Look, I don’t want to say that boxing promoter Don Chargin is old.
Not by any means.
Does it make the Cambria-By-the Sea, California, resident old because I asked him to show me his high school yearbook and he whipped out the Old Testament?
Does it make him old because he refers to 79 going on 80 rivals Bob Arum and Don King as “those young whippersnappers?”
Does it make him old because, he heard LA Times’ redoubtable scribe Bill Dwyre drop the phrase “lot,” he turned and said, “Lot? Lot? I was there when his wife was turned into a pillar of salt.”
Does it make him old because he made the matches for the undercard when Cain stopped his brother Abel on cuts?
Once known as “the Boy Promoter,” Chargin turns a well-experienced 83 come June 5 and this year marks his 60th in running fight shows in the Golden State.
Things aren’t the same with his wife-partner-rock Lady Lorraine by his side after 49 years together but “War A Week” soldiers on like a fighter who’s behind on points but knows he can stop the other guy.
His first show was Sept. 3, 1951, in San Jose with local yokel Eddie Chavez outpointing gamecock Manuel Ortiz.
(Two bouts before that, Ortiz boxed back to back in Metro Manila, losing to Tirso del Rosario and then knocking out Bonnie Espinosa.)
The good news today is that Chargin Promotions rolls on with a Feb. 18 Telefutura card at San Francisco’s intimate and historic Longshoreman’s Hall (set up for 1,300 patrons).
Wildly-exciting lightweight Pinoy prospect Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta (20-0-1, 10 KOs) is in the main event against the always available and ever popular TBA.
The venue is perfect, not too big and not too small, with its echoes going back over the decades to the magical time when they were The Warlocks and not The Grateful Dead and when that group, Pink Floyd and other gigantic rock acts plied their trade on the docks by Fishermen’s Wharf.
Maybe with all the Filipinos sure to come in from nearby Daly City and environs some smart restaurant owner will offer up a new culinary delight, cioppino with balut on the side.
(Cioppino is a fish stew originating in San Francisco and derived from the various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine. Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish’s place of origin is typically a combination of dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. The seafood is then combined with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, and served with toasted bread, either sourdough or baguette. The dish is comparable to bouillabaisse, burrida, and bourride of the French Provence, suquet de peix from Catalan speaking regions of coastal Spain, and to cacciucco and brodetto from Italy .)
I don’t know but I do know that Gesta is fun to watch and these tickets will fly out of the box office.
“The Boy Promoter,” who started out with Jimmy Dundee in Oakland, is on the tonier side of the Bay for this one.
Maybe either King or Arum or both can come by and pick up a few tips from a more senior promoter.
It couldn’t hurt them, could it?
As for Don’s sidekick, John Chavez, what can I say except that he thinks The Grateful Dead are people resting in a well-manicure cemetery.
But what can you expect from a kid who asked me “where does The Jefferson Airplane fly to?” Or who thinks Sly & The Family Stone did the masonry for Alcatraz.
He could use some seasoning also.
