{"id":8301,"date":"2015-09-02T17:08:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T17:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgethomasclark.com\/?p=8301"},"modified":"2015-09-03T02:56:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T02:56:34","slug":"yaqui-lopez-remembers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgethomasclark.com\/yaqui-lopez-remembers\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaqui Lopez Remembers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\tPlease trust that people often used to tell me, \u201cYou have the best memory of anyone I ever met.\u201d I could, and often still can, recall details of events decades ago and usually enhance the anecdote by noting the month and year: I moved to California in July 1958, I got my first car in February 1969, you got drunk at the party and fell on the floor in June 1970, and, yes, I was already down there. <\/p>\n
\tThough I knew time had diminished my ability to rapidly memorize a roomful of names and faces, I was unprepared for the following display of forgetfulness during a recent fundraiser in Anaheim for former champion boxer Bobby Chacon, who is now impaired by dementia pugilistica. I was drying my hands in the men\u2019s room when a light heavyweight contender from the seventies, Yaqui Lopez, entered.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHi,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m Tom Clark and would like to tell you that your fights against, against, uh, your fights against\u2026.Marvin Johnson.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI never fought Marvin Johnson,\u201d said Yaqui, a gentle man who kindly looked at me as I struggled. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cYes, yes,\u201d I said. \u201cI meant those great fights you had with\u2026with\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMatthew Saad Muhammad. His name used to be Matt Franklin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOf course. I just said Johnson to come up with someone from that era.\u201d<\/p>\n