Larry Jewell

We're talking with. There we go. We're talking with Jay Anson with Don Fulmer in connection with the Washington county fights that are going to be coming up with the county fair. Jay, you're organizing this fight, this group of fights. When will they be held? Hey, the fight start tonight at 8 o' clock over in Reno, over in Hurricane and along with myself, I'm chairman of the fights and DeWitt Iverson has been working with me for the last couple months. We've been down to college. They've been letting us use the college, the gym down there to train and we've had a training camp going, had about 10, 12 boys working out. Now these kids will be participating, you bet. How have you got this set up? Have you got kids from this area fighting kids from outside the area? We have four or five kids from Cedar City coming down to fight and some couple kids from Nevada and then Don Fomer's boys and Gene's got a couple boys coming. Jay Fulmer's got a couple boys that will be here and there's some kids from Hurricane that's been training. So the boys are going to be in better shape this year than they've ever been, I believe. Are there prizes for the kids? Yeah, we give them. They'll get prizes for it. Yeah. Is this in. Is this being sponsored in the by the Washington County Fire? This won't be any further competition beyond this. The kids who win here would be moving on to some competition. No, now of course the college has fights here in February. You know, this fight game's really taking hold again, Larry, a lot of interest. How many different weight classes do you have? Well, we'll fight some of these little kids from 60 pounds and then we go up to 210 pounds and we really have some good fights for tonight. We got Mike Anderson fighting a kid from Cedar, Amos James, and that's going to be a good classy fight. And my boy Rick Jense is fighting Joe Burns and there's a lot of talk on that fight we're all hopped up for tonight. Amos James, wasn't he the basketball player? Yeah, he's a basketball player, little colored boy and they say he's a heck of a scrapper. But this Anderson boy, this is Art Anderson's son and he has two boys fighting tonight. The other one's Tim Anderson and they're both good. Mike, he's a pretty classy little boy. Don, let's talk to you for a minute. This is going to be kind of a family reunion. For the Fulmers down here, isn't it? Well, kind of, somewhat. We've. We've always come down for several years now since Jay's been head of this program, and he's done a tremendous job. I've never seen interest any better anywhere in the country than they've had down here. The Hurricane. It's just unbelievable, the crowds, they pack in there, and the fights have always been the tremendous fights. So we've always brought our kids down, and it's good for them. You know, they don't get that much competition around home, it seems like. So, you know, anytime we can give them a little action, a little competition, while you. I think it's a good thing for them. You're part of a fighting family. You and your brothers, Gene and Jay. All professional fighters at one time or another. That's right. How did you all get into this? Well, dad always used to be interested in the fight game. He never was a professional fighter or even amateur. He'd done a lot of street fighting, but he was always very interested in the fight game. In fact, they named Gene after Gene Tunney, who was the world champion. And of course, he pretty well filled his bill at becoming the middleweight champion. And of course, me and Jay just followed in suit and done a lot of amateur fighting, and we turned professional in the proceeded from there. Did you ever find any pressure on you and Jay because Gene had done so well? No, I don't believe so. You know, in fact, to a certain extent. Why, it probably helped us, you know, the notoriety. Jing got the name started, and of course that helped us considerably too. So, no, I don't think it was that much pressure, you know, saying that you should be, you know, matching you with your brother, comparing one another. We just went out and done what we could do, and that's all there was to it. Did you ever fight one another? Not in an actual fight, no. Not for paying customers anyway, without the gloves on. Of course, Gene was always quite a bit older than Jay or myself, and, you know, he used to get handled pretty good when he was a kid. But I'd done a lot of sparring with Ching in the later years when we was both contending. Of course, Ching was a title holder and I was contender at that time, and we done a lot of sparring together. Did you ever help each other out, find mistakes that one of the others of you was making? Did you all try to coach each other? Well, somewhat, yeah. You know, it's kind of hard for fighters, really, to pick things out of Course, that's why we had managers and trainers always there to pick out our problems. But, you know, whenever you see noticeable faults, why, you try to correct them. Was there any particular fight in your career that stands out, most outstanding performance, either by you or by your opponent? Well, I don't know. I had a lot of tough fights. I don't really know which one you classified toughest. I've had a lot of people ask me, what's your toughest fight? And that's pretty hard to say. When you get up in the top 10, they're all tough. Of course, I fought for the world middleweight title in 1968 in San Remo, and of course, that. That's got to be one of my highlights. It was a very disappointing night because I had the Hong Kong flu and was in bad shape and lost that fight in San Remo. But I believe one of the highlight fights that I had was when I beat Emil Griffith for the American middleweight title in Salt Lake City in 65. Was there any highlights in Jay's or Gene's career that stood out in your mind? Particularly. Particularly that maybe doesn't stand out in your brother's mind? Any particular thing that you remember about your brother's careers? Well, of course, you know, Gene winning the world title was a big thing in all our lives at that time. That was 1957, January 2nd. He beat Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight title. And I'd say that had to be probably the biggest thing in. In the whole family's life at that time. You know, I mean, that was a great thing for the family and for the whole community, as far as that goes. That's a moment that I'm sure we'll probably never forget. I have a question. You mentioned that your dad was interested in fighting. How much support did you and your brothers get from their parents? Were they to all of your fights? Yes, yes, whenever possible. Our mother and dad was always to our fight. Of course, like I say, dad really got us started. I remember when I was a small boy, dad would let us pound him in the stomach, you know, use that for the punching bag. And dad really was the one that got us started. And then he, Marv Jensen was club going in in West Jordan, and he took us down there, and it pretty well started from there. But mother and dad's always been a great supporter and a booster of whatever we've done. You mentioned some of your sons are going to be down here fighting. How does it feel now? You've been through the professional fight world and that's the top of the game. How does it feel to have your son's in a ring now beginning competition? Well, if I was as nervous when I had fights as I am watching my own kids, I'd been in bad shape. But nevertheless, I think it's great. I don't think there's any more wholesome sport that the boys could get into that's going to do them any more good, build their confidence and learn to get along with people and you know, they don't have to go around picking on kids trying to prove that they're tough, they know how tough they are. You get kids in the gym working out and training them, ain't the kids that are out bullying around and trying to prove how tough they are to the world. So I think it's a great thing and I encourage my boys to get into it. Not professionally. I think that if they wanted to go professionally I'd no doubt support them 100%. But I think that nowadays there just ain't that much competition, enough fights around the country to keep boys active. So I do encourage them to get into it amateur wise anyway. And I've got four sons and all of them been engaged in amateur boxing and seem to do real well and I think it's helped them 100%. Are all four of them going to participate in the fair? No, I. Well, I've got four boys, I say, and my two oldest boys won't be here. One's on a mission in Scotland now. He fought here, what, two years ago and done real well then. My second boy, he's had some bad leg problems and he won't be here tonight. But I've got a 14 year old and a 9 year old that it'll be here and both be fine. You don't seem old enough to have a son who would be on a mission. Don. Thanks, appreciate that. Take my hat off making. What about as the cousins get together? You mentioned that some of Gene's kids and some of Jay's kids are going to be here. Do the cousins mix it up a little bit? Do they compete against each other? No, not really, no. We've never had. They've never had any problems that way or never tried to compete against one another in any form. They just work out and do their best and they've never had fights with one another, things of this sort. So it's got along real well. As a former professional fighter, do you find yourself mentally critiquing your kids? This is what you're doing right this is what you're doing wrong and then having to keep from telling them. Or do you come out and tell them? Well, I always tell them, of course, you know, I mean, there's a lot of things that kids do that I can help men. I can see a lot of mistakes that they shouldn't be making. A lot of things they, they should be doing right. And so naturally, you know, you try to correct it. And I don't know whether maybe this is an advantage or disadvantage the kid, but, you know, they can stand all the help they can get to any amateur kid. So I don't feel that I should stop telling them whenever I see something wrong. What about the grandparents? Do they like to see the grandkids get into it now? Oh, yeah, Mother and dad, like I say, they follow the grandkids like, you know. In fact, mother and dad might be down tomorrow night. So if people see a group of people sitting off to the side of the ring and they have some very familiar looking faces and they all look awfully nervous, it's your family, right? That's possible. That's possible. My wife will be there and you can guarantee they'll know where she's at. There'll be a circle left away because she throws a lot of punches. Do you find that. Did your mom do that too? Did she try to throw the punches on the sidelines like a lot of the fans tried to do? Well, mother had her head in the hanky most of the time. I don't think mother really actually saw too many fights. She was always there whenever possible. And of course, if not home on TV or whatever. And I'm sure she had her hands buried in a handkerchief more than they anybody else, but they get very nervous. Your wife is a real fan then? Yes, my wife. She's followed me, you know, I've taken her wherever possible and she's probably the best fan I've got. At least she's for me all the time. You mentioned, Jay, that there seems to be a resurgence. There seems to be a resurgence in boxing all across the country. Don's kids are not only in boxing, but tremendous athletes. This Larry that's on a mission he went to, they got him down to college up here at Cedar. He played fullback, all state, tremendous football player. Do you find, Don, that boxing, the discipline that goes into boxing, helps out in other athletic endeavors? Oh, I'm sure it does. You know, I don't think there's any sport that's any more competitive than the boxing game. I mean, when you're out there, you're on your own. I mean, if you don't get up in the morning, do road work and don't train hard, you're the only guy that's going to know about in there because you know when you get tired, there's nobody, a teammate's not going to come by and help you out. And so a kid that's in shape for boxing, every sport takes a certain different amount of conditioning, I should say, but boxing helps in any of it, I think. You know, it's good conditioning and like I say, it gives the kid good self confidence and a lot of discipline. Jay briefly, once again, it starts tonight at 8 o'. Clock. Tonight at 8 o'. Clock. Where again, Hurricane over in the arena. They have a little boxing arena there at Harrikin and there's some of the fights that you might mention to them. How many? How Many? We'll have 12, 13 fights tonight and we really have some outstanding fights tonight. So don't wait for tomorrow night because tonight I think is going to be the best fights of the bunch. Will you have some more tomorrow? Oh yeah, you bet. So tonight and tomorrow night, 8 o' clock over the hurricane Arena. Sounds great. Thank you, thank you.