Page 9 - Gordie MacDougall, Boxer: My Life

ISSUE : Issue 57

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1991/6/1

kind of disappointments?) Well, you were promised fights and, you know, they were going to get you (a cer? tain fight)--if you fought this fellow and you won, they'd promise you a shot at the Canadian champi? on. So you fought the guy. Then you were waiting for that big shot. Then they'd give you a runaround, the promoter or the manager of the other fighter'd give you the runa? round. Instead of signing to fight you he'd sign to fight somebody else. Sidestepped you. You know, you got kicked around a lot.... Left: Two local fighters: John Pope and Ernie "Champ" Hannigan. "Champ" told us, "We all loaded coal • 20 ton of coal in the pit • and then we went training." Cen? tre: iVIitch Krszwda won several amateur championships, and fought professionally. Top right: Tyrone Gardiner, unde? feated Lightweight Champion of Canada. Bottom right: Donald "Red" IVIac- Pherson. Though he never won a title, "Red" l/lacPherson defeated some of the best in his class in Canada. Then the latter (years), I'd get discou? raged and I'd quit. I'd go sailing, and then I'd come back and I'd make comebacks. And everything'd be going good, and then I'd throw in the towel again, you know, get dis? couraged or get a runaround. You wouldn't be getting enough money for the fight or.... What used to get me: they wouldn't fight me often enough. I was a guy that-- keep me busy. That's the way I was. I was a guy who wanted to be kept busy, you know. This here working out in the gym all the time--that was no good to me. I want to fight every two weeks. That's the way I am. So, when you get dogged like that, you know. And then, promoters would gyp you out of money and everything else. Pretty dis? couraging when you work hard at something. That's the way it went in those days. Like, I was to fight another fellow in Hal? ifax. He was a big-time fighter, supposed to fight me. But then two weeks before the fight--he was all signed--and two weeks be? fore the fight I was train-laid. 'Cause I had a kind 6f a grudge against this guy, you know. And he pulled out of the fight, two weeks before the fight. He said he had Leather Works by John C. Roberts Historic Reproductions Creative Handcrafts * MORE THAN LEATHER * INDIAN BROOK Open Dally 9 - 5 CAPE BRETON ISLAND BOC 1 HO '''V ' " October 9 Between Baddeck & ingonish o'' 'V appointment On the Cabot Trail (902) 929-2414 CAPE CARE SERVICES COOPERATIVE LTD. TOTAL PERSONAL CARE • 24 Hour Service • 7 Days/Week • RN'S CNA'S Home Care Workers Bonded & Insured 562-2444 se Nepean, Sydney ''Worker Owned & Operated" NO. I IN HOME HEATING • State of the art heating equipment • Trained heating technicians • Largest Fleet of Home Heating delivery vehicles • Ways to save you money • Budget Payment Plan • FREE Furnace Efficiency Tests IN SYDNEY CALL STEVE BLUNDON | IRVING , j. '.. <'''y-' Heating QftallUflMtlom

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