid McCoy
fight that took place in Detroit, Michigan to the 1964
bout between champion Willie Pastrano vs Gregorio Peralta.
The Rocky Graziano vs Tony Janiro article was titled:
"Buddies - Until The Bell Rang". As a bonus to the
article there was a current photo of Tony Janiro
visititing the BI office and he was quoted about his
golden days of boxing when he said:
"It was a glorious pursuit of happiness."
Of course for Tony, much of that pursuit was
also outside of the ring being the playboy type
and spending money fast. At the time of the
story TONY JANIRO was a bartender at the
"Mansfield Lounge:" and was living in
Manhatten's Washington Heights section with
his wife and son.
RING RATINGS by BI
*In addition to WBA rating for each division, BI
published their own ratings with about 50 in each
of the main divisions and 20 in the Junior Welterweight
and Junior Lightweight divisions.
For the October magazine they covered ratings to
August 1, 1964. Some of those not in the top ten
at the time but were interesting or had interesting
boxing stories:
Heavyweights:
Brian London,Joe Erskine, Thad Spencer, Johnny Prescott,
Charley Powell, Oscar Bonavena and Hubert Hilton.
Light Heavy:
Henry Hank, Chic Calderwood, Roger Rouse, Freddy Mack.
Middleweight:
Wilbert McLure, Ted Wright, Gomeo Brennan, Art Hernandez,
Rocky Rivero, Jimmy Ellis, Holley Mims, and Blair Richardson.
Welterweight:
Ralph Dupas, Jorge Fernandez, Vince Shomo, Manuel Gonzalez,
Percy Manning, Joey Durelle, Bennie Briscoe, and Johnny Cooke.
Lightweight:
Olli Maki, Murice Cullen, Tyrone Gardiner, and Len Matthews.
Featherweight:
Frankie Taylor, Danny Valdez, Juan Ramirez, and Jose Legra.
Bantamweight and Flyweight:
Piero Rollo, Johnny Caldwell, Alan Rudkin, Ollie Taylor,
Billy Brown, Bob Allotey, Hugo Escobar and Leo Zulueta.
Jr. Welter and Jr Lightweights
Battling Torres, Bobby Scanlon, Dick DiVeronica,
Joey Olguin, and Hector Diaz.
A SAMPLE in the top TEN (All weights)
*Doug Jones, Zora Folley, Eddie Machen, George Chuvalo,
Wayne Thornton, Eddie Cotton, Harold Johnson,
Joey Archer, Rubin Carter, George Benton, Laszlo Papp,
Jose Stable, Brian Curvis, Garland (Rip) Randall,
Dave Charnley, Kenny Lane, Frankie Narvaez,
Howard Winstone, Vincente Saldivar, Floyd Robertson,
Jesus Pimentel, Jose Medel, Dwight Hawkins,
Efren Torres, Walter McGowan, Bunny Grant,
Percey Hales, Luis Molina, Auburn Copeland and Raul Rojas.
THE CHAMPIONS:
Cassius Clay, Willie Pastrano, Joey Giardello, Sandro Mazzinghi,
Emile Griffith, Eddie Perkins, Carlos Ortiz, Flash Elorde,
Sugar Ramos, Eder Jofre and Pone Kingpetch.
