The G Manifesto

Wild Card Boxing Club, Hollywood, CA: It Ain’t Easy

“When I was a young fellow I was knocked down plenty. I wanted to stay down, but I couldn’t. I had to collect the two dollars for winning or go hungry. I had to get up. I was one of those hungry fighters. You could have hit me on the chin with a sledgehammer for five dollars. When you haven’t eaten for two days you’ll understand.” – Jack Dempsey

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali

Many people think I spend all my time in nightclubs, Gentleman’s Clubs, Restaurants, on Planes, getting Custom Suits Made and at Topless Beaches swooping fly girls during summertime.

I have to admit, there is some truth to that. Especially the swooping fly girls at Topless Beaches in summertime thing.

However, what many don’t know is that I usually take a month off from the difficult lifestyle of an International Playboy and get back to my roots. And when I say, “get back to my roots” I mean spending a month in Hollywood, in a small apartment, with no car, and go to The Wild Card Boxing Club, Hollywood, CA every day, all day.

I literally live on Vine Street. Minus a few trips to Beverly Hills to work on a little “project” I have going on. I did this in March and April this year.

I get real “street”. Every day I wake up go to the gym, chill for a while, then come back and workout or spar. I don’t wear Custom Suits until the weekend comes. And I swoop a little fly Mexicana girl I know from the hood some nights. Other nights I just stretch and read. Real soulful.

If you have never been to The Wild Card Boxing Club, the place is crazy. It’s small. It is about the size of four boxing rings (it has two boxing rings). There are about 100 people in there at any given time. The place has unbelievable characters. The intensity is off the charts. It is a straight up Madhouse.

But truth be told, I feel more at home in The Wild Card Boxing Club than almost anywhere in the world. I straight up love the place. It keeps me grounded. It keeps me humble. Freddie Roach might be the coolest cat in all of America. His MOM is a sweetheart. Pepper is funny as hell. All the regulars are cool as hell and are always helpful. All the pros are mad cool. Manny is The Man. The trainers are dope as hell. I love the energy and vibe. And even though I am basically at the bottom of the totem pole there (I am being humble as usual, I am really not at the bottom, more like a significant level below the Pros and real fighters), I do earn people’s Respect there, and that is really all that matters.

In fact, I think I will make at least a two week pilgrimage to The Wild Card Boxing Club for the rest of my life, no matter where on the globe my travels take me.

I probably won’t be going this summer to The Wild Card Boxing Club, but I do have plans to hit up another legendary boxing gym in another city. I typically do this when I travel.

Now that I think about this, this would be a great idea for a TV show: Have cameras follow me around the globe going to different Boxing Gyms. They could also follow me going to different tailors I know and get Custom Suits made. If it is a beachtown, I could bust some cutbacks and get shacked at some dope surf spots and swoop Topless girls at the Beach.

That would easily be the dopest show on TV. Maybe put it on HBO so we could show Topless girls. It’s kind of crazy that I just came up with this idea and no one else has.

I probably would want to wear a ski mask to keep me low profile.

I don’t want to jeopardize this whole “International Playboy thing” I got going on, after all.

Thoughts?

Photo credits:

Robert Gallagher And Michael Porfirio Mason.

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Click Here for The G Manifesto’s Free Gentleman’s Club Report

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life

http://www.thegmanifesto.com

The History of Wild Card Boxing Club With Mickey Rourke

Angelo Dundee: Rest in Peace

Today is a sad day as G Manifesto Hall of Fame Member, Angelo Dundee passed away.

It is no secret that I am a big advocate of the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach. And I have had the pleasure of meeting Angelo Dundee on a few occasions, the first time when I was a young cub with my Father.

Angelo was always super cool. The last time I was at the 5th Street Gym, Matt Biamonte told me Angelo wasn’t feeling too well.

One of the things I most remember about Angelo Dundee was during the hype and build up of the Marvelous Marvin Hagler VS Sugar Ray Leonard fight when I was a kid. It was widely accepted that Hagler punched harder than Leonard.

But Dundee said, (I am paraphrasing here) “Leonard hits way harder than Hagler. Leornard has one punch knock out power. Hagler is more a fighter that needs to accumulate punches. He just isn’t going to get that kind of “accumulation” on my guy!”

Dundee was a true tough guy and a master of mental warfare.

They just don’t make them like Angelo any more.

Keep punching.

One of Angelo Dundee final interviews (one of the best interviews on youtube, period)

There was no way Angelo Dundee was going to miss Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday party.

The genial trainer got to see his old friend, and reminisce about good times. It was almost as if they were together in their prime again, and what a time that was.

Dundee died in his apartment in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday night at the age of 90, and with him a part of boxing died, too.

He was surrounded by his family, said his son, Jimmy, who said the visit with Ali in Louisville, Ky., meant everything to his Dad.

“It was the way he wanted to go,” the son said. “He did everything he wanted to do.”

Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.

“He was coming along good yesterday and then he started to have breathing problems. My wife was with him at the time, thank God, and called and said he can’t breathe. We all got over there. All the grandkids were there. He didn’t want to go slowly,” the son said.

Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.

More than that, he was a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.

“To me, he was the greatest ambassador for boxing, the greatest goodwill ambassador in a sport where there’s so much animosity and enemies,” said Bruce Trampler, the longtime matchmaker who first went to work for Dundee in 1971. “The guy didn’t have an enemy in the world.”

How could he, when his favorite line was, “It doesn’t cost anything more to be nice.”

Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.

Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.

“He was wonderful. He was the whole package,” Arum said. “Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That’s what Ali loved so much about him.”

Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the “Thrilla in Manilla.” Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.

Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, “You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it” when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns – a fight he would rally to win by knockout.

A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport’s great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.

“He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He was still working with an amateur kid, a possible Olympic kid, down here. When he walked into a boxing room he still had the brain for it.”

Dundee will always be linked to Ali as one of the most successful fighter-trainer relationships in boxing history, helping Ali become the first to win the heavyweight title three times. The pair would travel around the world for fights to such obscure places as Ali’s October 1974 bout in Zaire against Foreman dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle,” and Ali’s third fight against Frazier in the Philippines.

Read more here:

Muhammad Ali About Angelo Dundee, Shuffle and Money

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Click Here for Zippo 20903 Gold Floral Flush Lighter Great American Made

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life

http://www.thegmanifesto.com

RIP Angelo Dundee 1921-2012

Guest Manifesto: Enter The Dragon pt. II

(Click Here for The G Manifesto’s Entering The Dragon )

Click Here for more by the author of this Guest Manifesto Le Parvenue

There is no better training ground than the real world

Mens sana in corpore sano— a healthy mind in a healthy body– was once the watchword for fitness. But look at what has happened to the way we keep fit: we exercise in windowless basements, ingesting both recycled air and asinine music piped in at a steady feed. The gym is a place of isolation. Just look at a packed gym with all the people hiding in their private worlds of iPods and earphones.

“First things first, you need a place to work out. You don’t want to join the corporate gym that has all new equipment, a juice bar and all yuppie clientele. Join the gym that has boxing equipment and is hot, smells terrible with a felon clientele…Always the top or the bottom, none of that middle of the road, suburban crap…a hall mark of The G Manifesto.” – MPM

But there’s a growing school of thought that, in terms of overall fitness, both physical and mental, the outside world is where we should be looking, not so much for inspiration but for things to actually do. Today, we don’t really push or pull things in our lives any more, and the gym somehow evolved to reflect that. It just isn’t fulfilling—there’s no interaction.

And as the aesthetic ideal for men shifts ever further away from the super-groomed metrosexual to a manlier paradigm, ideal body shapes are being reconsidered.

“You don’t need to lift heavy weights anymore, it’s not the Eighties, and you are not trying to sack the quarterback anymore.” -MPM

Clearly, for this different sort of workout, a different sort of motivation is required. Here is where boxing comes in. It is, after all, the most alpha of manly pursuits: going toe-to-toe in an old-fashioned fight. This is why scores of bankers, lawyers and industrialists (not to mention International Playboy’s on the rise) turn to boxing to boost adrenalin and build muscle. At Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, the 650 white-collar boxers make up more than half the clientele. “It’s a very good way to relieve stress and aggravation,” says Bruce Silverglade, Gleason’s president.

“One of the most important aspects of Entering The Dragon. You need to spar. Get your rounds in. They will pay dividends.”-MPM

On Wednesday nights, money manager John Oden leaves his tailored suit and Hermes tie in the locker room at the New York Athletic Club and climbs into the boxing ring in red Everlast gloves and white high-top sneakers. Much like the boxing greats he emulates, he feeds off the energy in the ring. Self-respect is also a factor. Not getting beaten up in front of your friends and colleagues is a much better motivator than wanting to look good; fighting for your pride is about the best goal you can have.

Relating to the Streets and Making a Comeback

While Oden was writing his book, “Life in the Ring: Lessons and Inspirations From the Sport of Boxing,” he was right in the middle of the financial crisis. The Down Economy was taking its toll. In fact, it was during this period that his I-bank’s investors pulled $44 billion from its funds. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell to 676.53, the lowest level since September 1996.

“It was an awful time,” says Oden, sitting in a 36th- floor conference room overlooking Central Park. “Everyone I know suffered.” But many of the 12 boxers he was writing about, including George Foreman, Bernard Hopkins and James J. Braddock, overcame tougher challenges, he says. “I am talking about growing up in ghettos, having no education or role models, going to prison,” Oden says.

Like the business world, boxing requires “manic” preparation and 100 percent concentration. Before his fights, Oden learned about his opponents and worked out 10 times a week. “The ability to dig down and make a comeback in business is just the same as it is in boxing.”

And there’s a desirable side effect: incredible fitness. This is because boxing is massively aerobic, its constant motion and flexion punctuated by quick, controlled movements provinding an intense all-body workout. Plus, you acquire a skill, and you pick up a lot of confidence–not to mention respect.

“Even if people don’t appreciate the sport, they appreciate and understand the discipline and preparation required to do the sport,” Oden says. “Who wouldn’t want someone who has these qualities, who prepares this way for something?”

Source

Click Here for more by Le Parvenue

Bruce Lee – The Legend of The Dragon

5th St. Gym, Miami Beach

Click Here for Muhammad Ali: Recipe for Life

Click Here for The South Beach War Report Part I: The Basics

I have mentioned before that The Legendary 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach has recently re-opened and I plan to be there soon. My father, Michael John Mason VI, used to take me there as a young pup and that was where I first met Muhammad Ali (among others). I can’t wait to go back. It’s already locked in stone on my schedule. Congratulations to Angelo Dundee, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, Tom Tsatas, Matt Baiamonte and Dino Spencer for making it happen. This is a huge one in the win column and a true sign that The Apocalypse is Not coming. At least not yet anyway.

The History of 5th St. Gym, Miami Beach

Muhammed Ali:5th Street Gym

The Fight Years (documentary trailer) 5th Street Gym

Click Here for Muhammad Ali: Recipe for Life

Click Here for The South Beach War Report Part I: The Basics

Know your G history.

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life

http://www.thegmanifesto.com