The first time I got in
the ring I got beat up bad, but I didn't go down.
I've never gone down for the count."
Carlos Palomino

Head Up, Hands Down
By Gregory Story

The resiliency Carlos Palomino credits to street fights growing up rough saved his boxing career from being a single shot fiasco. In the army, Carlos had signed up for a boxing tournament at Fort Hood, Texas as a way to join Special Services and tour other bases. Despite his initial thrashing, the lieutenant in charge was impressed with his never say die toughness and gave him a chance to train. Two months later, Carlos won the Fort Hood Tournament in the welterweight division and went on to the Army Championship and then All Service Championship.

"Fighting came natural to me. Getting hit was never a problem for me after years of street fights in Mexico as a kid. All I had to learn was technique," he states.

Palomino won the AAU Championship while still in the army, but after he was discharged in '72 and turned pro, he discovered that he had to learn a completely different style.

"In amateur fights, points are awarded for the number of punches landed, but in the pros, you have to try and hurt people so as an amateur there's little bobbing and weaving. You're just throwing a lot of punches, but that'll get you knocked out in the pros," Palomino explains.

He ascribes similar deficiencies to most martial artists. Carlos Palomino is one of the founding members of World Black Belt invited to join at the behest of his longtime friend David Krapes who felt the organization should have a representative from the pugilistic arts.

World Black Belt isn't the only organization to recognize Palomino's boxing accomplishments. He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1989 and on January 2nd of this year was informed he'd been selected for the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

"The set up the International has at Canastota, New York is similar to what baseball has at Cooperstown with a museum full of memorabilia. I'm looking forward to the whole process that begins with a parade on June 9th. Then there's a golf tournament and the award dinner on the 12th. It's a beautiful event that I've been to before, and I'm thrilled to be honored this way," he relates.

Palomino describes a long road traveled to fame akin to what a fighter in any of the martial arts faces. He just wishes they'd put more into their punches.

"People are surprised to learn that if they can't use their legs, kick boxers or any other type of martial artists will generally get beat if matched up with a boxer. That's because they jab straight up while boxers learn to pivot their bodies into a punch giving them knockout power," he says.

Palomino's development of knockout power brought him to the attention of renowned fight manager Jackie McCoy who'd represented five world champions. McCoy was initially unimpressed with Carlos' superlative amateur record reckoning he wouldn't be able to take a punch, but Palomino trained relentlessly with fight coach Noë Cruz and, after a chance encounter and ring workout with Mano Ramos at an Orange County, California gym, he became sparring partner of the then lightweight champ.

"Jackie then booked me for one of the Thursday night fights at the Olympic Auditorium, a great venue with television exposure, but I was the crowd chaser, the last fight after just about everybody but my family had gone home. I was up against a guy who'd had about ten pro fights. I won and made eighty bucks, my first payday," he recalls with a laugh.

More lucrative fights followed at the Olympic as his fame grew, and rare for a boxer, Carlos had a fan section comprised of fellow college students. Shrewdly, the auditorium manager offered student discounts and busloads from his alma mater, first Orange Coast College and then California State University at Long Beach, would cheer him on.

"I'd fight Thursday night and then have to wear shades to classes Friday morning to hide the bruises. Between boxing and college, I basically had no life from 72 through 76," he says.

Palamino felt it was essential to get a good education to prepare him for a life after boxing though his most renowned fights came after college. In 1976, he got both his college degree and became Welterweight World Champion.

"I was listed a ten to one underdog for the title match and the fight was on the champ John Stracey's home turf. About fifteen thousand of his fans in Wembley, England were chanting his name between rounds. I was just there with my coach, but we'd studied his style and come up with a plan that gave me confidence," he says.

As Palomino describes it, he spent the first half a dozen rounds concentrating on body shots to wear his opponent down and began to furiously attack in the eighth leading to an eleventh round knockout. Carlos ranks his first title defense against Armando Muniz as one of the two toughest fights of his career.

"He was a short guy, five seven, but he never stopped coming at me for fifteen rounds. I fell behind early, but came back strong and finally dropped him in the fifteenth. He got back up, but I was hitting him at will. The ref had to stop the fight because the guy wouldn't quit even when I was killing him," he states.

Carlos successfully defended his title seven times before losing a split decision to Wilfred Benitez. Disenchanted by the politics of the fight game that kept him from a rematch, Palomino had already announced his retirement when he was offered a fight with the legendary "Fists of Steel", Roberto Duran. After loosing a ten round decision he ranks as the other of his two toughest fights, Palomino retired from the ring and devoted himself to acting and working with kids at risk.

A guest spot as a boxer on the hit sitcom "Taxi" led to roles in such shows as "Hill Street Blues" and "Buck Rodgers" and numerous films starring the likes of Gene Hackman and Robert Duval. Through the "Jeopardy" program, Palomino works with the LAPD teaching troubled adolescents his sport.

After seventeen years out of the ring, Carlos briefly came out of retirement in the mid 90's due to the death of his father who he was especially close to.

"I'd been in fog throughout 96 and went back to my old gym and happened to spar with Hector Camacho and did pretty well. Teaming up with my old coach and manager was a way to reconnect with my father," he explains.

Offered a lucrative contract, Palomino knocked out his first four opponents, but knew the fifth fight, which he lost in a decision, would be his last.

"My heart was healed from the loss of my dad. I was forty-eight old and didn't want to take one step forward and two steps back," he said.

Palomino knew he had too much going for him to risk the brain damage that can occur any time to a boxer. Wise investments of his fight purses have left him financially secure and able to do what he now likes best, act and help troubled youngsters learn how to build character through boxing.

Carlos Palomino is currently looking at scripts for a pilot sponsored by the Trinity Broadcast Network entitled "National Homeland Security" where he'll play an FBI agent guarding our nation's harbors and has a movie in the works about the travails of an aging fighter. The kids Carlos trains to box in the Jeopardy program know it will take a good job of acting on Palomino's part to play someone over the hill.

To read more about Carlos Palomino visit his World Black Belt Founding Member page.

If you would like to contact Carlos Palomino, you can email him at carlospalomino@worldblackbelt.com.

If you would like to contact Gregory Story, you can email him at gregstory@worldblackbelt.com.