September 12, 2024 • 55 mins
🎉🥊🌟 Get ready to immerse yourself in the captivating rhythm of the ring and the vibrant beats of the city streets! 🎶 On the next episode of "Mambo In the City Salsa Podcast," prepare for a salsa story unlike any other!
Join us as we welcome a remarkable guest, none other than the esteemed Boxing Referee Ricky Gonzalez! 🌟 Together, we'll plunge into the thrilling world of boxing, exploring Ricky's incredible journey within the ring and the championship Fights he has been apart of including Amada Serrano, Terrance "Bud" Crawford and Canelo Alvarez! Get ready to hear the pulsating moments, the adrenaline-pumping experiences, and the captivating behind-the-scenes stories that make this sport the tale of Champions.
But wait, that's just the beginning! In a heartfelt tribute, we'll honor the indelible legacy of Ricky's late brother, the extraordinary Four-time Grammy Award winner & LP Artist, Jorge Gonzalez formally of The Spanish Harlem Orchestra 🥁✨. We'll celebrate Jorge's profound influence on the world of SALSA, reflecting on the passion and magic he infused into every stage performance.
This episode is an unforgettable journey through sports, music, and the soul-stirring stories that transcend them both. 🎙️✨ Don't miss out on this exceptional episode of Mambo in the City Salsa Podcast! 🌟🥁🎉
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please welcome to the mumbo in the city salsa podcast
referee Ricky Gonzalez.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thank you so much.
I appreciate being here.
She had me how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
How are you?
I'm pretty good man.
I mean, I have my window open,so I'm freezing here in the
Bronx because I'm trying to makesure everything's staying on
you know, I'm saying how closeto you, to Yankee Stadium.
I Want to say I'm east ofYankee Stadium.
Okay, so I'm on.
So Yankee Stadium is on 161st.
I'm on, I'm on East 149.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, but big you brought me Yankees fan.
Huh, Huge huge, huge.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm like the black sheep, the family.
I'm the only Yankee fan,everybody else I met them at
fans, so I'm the black sheep.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Nice, nice.
I mean my mom is taking to theold Yankee Stadium to go see
like they winfield and all theseguys way back when I'm saying,
yeah, she's, you know how familyis bro.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh, for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
What part of Puerto Rico did you guys grow up in?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
my.
My mother was one on Aguariaand my father's from Mocha.
We were all raised here in NewYork City.
I Was the only one born inBrooklyn, and then my other
siblings were born in Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So growing up I'm assuming that your father was
big into music.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes, well, while he lived in Puerto Rico he was a
musician as well.
He played the team ballets, andso, of course, when he came to
New York, he came to New York Ithink he was 16 at the time and
the love of music never left him, and you know.
And then, of course, it gotpassed on to my brother.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, your brother.
You know I want to say and wehad this conversation I met your
brother with the late Harry.
I don't know no team ball atall.
You know I used to grab a congaand get into the clubs and
things like that.
Like a lot of people did youknow back in the day Growing up,
what did your brother like todo?
Like, what was it like, youknow, growing up in your house
with you guys?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It was.
It was a lot of fun.
You know he was.
He was Infatuated with withMichael Jackson.
He wanted to be like MichaelJackson.
So there were five of us and wewould all bring out the pots
and pans utensils and we woulduse it as like the ballistics,
so banging on the pots and pans.
And he was always what healways wanted to be like Michael
(02:25):
Jackson, doing the dances, youknow, performing.
So it was.
There was always that kind ofenvironment.
Every night was like like aconcert.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know, drive my parents crazy when you say that
man, my uncle, who passed awayas well he passed away at 17.
He's gonna be a baseball player, but I remember he also loved
Michael Jackson and he used tohave, you know, socks on and he
used to try to do the MichaelJackson spin.
You can only imagine growing upwith what that was like because
(02:58):
, like you said, when Michaelcame out, you know everybody was
doing that she moonwalking andspinning, and you know, right,
right, and I'm talking about theJackson five, when it were, you
know, in that group together,when it was that young, you know
.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So he wanted, he wanted us to be like the Jackson
five, you know, the Gonzalesfive.
There was no moonwalk back, youknow, back in those days.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
What did you want to do besides music?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
He loved painting.
He loved drawing.
Anything you know they had todo with with with painting and
this thing was was drawingmountains and and beautiful
lakes and rivers.
He was into that, so he would.
He would get videos of Bob Ross.
I don't know if you ever heardof Bob Ross.
(03:48):
He was.
He was an artist, so he wouldget videos of Bob Ross and
that's what he would do.
If he wasn't playing music, hewas busy painting these
beautiful oceans and mountainsand rivers, you know.
So that was, that was his, histhing.
And as well as fish, he was.
He was into fish chop.
(04:09):
He was into Freshwater fish,swatwater fish.
He had iguanas he was.
He was into that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's awesome.
You guys went to the same highschool, or?
Yes, we did.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, we did Andrew Jackson high school that's in
Queens camp your heights, oh.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Nice, nice, and you both graduated.
Did he want to do something, inparticular at the high school?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He wanted to be a musician.
That was the only thing on hismind, you know, thank God, he
listened to my father and hebecame a conductor.
Take the test, for you know NewYork City Transit Authority,
and he became a conductor and hesecured his pension.
You know, even with the transit, working for the transit, like
(04:54):
for him that was secondary musicwas number one.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You get to work like you're gonna get out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
He like he was very lucky because he had to hook up
at work.
So if you needed to travel, hewas so lucky they would hook him
up and he would get to traveland then he'll come back and
bring them Like the best overnear that you can possibly get
you know, so that can continue.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's like Everybody says Eddie Montalvo, you know he
used to work for the Canadian.
I mean, I used to see Eddie.
We leave for work in themorning, you know.
But then everybody wonder howhe did it.
And you know, like I said, likeyou said, it's a little give
and take there you know it'sfunny.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know, if you mentioned Eddie Montalvo, um,
he's a.
He's such a great guy.
He's such a great great guy.
Um, I was.
I was a New York City policeofficer for 20 years and Eddie
Montalvo, he had a conga thathad um, that was especially made
for him.
Inside of the conga was it wasbulletproof.
So he gave me that conga.
(05:54):
Wow, I said is there?
You know, I still have it.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I retired in 2004, so that was around 2001, maybe and
and you and you get thankfulbecause the city's crazy man, I
mean, made it.
I'll say you, can you, you know, and change your career, you
know?
Um, but man, you know, I wasgonna be a police officer as
well.
I moved to Jersey, I took thetest and I passed it, and then
they went into hiring freeze.
(06:18):
You say holy, oh, I came backto.
I came back to the Bronx afterthat but I was in Jersey for
about a year or so.
Yeah, I mean Probably wouldn'thave passed the exercise part.
Bro Cuz, you already know yougot a run and all that shit and
you got a break of kind ofrecord.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, come on, you got a boxing background.
You know, I'm sure you know youwould have what it came back,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Imagine there's something about getting it.
I mean, when did you firstrealize or notice that your
brother was taking music?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
even more serious, um , I Would have to say he's, he's
seven years old.
He was seven years older to me,honestly, but I was around ten
years old, so he was maybe 16,17.
He was constantly leaving thehouse, going to Gates.
He recorded his.
He did his first recording atthe age of 16.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He, uh, he would listen to music 24 seven and I'm
not exaggerating man.
It was like 20, 24, 7, you knowum he was.
He was obsessed.
He was obsessed with the music,like that's all he thought
about.
You know, right, every everyother word, would you know?
I had to do with salsa music,this and that you know.
(07:34):
So he was.
He was obsessed with, with themusic yeah, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I mean, you have to be obsessed with with salsa in
order to be, because, look, look, what came down the pike for
him.
You know so many, so many Uh,concerts, meeting other
musicians, you know, and, um,and I remember, I remember your
brother and Harry Harry, forthose who don't know, harry, I
don't know, the late Harry, Idon't know, was a team ballerou
(08:01):
and you know, I rememberrehearsals, when they will go,
when they were gonna rehearsefor Ruben Blades and Willy Colón
, you know, for Venezuela.
Know that, you know.
And I remember Harry sometimespicking up your brother, meaning
him in the street to go to agig, or you know, it was just
good times, you know.
I mean, do you remember thefirst time you saw him perform
(08:23):
At a club?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
the first time I saw him perform, I would have to say
, again, it was at the cost.
So I don't know if you rememberI've heard of it about the cost
.
So, um, every single major bandwould perform there.
Yeah, that's a great photo.
Uh, wow, awesome, yeah, every,every major Band would perform
at the cost.
(08:44):
So, like, the cost was thehappening place.
So you had to be 21 years oldto get in the cost.
So I was maybe 13, 14 years oldand and you know, he was
already, you know, playing inthe cost.
So so, um, he would tell me hesaid, listen, he goes, carry my
bongos and pretend that you knowyou're the band boy, you know,
(09:06):
so I would carry his bongos andI would get in.
So that was the first time thatI saw him perform.
I think it was with uh 4077.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
A lot of people didn't know that's the okey-doke
man.
That's how you got in, you know?
Yeah, you know, you know, butuh, yeah, that was how I got in
you know it was to the pointwhere I used to set up Harry's
team ballas on stage, you know,taking the part of the Together
(09:34):
and you know, you know, you knowwhat I used to do.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I mean, I used to literally take the clavis and I
would.
I would go out in the back ofthe stage and I would pay the
clavis while the band wasplaying, you know.
So I kind of made it seem like,yeah, I was part of the band,
but you know, yeah.
They allowed me to do it andthank god it wasn't kusa while I
was playing the clave, you know, you know, you know, it
happened a couple of times mybrother turns around and gives
me that look and I'm like, ohman, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
It's tremendous, bro.
See, I took it a little furtherbecause Harry had a confidence
and even if I sucked at being amusician which I did Harry would
let me do solos and and youknow, and I'm pretty sure your
brother was right next to mewhen I was doing those solos
back in the day, thinking, youknow, I mean because because
Harry was like that, harry, eventhough he knew that I sucked,
(10:21):
he still gave opportunity.
You know, sometimes you getsomebody do get it out of their
system, so to speak, and uh,yeah, harry, harry, harry was
like that.
But I remember, you know, evenplaying with the bands that they
played.
You know, they always werechill about it, like it's cool,
like oh yeah, we just playedwith Celia Cruz, we just played
with, you know, whatever, youknow, whatever, whatever the
(10:43):
case was, you never saw them getoff the stage and and brag
about those things.
It was just meant to be there.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You know, amazing, bro, like that was you're right,
because I mean, like, honestly,that's one of the traits that I
loved about my brother he wasso humble.
Yeah, you know, that was great.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That was great you know he was Johnny Pacheco.
He was Pacheco in the years.
Let's go through some memorylane here.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
This is.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Puerto Rico.
Look at this photo.
Yeah, you have Ostar RobertoRuena Ibelito, a young Mark
Antony.
Yeah, you have your brotherthere on the far what's that
left?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, you have Titecure Alonso, you know.
Yeah, ruben Blades, you haveMontalvo de Gerirribas.
Who else you have?
You have the late Rafferizari,who we lost not too long ago.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So your brother was around.
You know I don't have to tellyou, but your brother was around
, the greats of the greats man,I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh man, yeah, you know it's.
Yeah, I had the photo.
I mean it's great to hear othermusicians speak so highly of my
brother.
You know, I mean of course he.
I'm biased because, yes, he ismy brother and I love him dearly
and he was always the way he iswith you.
He's the same way with us, likehe was so humble.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Like I was saying before, I was listening to an
interview he did with Jose Masoand I was getting a little
emotional because, you know, youremember this.
Like you just said, the guytreated everybody the same.
You know, and with musicians,once you meet a musician, it's
like you know them forever.
Look at Ray Ray, I know over 20years your brother.
(12:33):
I can say I know over 20 yearsas well.
Look at that.
But we never had a longconversation, though.
It was just like I get to thevenue, he's standing there
saying, hey, what's up, ray, youplaying on the chat?
Get on stage and just watch himdo what he does.
It's, you know, it's amazingand I'm meeting your family.
This is awesome, bro.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
All right, who's this ?
Oh, that's my cousin.
He's in Rochester, Melvin.
How you doing?
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's amazing, man All right Hilton, Hilton Bonilla,
okay.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Hey Hilton, how you doing, bro.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's awesome, man.
And so, while your brother wasplaying, you were in the police
and you were running the city.
What was that like theexperience of being a New York
City police officer?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
It was always drama, it was always a show every night
.
I used to work the midnight andI worked in Brooklyn, crown
Heights breakfast divison.
So you know, I yeah it wastough.
It was tough.
But I tell you one thing Icouldn't wait to complete my 20
years because I wanted to getout so bad, so bad, and I felt
(13:42):
like a prisoner because I usedto cross up the calendar Every
day that I went by.
I would cross it off, you know,but they closed it to retiring.
So, finally retired in 2004.
And the 20 years, and you know,thank God, I'm still collecting
my pension.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You're doing that in a whole lot more, bro.
I mean I get to your stories, Imean, but I mean that's a crazy
time.
I mean 20 years in Brooklyn atmidnight.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, brooklyn midnight, and then, of course,
9-11,.
You know, yeah, had thatexperience too.
So you know, there was anotherreason why I couldn't wait to
retire, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Sure, so you would.
You're a police officer duringthose years and you also go into
the clubs.
Do you remember what clubs youhung out at more or less?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well, my brother was performing.
You know, like, to be honest, Iwasn't a party animal and,
believe it or not, he neitherwas my brother, even though he
went to clubs because of hisprofession.
He wasn't a party animal, hewent there because of business.
So I was the same way, like Inever liked to hang out, so, but
I would go to see him perform.
(14:56):
So, yeah, the Copa, thePalladium, the Corso, the Club,
broadway, you know, yeah, themain ones, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
There's so many others.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I can't think of them with hand, you know.
And then, of course, theconcerts that he did in Madison
Square Garden.
You know, I was right therewith him, I was a shadow.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
This is a photo that I took of your brother at
Lincoln Center.
Oh, he was dancing, you know.
Oh, that is nice.
He went by the name in LaCampana Que Baila right.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, that's right, and then he gave him that name,
you know, and that was a greatinterview as well with Ray
Vieira.
You know, ray Vieira was agreat guy.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, you guys grew up almost all together.
Man, I mean yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh, that was in Venezuela when they went to.
They actually went toAzigheon's house, Wow.
He was the manager of theChicago White Stocks at the time
and you know, and my brotherlearned a lot about him and vice
versa you know, to find outthat Azigheon's favorite war
player was Roberto Clemente.
(16:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Not by that, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
That's a great photo.
Yeah, it was amazing.
Like I think about it all thetime.
You know, again, like I wasjust telling someone the other
day I said, how many people getto actually go to the White
House and actually shake handswith the president?
You know, yeah, you know, lookat that Clinton at the time.
You know, yeah, and he wasshaking hands with the president
, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I'm telling you, bro, you know, and that's all
because of that's, I believethat's when he was already part
of Spanish Harlem Orchestra, theRuebenblades.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, yeah, I think at that particular time he was
performing with the Ruebenblades.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
What a moment, bro.
So this is we've met anAmerican president.
Now do you remember the bandsthat you're, or do you want to
tell the public the bands thatyour brother, you remember him
playing with?
Or?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know it's a who's who,because look Ruebenblades Celia
Cruz, ipeto, santa Rosa, johnnyPacheco, eddie Pauro.
He performed.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
The Fine War.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Stars Eddie Montabo.
Eddie Montabo had a little band, ray Vieira, ray Sepulveda,
who's who?
You know any really?
Cologne, there you go.
You know it's like there's justso many.
I mean all of the great artistsin Southam music, larry Harlow,
oh.
Larry Harlow you know there'sso many, you know and you know
(17:49):
I'm thankful that you know hegot to do what he loved and left
his this legacy.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And sadly we lost George this year.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
My parents moved back from Puerto Rico in 2015.
He took them in.
He lived in Long Island andthey had medical issues.
He took them in and he was thecaretaker.
He did everything for them.
It got to the point where healmost gave up the music because
he was so involved with myparents and the music didn't
(18:24):
faze him because he wanted tohelp my parents.
So then my father passed awayin 2020 during the COVID
epidemic.
He had some other issues and hepassed, and then it was just
him and my mom in his house.
So then my mother she hadAlzheimer's and it was fully
(18:50):
blown.
It was really, really, reallybad.
So when she passed in Januaryof this year, he was heartbroken
I mean, we all were, of course,but because he was taking care
of her, that was like his mother, his baby, you know, his
everything.
So she passed in January.
(19:10):
Two and a half months later, mybrother passed and that was a
shock.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But that's what happened.
Yeah Well, he put his fulleffort into taking care of your
parents and again, that's ablessing in itself.
You have those years with yourparents and I'm sure it wasn't
easy for him.
It wasn't easy for anybody?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
No, it wasn't, especially when the person has
Alzheimer's.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah.
It was bad, but the fact that hewas there says you know your
family, you know the fact thatyou guys were there and then
doing those things.
It's just you know.
That's the beauty of it.
You know, unfortunately, lifeis life, but that's the beauty
of it.
Your parents are.
Look, my mom came to visit meat work today.
(19:59):
She wasn't going out because ofthe pandemic for a long time
but today, you know, she I gotI'm not going to do a suffetix
guy and he's like I wassurprised and I look at him as
her.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
That's great.
That's great.
That's what it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Again, you know, condolences to your family.
Thank you, thank you.
You know.
I remember seeing photos of hisfuneral online, the Facebook.
And again, nothing bad to sayabout your brother from anybody.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I mean anybody, I still you know, during his wake,
you know like there was so manypeople there, so many musicians
showed up, but when you seeRuben Blades and Willie Cologne
come to your brother's wake,that's like speaking volumes.
You know, especially with RubenBlades take the time you know
(20:51):
from his extremely busy schedule, you know, and he was so humble
and he says some great, greatwords about my brother and you
know I'll never forget that.
And then you know it was nicebecause during the week they did
like a little jam thing for mybrother, you know, bobby Allende
and a couple other musiciansand stuff, and it was really
(21:12):
really nice.
You know, yes, george, georgeZagalo, of course he was there
as well doing, you know, doingthe little memory jam thing that
they did, you know, and I gotto and I got to actually play
some novels.
You know, and you know, honorand memory of my brother.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, bro, I remember sitting in between because I
wanted to be a team mother.
You know, like I said, failedat that.
But I remember, during therehearsal that Boyz Harbor, you
know, I would sit between yourbrother and Harry and I would
watch your brother play.
You know, and again knew thatclose to somebody that great,
you know, as a musician, youknow those things like that, you
(21:51):
just like, you know.
I think I appreciate it morenow, you know, because of course
I didn't know him like that,you know, right away.
But now, thinking like thisgreat, great times man, you know
, and music is music, the worldis blessed with his, with his
music and his recordings.
You know those, those iconicman, those are never, you know,
(22:13):
they're never going to go away.
You know those memories, youknow.
Yeah, it was nice.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
It was nice, I mean like my parents had the house
and Queens were moving growingup.
Our bass was hooked up like alike a rehearsal studio, I mean
we had every major instrumentand it was like a live band
every day, every day, you know.
So that was, it was fun.
We had fun growing up,especially with music.
(22:41):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
That's awesome.
Man.
What's your favorite you knowfavorite album that he recorded
that you play once a while, oryou know?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
to be honest, I mean, you know, for me they were all
great, you know.
But I guess I guess SpanishHarlem you know because because
I guess you know he was withthem for so long, you know and
then Ray Vieira's album is likeincredible.
So it's like between SpanishHarlem and Ray Vieira like I
listen to those a lot,especially when I'm working out,
(23:11):
and I got a list of aggressivesalsa and Ray Vieira and Spanish
Harlem aggressive.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
This is the Mambo in the City Salsa podcast.
We're here with referee RickyGonzalez.
We're going to get to why he'sa referee in a few minutes, but
let you guys know that we havesome events Now we, but there
are events happening in New YorkCity.
How about this protective song?
This is the Gran Combo dePuerto Rico, Red Ruis and with
Ferro Algas.
This is going to be Saturday,February 10th, 2024.
(23:44):
Ready to go into 2024.
And a lot of people are gettingthis for Valentine's Day bro.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Look at that Richie Bastar, that bongo cello.
You know it's funny becauseRichie Bastar and I were the
same age and when he, when heused to live in the Bronx, he
and I, we, we.
There he is, he's such a greatguy, yeah yeah, we used to go
together to get Jerry curls whenthat was a big thing back in
(24:14):
the day, me and Richie used togo together to get Jerry curls.
He's like he's going to kill menow when he hears this.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Times, man, those are good times.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I got to.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I got to see a photo of you and I'm rich with the
Jerry curls.
I'm assuming this is whenRichie was like with classical
right those years.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, I mean, I was like maybe 18 years old, 17, 18,
you know, and you know we'regetting Jerry curls, you know
and it was drifting.
You know the whole thing, youknow.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
What was the name of that movie?
Was it coming?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
to America.
Coming to America, you mean upagainst the wall, and so stamed
you know.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I love you.
Better than better than Uh-ohbrother.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Here we go, Richie.
What's up, Richie?
I gave it up man.
I told him we used to get JerryCurls.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Absolute gold man.
You got to find a photo ofRichie and you in the yard and
Jerry Curls.
I love you bro, we love you bro.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You're a come-up.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
All right, so your brother's playing Southside
around the world, and how do youget into refereeing?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, my father.
He was, besides being a hugeSouthside fanatic, he was the
same way we boxed him.
He loved boxing.
He was.
That was like his number onesport, you know, yeah, so
whenever there was a big fighton TV Like Felix, Felix he was.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I don't know if he looked before that.
Before that, when there was nocable.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
There was no cable.
You know there was no cable.
So whenever there was a bigfight, they would show it on ABC
Sports or NBC.
You know it was free, right.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
So it blew to the TV, I was the only one that would
actually sit there with him andwatch it.
And then I was like I wasobsessed, I loved it so I never
missed a fight.
And then when I turned 15, thenI started going to the boxing
gym, you know.
So I started to have that loveat such an early age.
(26:46):
And then he knew it.
So when he purchased a home inQueens he hooked up the garage
like a little boxing gym, hebought us a heavy bag and then
that's kind of like pretty muchwhere that love came from.
Joey's thing was the music andthen my thing was just boxing.
(27:07):
Right and the very first timethat I went to see a fight live
was at Madison Square Garden.
Got to see Durant fight SugarRay Leonard, but close circuit.
It was like on the screen butthere were also some life fights
as well.
And then I was like man, thisis incredible, you know, to see
it up so close.
So then one day a cousin ofours he was around maybe 13
(27:35):
years old, 14 years old, hewanted to get into boxing
Started going to the gym.
I started going with him and oneday he competed as an amateur.
That particular day they neededan extra judge because it was
like an in-house type oftournament.
It wasn't sanctioned by USABoxing, so it was in-house, so
(27:59):
they needed an extra judge.
And I was like, if they say youwant to do it, I say yeah, sure
.
I said I'm watching the boxing,I guess I can probably judge,
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
So once I did it, I was like I was it.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Like I had that bug, like I just wanted to officiate.
So then I joined USA Boxing inMetro and I became an official
and that was like back in 1998or 1999.
And then I did the amateurs forabout seven years and when I
retired from the oh yeah, benjiand Earl Brown that's one of my
(28:34):
mentors right there, benji.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Benji, established, established, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And.
But yeah, when I retired fromthe NYPD that same year I went
to the commission's officebecause I already had seven
years out of my boat as anamateur.
So I went to the commissionersoffice and then I gave him my
resume and it was just strictlyI was lucky because he so
happened to be there as I waswalking in and I handed him my
(29:03):
resume.
He's looking at it all.
He's like this whole thing.
He goes you're the kind of guythat we want in our commission
Because you're a retired cop.
So that kind of helped being aretired cop.
That kind of gave it a littlepush or whatever I don't know.
But yeah, then that's hishistory, thank God.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
So how many fights have you reff over at that time,
when you started to know whatwould you say?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I think about 450.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
About 450 fights.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, 50 professional fights Wow.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I don't think I want to put the total number on.
So 450 fights, that's prettyintense, man.
How do you maintain staying inshape?
Because you got to workbackwards, you got to work
forward, you got to run aroundthe ring.
So how do you maintain yourbalance?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I tell you and that's why I kind of mentioned with
the music, like I need to listento a progressive salsa.
Because of my occupation as aboxer referee, I have to
maintain a certain physical peak.
So I work out every day, I workout six days a week and I run
(30:20):
six days a week, I do weightsand I do not a lot of weights,
but I do boxing routines twice aweek and then I do my running
six days a week.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
So yeah, that's pretty much what I do.
That's awesome, man and I gotup to 4.45.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I get up before 4.45 in the morning just to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Every day, every day, yeah, wow, yeah, I wonder.
Man, you're in great shape.
Now you're on TV onpay-per-views.
If you guys have been seenbreaking on pay-per-views, well,
let's go over a couple of.
You know, this is the beginning, right?
Michael Buffer, behind you.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
That's the yeah Lomachenko.
That was in the garden.
That was actually a great fight.
He got dropped for the firsttime in that fight, lomachenko.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
That's crazy, man.
Look at the stair, bro.
You've seen a lot of thesestair downs.
Do you think you can tell who'sgoing to make it and who's not
going to make it, based on thestair down?
Because a lot of guys start offwith fighting with that face
like I'm going to go through youand it doesn't really happen
like that.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
You know what?
To be honest, I'm not eventhinking about that, I'm just
giving the instructions and justyou know what's going through
my head.
I'm just like, ok guys, youknow, just give me a clean fight
.
You know, yeah.
But yeah, you know, that's kindof like goes out the window
once that ball rings, you know?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Wow, you didn't see the body posture.
You know it's like it's such ahead game there.
Talking about somebody who'sbeen in, I think I boxed maybe
four or five times.
I was in, you know, but I haveto say the scariest shit as a
boxer for me was the instruction.
I was nervous in this becauseyou face the face of the guy
Right before that ball rings,bro.
(32:04):
That's when I used to thinkwhat the fuck are you doing?
Yeah, you know what you want inthe corner and you're like
ready, you ready, you ready,yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You know it was funny .
I'll tell you a funny story.
When I made my pro debut, Imade my pro debut in
Poughkeepsie, so you know,everything was fine.
I went there, you know I wasexcited.
I'm like, oh my God, I'm goingto actually do this, you know.
So I went into the dressingrooms, I gave the fighters
instructions, so now the fighttakes place.
(32:37):
I get in the ring, but Inoticed that as I'm climbing up
those stairs to go through theropes, my legs were a little
shaky.
So then I get into the set ofthe ring, the boxes come close,
right, so I can give them theinstructions.
My legs were like spaghetti,they were shaking like crazy.
Thank God the camera didn't,you know, angle down so that way
(33:01):
you can see my legs, because Iwas like I was present, you know
.
Yeah, so oh, that was theCanelo fight.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Wow bro, let me ask you this how, how much of a thud
for those who will never be infront of Canelo operas, like me
and a lot of people, how much ofa thud is a Canelo punch?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Okay, that's a great question, because I've been
asked that a few times, like whowas the fighter that you would
say was the hardest puncher inthe ring?
Or Listen, I've done everysingle weight category, every
single weight category.
Canelo's punches, they sounddifferent.
They sound different from everysingle fighter that I've been
(33:47):
in that ring with.
They sound different and, and,um, by far, canelo Hardest.
The hardest punch I've everheard In my career was Canelo.
It was, you know, like itsounds like, uh, like a truck,
you know I would.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
What is?
What does his opponent soundlike when Canelo hits them?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
You can actually hit him, you know, like knocking the
breath out of it.
You know, kind of like whatTyson used to say.
It's the same way with withCanelo, you know, and uh, you
know I feel bad for the guy, youknow.
When I think three times inthat fight.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Wow.
So at what point do you decide,you know, even though, again,
boxers don't want to give up.
You know this, I don't have totell you.
But at one point do you, youknow, mentally, see what?
What do you see that will Forthe, for the person watching
says he can still go.
What do you see in front of the?
(34:43):
Uh, what's in front of you,like Well, you know, usually,
the body language.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
You know, there's this, this body language.
If a guy's taking a pounding,um, you know he'll start backing
up, get away from the punchesyou can see of his, his, his
face, uh, you know, um, there'sa little distorted, you know,
from from the agony of the pain,um, so there's you, there's,
(35:11):
there's you.
Just look at the body language.
You know, and the body languagejust doesn't lie, you know, and
a lot of times, uh, these guysthey're thankful because you're
doing the right thing bystopping the fight.
You know, and of course I'veI've had situations where the
guy wanted the fight stopped,but then he would kind of like
play it off and like hey whatyou know what are you doing, but
you know that's part.
(35:33):
That's part of the game, thoughyou know.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, you know.
I mean it's probably thepromoter that's probably gonna
complain more than more than theboxer at the end of the night,
right, I mean some promotersyeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, that's like something youshow.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know, you know what I mean.
I've had that done.
I've had that like, justexactly like you said, but At
the end of the night,commissioner, don't want to
tells me you did a great job.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
That's all that matters, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, I don't care what the promoter says, but but
you're right.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
And, as a former police officer, the intimidation
is out the window because, youknow right, I'm up at 445, bro.
All right, here's a questionthere you go.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Hey, that would be a great fight.
That would be a great fight.
You know, I can't give aprediction, because it might
take place in new york, I mightget the fight.
So I can't, I can't make aprediction, but that would be a
great fight.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Awesome bro, I'm a, I'm a big.
Have you done heavyweight likelike?
You haven't done like yeah no,I never.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I never did Tyson fury, but I know I've done a lot
of heavyweights and, um, andlike I said, I mean even with
the heavyweights that I've done,kind of those punches.
They seem harder and louder.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
That's crazy, man.
Do you do happen to have any ofthese like hung up at home or
you know, I have.
A few.
The guy in the front there onthe bottom, on the bottom right
hand, that's why I want to begrowing day.
I'm sure there's a lot.
Matter of fact, just give thepeople Just a glimpse of what
(37:09):
happens when you're on ashowtime pay-per-view which is
no longer exists.
Right, showtime is done.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, you're right now.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
It's the zone you know the zone pretty much over
yeah but when you were, when youwould, let's say, you do one of
these big fights with canelowhen you got to the arena,
what's the atmosphere?
Like you know when you'rewalking in, you know production.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Well, especially, you know, being in the garden, just
the garden itself.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
It's the magnitude of the event.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Um, you, you can, you can feel it.
I mean, you can just feel likethere's just an atmosphere
that's different from any othervenue and uh, and then, of
course, being in new york, youhave a lot of, uh, latinos, a
lot of mexicans, so they wereall out in force for for canelo.
Um, and then you can, you can,you can feel it, you know, you
(37:59):
can just feel that whole vibeand the atmosphere, um, so you
know, I'll get, I'll get to thevenue and, um, you know, I just
kind of like block everythingout.
Come to the dressing room hey,how you doing, you know, and I
kind of like, I kind of like tobe by myself, you know, in those
situations just to get mythoughts together, um and uh,
you know, and then when it'stime, when the box is in the box
(38:20):
to get to the dressing room, Ilike to go there immediately
because you know they want toprepare, you know, so I'm going
to give them the instructionsand then I can get out and then
just give them their time to,you know, to prepare or to relax
and get ready for the fight youknow, are there?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
are there any particular instructions?
You know?
Is there any different from theamateur fighters?
I mean, I'm aside from being inthe garden.
It's kind of the same routinethough, right, yeah, yeah, you
know.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I don't, you know, there's some referees that go
into a whole thing of theinstruction.
I just, I just want to go overthe basics.
And go over the basics, make itshort, sweet, um, fight clean,
fight hard, and you know, and uh, uh, yeah, that was, that was a
, that was a great fight.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So how hard does Amanda Serrano hit bro she's she
punches hard.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
She punches hard.
You know what her thing is?
She's, she has Speed, she'svery, very fast, she's very fast
and very durable, like she'slike, like a machine, like
non-stop punching.
Yeah, she's not stop punching,like the energizer bunny rabbit.
You know no non-stop punching.
You know this.
It was, uh, a lot of action.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
What a great photo, bro.
I mean, honestly, man like thisis, this is iconic stuff.
You know, you and your brothervery talented people, man.
I mean thank you, man, Iappreciate that.
You know you have check thisout.
Look at this.
Crossfit yeah what do you fighthere?
Crossford Um.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I forgot the guy's name.
He has a long name.
I think he's Greek, so he hasone of those like long names.
Uh, but um, but yeah, I was.
Uh, that was a good fight too,I was at the garden right yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Do you enjoy?
Do you only do the new yorkstate ones, or do you you get to
travel and do other?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Oh no, I mean I'm, I'm licensed in new york, I'm
licensed in jersey road island,um, and then um, I belong to um.
No, I'm also licensed in the,the mohegan son, um, and then I
belong to the ibf Organization.
So you know, if there's like achampionship fight out of the
country, you know they'll,they'll send me out of the
country.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, wow man, what a time bro.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I mean it was nice because you know, I got to um,
my, my boxing idols were votedthe ring, so I did, I did a
fight for the ibf in Panama.
So when I went to Panama, theguys that picked me up you know
we're talking, or whatever sothey asked me you know, have I
ever been to Panama?
(40:58):
I was like no, this is my firsttime, you know.
I said, um, you know my, myidols from here.
So they were like well, who'syour idol?
They know who it was, you know.
But they just wanted to ask,right.
So I said I said I said RobertoDurán.
And they're like okay, tomorrowwe're gonna go to his
restaurant and we're gonna gomeet him.
So I'm saying to myself, ohyeah, right, okay, you know.
I said okay, thank you.
(41:18):
Next day they picked me up Goto the restaurant.
There was one person standingoutside the restaurant.
That person was a brotherDurant.
Come on and I got out the carand approached him.
He hugged me and he kissed meon my cheek.
I mean, I meant to say thatRoberto Durant kissed him on the
(41:38):
cheek.
I was like at Christmas.
I'm sorry, I was like a kid atChristmas.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
You know, At that moment, you know you're thinking
about your dad and you'resaying Again thanks to him.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
You know, like of course you know, and in fact
From there I sent them a thephoto.
I sent him a photo and you knowyeah.
I'm being Roberto Durant.
You know what do you say he was?
He was so, so happy, so proud.
You know, I got to eat withDurant and we, we sat together
for like two hours.
I mean, like it was.
(42:14):
It was just amazing.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
That's awesome, bro.
Hold on, I'm gonna share.
Uh, I'm gonna show you anaction.
This is the canelo fight, allright?
So what are you looking forhere, bro?
What are you?
Well, you know, I'm given.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I'm giving the guy a chance.
I'm giving him a chance.
You know, I'm hoping that heshows me something.
You know, if you've thrownpunches, you know, um, but you
know I see that he's, he's, it'sthe one sided.
So I'm trying to, you know,give Canelo a little space, not
not into fear, you know, and andum, and then, of course, at the
same time, just Uh, observe, IWas that body shot.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yeah, so this count right here is coming from.
For people who don't know whenis this count coming from, what
is this start?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You pick it up from from the, the knockdown ref.
There's a knockdown ref, soyour your.
Your first job is to send thethe fighter, to neutral corner.
The fighter that scored theknockdown.
You send him to a mutual cornerand then you pick up the count
from the knockdown ref.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Gotcha.
So there's a lot of peopledon't know.
That's right, you know.
So right there you have five.
So somebody who doesn't knowthat is thinking that you know
you're already counting fast,but you actually.
You have somebody on your sidethere.
Okay, let's see.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Right, right, yeah, you know, and then, of course,
you get them mandatory account.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Okay.
So when you check the guys, uh,I've always wondered this what
does it mean when you check theguy's hands, like that?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Well, because sometimes you know there's
particles on the canvas, so youdon't want those particles to go
on as a glove.
And then if he punches hisopponent it can scratch him with
those particles, you know.
So that's pretty much why youwipe.
You know the gloves.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Gotcha.
Okay, hold on.
So Are you giving instructionsto him at this point?
Oh listen, you know, show mesomething, or are you?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
I think I said that after the second, the second
knockdown, he got knocked downthree times.
So I think after the second oneI said I said that to him.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
So you got to show me something.
So now you now the radar's onhim right, Because now he has to
show you something- yeah, butyeah, his arms and and side was
was bruised.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
It was right.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Wow, what'd you learn this distance from?
Because a lot of box, a lot ofrefs stay away, you know, or get
a little closer, but you, youhave a nice, a nice, you know
distance here to see everything.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate that.
You know, like I said, Ilearned a lot from from Ben.
I learned a lot from a lot ofreferees.
You know Ben was one of mymentors, adicolio, and you know
and uh of course knows lane.
I used to love those lane Comeon.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
No, I don't know.
Okay, that's the bell.
Right there, bro.
Now then, between the bell,what do you do?
What happens if you have tolike you don't use restroom?
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Let's just say See, I mean, right before I went to
the ring, I make sure I, youknow I use the bathroom and you
know, and I'm talking aboutnumber one.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
That number two, yeah , I mean as a ref.
I mean I would think when youknow this is the time to go
right, if you're gonna doanything, it's the time right
here you know now, you know myfirst referee, a referee referee
my fight.
He's sitting in the crowd here.
I'm gonna show you who he isand then you tell me Now what
(45:38):
happens if cano doesn't stepback.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
When you say you know , etch a patra when the boxer
scores a knockdown, if thatboxer doesn't go to a neutral
corner, you're actually he'sactually helping out his
opponent, because the referee'snot gonna pick up the count
until he goes to a neutralcorner and stays there right.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Wow, maybe people don't know that, bro.
I mean, look this guy's trying,bro, but that's canelo abba.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, it was, he was just, it was, you know, way out
of his league, unfortunately,you know.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, but again, these are, these are the wars,
bro.
This is what you train for, iswhat you Mildred.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, yeah, who's lame.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Okay, wait a minute.
Why did you come to that?
Let me ask you that.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Oh, the first, your furthest neutral corner.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
I see okay, so he goes down Like no, no, that way.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, because this, this corner was a little close
into the boxer, so you sent him.
You sent him to the furthestneutral corner, meaning you know
from where the book, where thatfighter is over, the fighter is
down.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Right there.
I told him you got to show mesomething, but I'm supposed to.
He didn't.
He didn't.
You know that was it.
He showed me that, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
You know, I just wanted to let him know that it
was coming you know, yeah, likeI'm sorry, bro, but you know, at
least you gave him a littlechance there, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Let me see if I could just find my uh, my my, my uh,
one, the referee that did myface, did you turn pro?
No, I was, I made it to, Ithink, golden gloves or
something like that.
Okay, okay, sorry, juniorOlympics, I mean it's a junior.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Oh wow, that's, that's a great achievement,
that's great, that's a greatachievement.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
So many people say that was like gleason's
gleason's gym.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Oh yeah, gleason.
Wow, that was, that's that gym.
I used to love that gym.
Do you know his background?
Was he a correction officerhere?
We go, here we go oh yeah, thisguy here you talking about.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, with the, with the white goatee, yeah, yeah
that's, he used to be acorrection officer.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Was, did he?
Yeah, he used to be acorrection officer.
He's the top inspector in newyork for, uh, the commission.
Yeah, he's the number oneinspector and, um, wow, he's a
good guy.
He is a good guy, real good guy.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Yeah, that's my ref, bro, right there.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Oh wow, look at that.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Yeah, george, he's a big guy, you know who his cousin
is.
Who's that you?
You follow, you followwrestling.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Yeah, diesel, you know, diesel, the big big diesel
, that's, that's his cousin.
Wow, who knew.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
That's true man.
Yeah, my first fight.
I knocked the guy out.
Uh, 30 seconds into the firstround.
Nice nice, he didn't even countthem, bro, so Right that's when
.
That's when I knew that wasthat good, and I retired right
that night.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
He's telling to lala land, there you go.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
The one creed and the rocky movies came out.
You're completely pass thataway.
But buying this and trainingare two different things.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
What?
What did Mike Tyson say?
You everybody has a plan untilthey get punched in the face.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Speaking of Mike, look at my Mike Tyson funko here
, bro.
I'm ready for you, bro.
You know good times, manTerrence.
So how hard?
How hard does Terrence hit?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (49:05):
He, he is very, he's like a very determined fighter.
He's so, so determined like youcan see it in his eyes, you can
see in his movement.
He just wants to win, like hehas that hope, that the right
attitude as a fighter.
Um, and he does.
He hits hard, he hits hard andI can say, you know he's the
hardest puncher, but he does hithard.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, so can you?
Can you kind of tell more orless you know, or you can't tell
more or less?
I was gonna say you know howsoon a guy you know, based on
his record, you know if he'sable to put somebody away pretty
quick.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, you don't, you know.
I mean like to be honest, likewhat I do is like, uh, once I
know I'm doing championshipfight, I'll YouTube the guy just
to see what his style is like.
You know, if I don't knowanything about him, you know,
just to know what I'm gettinginto and and, uh, you know.
So I kind of like do myhomework, like that.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
But you know, I don't go in there like saying, okay,
he's gonna knock him out, or youknow, I just let it, let it
happen.
You know, whatever happens,happens.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yeah, bro, what a great time.
Ricky, I want to thank you somuch.
It's a night for, you know,giving us insights into your
family life, um, insight intoyour club years.
You know your bro, you know andand your experience.
You know family life growing upand your experience in the ring
.
You know these are stories thatyou know people may not know
(50:25):
about or or be able to.
You know, hear from, uh, fromsomebody who's in there with the
greats.
This is the first time I reallyhave a conversation with Ricky
as well, because we him go backand forth on tiktok right.
I don't know if you want to giveyou social media, but do you
want uh, you know folks tofollow you.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
They can follow me on Ricky Gonzalez on facebook.
Ricky Gonzalez on facebook andum tiktok is uh boxing ref,
boxing ref on tiktok Right,that's awesome man.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
And so I was going back and forth.
I put a post up of of yourbrother.
The last time I saw yourbrother performing,
unfortunately, was at, um, uh,lincoln Center when they had
spanish Harlem orchestra and hedid a bongo solo.
You know, it was him, georgeand lustu quintero, and he did a
bongo solo and I recorded itbecause I'm a fan.
And, um, fortunately, that wasthe last time, you know, uh, I
(51:19):
saw him perform, so I put thevideo up, and then I saw Ricky
come with him and then I lookedand I said, queen, he looks like
a minister town, you know.
And then I didn't know that hewas your brother and so, you
know, after that I reached outand and you know, I was in my
condolences and and then I saidwhat are you the referee like?
Like, I had a, you know, I seethese fights live and I didn't
(51:41):
know that you were the guy inthe ring, you know.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Bongo's.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
I purposely bought them upstairs.
I bring them here, bro, let'ssee them yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yeah, he's a bongo that he used for most of his his
gigs and uh recordings.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
That's awesome, bro.
So the top of the stand, sopeople can see the refrikes.
Your brother, have you seen thetop of there?
You see that, bro, top.
Yeah, bro, they tuned Wow nice.
Yeah, that's awesome, bro.
Thank you for sharing that man.
That's Classic, bro.
You know.
And again, I miss your brother,I miss seeing him perform, I
(52:28):
miss his conversations, you know, and smile, and you know the
way he was, at least with me Ican say that he was always
chivalry, you know, since dayone.
Thank you for saying that andyou, I mean, you think that's.
He's only equalito.
You know you have a son.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yes, I do.
Yeah, he's, uh, he's 16 andhe's also a musician.
He's, uh, he plays thesaxophone.
It's in a marching band,regular orchestra.
Uh, they have this Quintet nowwith, with just the, the
saxophone players.
They're gonna be performing aconcert for, uh to christmas.
So he's, he's doing this thing.
Love you too, melvin, thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
Here's my mom.
She's saying I'm the greatestfight in the world, mom.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Yes, yes, he is, he is.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Ricky would have stopped it in the second round
Very good, you raised.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
You raised a great, a great son Awesome.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
You appreciate it.
Thank you, man.
Again, guys, we want to thankRicky Gonzalez for tonight.
Well, again, this has been themambo in the city salsa podcast.
It's been a pleasure havingreferee Ricky Gonzalez on here
and something I never forget.
So you know, you're my firstguest, that's not a salcedo or
that's not a salsa artist.
You know, in my first guest ofthe referee and um the stories
(53:46):
and the moments.
Again, you know, for those ofyou, those of you who are just
joining us, you know Ricky'sbeen part of some amazing fights
.
So make sure that when you'rewatching fights on the zone and
not in the zone now, or you know, oh you go to the garden.
Would you ever do UFC?
Would you ever?
Speaker 2 (54:03):
uh, referee?
No, no, I mean years ago I wasasked if I wanted to.
Oh, yeah, I wanted to do that,but uh, I refuse.
You know just too many rules toremember.
You know I don't want to mixthem up with boxing.
And then you know I'm doing aboxing match and all of a sudden
I'm doing UFC rules during thatboxing match, and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
So I just wanted to stick with just one sport um,
something that that I know anduh, so, yeah, that's awesome.
Also, thank you, guys forcommenting and and, and the
questions and everything aboutSteven, steven Rary he's out in
Puerto Rico and rabie era forjoining and which you, which you
are telling also your family,um, let me try to miss my mom.
Thank you so much, melvin, youknow, for uh, hanging out with
(54:46):
us and hearing some stories, youknow.
All right, guys, that is it.
That's for the mumbo in thecity salsa podcast.
Again, we want to thank rickygonzalez so much and, um, we'll
see you on the next one, on themumbo in the city salsa podcast.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
I pleasure.
Please welcome to the mumbo in the city salsa podcast
referee Ricky Gonzalez.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thank you so much.
I appreciate being here.
She had me how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
How are you?
I'm pretty good man.
I mean, I have my window open,so I'm freezing here in the
Bronx because I'm trying to makesure everything's staying on
you know, I'm saying how closeto you, to Yankee Stadium.
I Want to say I'm east ofYankee Stadium.
Okay, so I'm on.
So Yankee Stadium is on 161st.
I'm on, I'm on East 149.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, but big you brought me Yankees fan.
Huh, Huge huge, huge.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm like the black sheep, the family.
I'm the only Yankee fan,everybody else I met them at
fans, so I'm the black sheep.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Nice, nice.
I mean my mom is taking to theold Yankee Stadium to go see
like they winfield and all theseguys way back when I'm saying,
yeah, she's, you know how familyis bro.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh, for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
What part of Puerto Rico did you guys grow up in?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
my.
My mother was one on Aguariaand my father's from Mocha.
We were all raised here in NewYork City.
I Was the only one born inBrooklyn, and then my other
siblings were born in Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So growing up I'm assuming that your father was
big into music.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes, well, while he lived in Puerto Rico he was a
musician as well.
He played the team ballets, andso, of course, when he came to
New York, he came to New York Ithink he was 16 at the time and
the love of music never left him, and you know.
And then, of course, it gotpassed on to my brother.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, your brother.
You know I want to say and wehad this conversation I met your
brother with the late Harry.
I don't know no team ball atall.
You know I used to grab a congaand get into the clubs and
things like that.
Like a lot of people did youknow back in the day Growing up,
what did your brother like todo?
Like, what was it like, youknow, growing up in your house
with you guys?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It was.
It was a lot of fun.
You know he was.
He was Infatuated with withMichael Jackson.
He wanted to be like MichaelJackson.
So there were five of us and wewould all bring out the pots
and pans utensils and we woulduse it as like the ballistics,
so banging on the pots and pans.
And he was always what healways wanted to be like Michael
(02:25):
Jackson, doing the dances, youknow, performing.
So it was.
There was always that kind ofenvironment.
Every night was like like aconcert.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know, drive my parents crazy when you say that
man, my uncle, who passed awayas well he passed away at 17.
He's gonna be a baseball player, but I remember he also loved
Michael Jackson and he used tohave, you know, socks on and he
used to try to do the MichaelJackson spin.
You can only imagine growing upwith what that was like because
(02:58):
, like you said, when Michaelcame out, you know everybody was
doing that she moonwalking andspinning, and you know, right,
right, and I'm talking about theJackson five, when it were, you
know, in that group together,when it was that young, you know
.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So he wanted, he wanted us to be like the Jackson
five, you know, the Gonzalesfive.
There was no moonwalk back, youknow, back in those days.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
What did you want to do besides music?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
He loved painting.
He loved drawing.
Anything you know they had todo with with with painting and
this thing was was drawingmountains and and beautiful
lakes and rivers.
He was into that, so he would.
He would get videos of Bob Ross.
I don't know if you ever heardof Bob Ross.
(03:48):
He was.
He was an artist, so he wouldget videos of Bob Ross and
that's what he would do.
If he wasn't playing music, hewas busy painting these
beautiful oceans and mountainsand rivers, you know.
So that was, that was his, histhing.
And as well as fish, he was.
He was into fish chop.
(04:09):
He was into Freshwater fish,swatwater fish.
He had iguanas he was.
He was into that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's awesome.
You guys went to the same highschool, or?
Yes, we did.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, we did Andrew Jackson high school that's in
Queens camp your heights, oh.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Nice, nice, and you both graduated.
Did he want to do something, inparticular at the high school?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He wanted to be a musician.
That was the only thing on hismind, you know, thank God, he
listened to my father and hebecame a conductor.
Take the test, for you know NewYork City Transit Authority,
and he became a conductor and hesecured his pension.
You know, even with the transit, working for the transit, like
(04:54):
for him that was secondary musicwas number one.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You get to work like you're gonna get out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
He like he was very lucky because he had to hook up
at work.
So if you needed to travel, hewas so lucky they would hook him
up and he would get to traveland then he'll come back and
bring them Like the best overnear that you can possibly get
you know, so that can continue.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's like Everybody says Eddie Montalvo, you know he
used to work for the Canadian.
I mean, I used to see Eddie.
We leave for work in themorning, you know.
But then everybody wonder howhe did it.
And you know, like I said, likeyou said, it's a little give
and take there you know it'sfunny.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know, if you mentioned Eddie Montalvo, um,
he's a.
He's such a great guy.
He's such a great great guy.
Um, I was.
I was a New York City policeofficer for 20 years and Eddie
Montalvo, he had a conga thathad um, that was especially made
for him.
Inside of the conga was it wasbulletproof.
So he gave me that conga.
(05:54):
Wow, I said is there?
You know, I still have it.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I retired in 2004, so that was around 2001, maybe and
and you and you get thankfulbecause the city's crazy man, I
mean, made it.
I'll say you, can you, you know, and change your career, you
know?
Um, but man, you know, I wasgonna be a police officer as
well.
I moved to Jersey, I took thetest and I passed it, and then
they went into hiring freeze.
(06:18):
You say holy, oh, I came backto.
I came back to the Bronx afterthat but I was in Jersey for
about a year or so.
Yeah, I mean Probably wouldn'thave passed the exercise part.
Bro Cuz, you already know yougot a run and all that shit and
you got a break of kind ofrecord.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, come on, you got a boxing background.
You know, I'm sure you know youwould have what it came back,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Imagine there's something about getting it.
I mean, when did you firstrealize or notice that your
brother was taking music?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
even more serious, um , I Would have to say he's, he's
seven years old.
He was seven years older to me,honestly, but I was around ten
years old, so he was maybe 16,17.
He was constantly leaving thehouse, going to Gates.
He recorded his.
He did his first recording atthe age of 16.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He, uh, he would listen to music 24 seven and I'm
not exaggerating man.
It was like 20, 24, 7, you knowum he was.
He was obsessed.
He was obsessed with the music,like that's all he thought
about.
You know, right, every everyother word, would you know?
I had to do with salsa music,this and that you know.
(07:34):
So he was.
He was obsessed with, with themusic yeah, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I mean, you have to be obsessed with with salsa in
order to be, because, look, look, what came down the pike for
him.
You know so many, so many Uh,concerts, meeting other
musicians, you know, and, um,and I remember, I remember your
brother and Harry Harry, forthose who don't know, harry, I
don't know, the late Harry, Idon't know, was a team ballerou
(08:01):
and you know, I rememberrehearsals, when they will go,
when they were gonna rehearsefor Ruben Blades and Willy Colón
, you know, for Venezuela.
Know that, you know.
And I remember Harry sometimespicking up your brother, meaning
him in the street to go to agig, or you know, it was just
good times, you know.
I mean, do you remember thefirst time you saw him perform
(08:23):
At a club?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
the first time I saw him perform, I would have to say
, again, it was at the cost.
So I don't know if you rememberI've heard of it about the cost
.
So, um, every single major bandwould perform there.
Yeah, that's a great photo.
Uh, wow, awesome, yeah, every,every major Band would perform
at the cost.
(08:44):
So, like, the cost was thehappening place.
So you had to be 21 years oldto get in the cost.
So I was maybe 13, 14 years oldand and you know, he was
already, you know, playing inthe cost.
So so, um, he would tell me hesaid, listen, he goes, carry my
bongos and pretend that you knowyou're the band boy, you know,
(09:06):
so I would carry his bongos andI would get in.
So that was the first time thatI saw him perform.
I think it was with uh 4077.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
A lot of people didn't know that's the okey-doke
man.
That's how you got in, you know?
Yeah, you know, you know, butuh, yeah, that was how I got in
you know it was to the pointwhere I used to set up Harry's
team ballas on stage, you know,taking the part of the Together
(09:34):
and you know, you know, you knowwhat I used to do.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I mean, I used to literally take the clavis and I
would.
I would go out in the back ofthe stage and I would pay the
clavis while the band wasplaying, you know.
So I kind of made it seem like,yeah, I was part of the band,
but you know, yeah.
They allowed me to do it andthank god it wasn't kusa while I
was playing the clave, you know, you know, you know, it
happened a couple of times mybrother turns around and gives
me that look and I'm like, ohman, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
It's tremendous, bro.
See, I took it a little furtherbecause Harry had a confidence
and even if I sucked at being amusician which I did Harry would
let me do solos and and youknow, and I'm pretty sure your
brother was right next to mewhen I was doing those solos
back in the day, thinking, youknow, I mean because because
Harry was like that, harry, eventhough he knew that I sucked,
(10:21):
he still gave opportunity.
You know, sometimes you getsomebody do get it out of their
system, so to speak, and uh,yeah, harry, harry, harry was
like that.
But I remember, you know, evenplaying with the bands that they
played.
You know, they always werechill about it, like it's cool,
like oh yeah, we just playedwith Celia Cruz, we just played
with, you know, whatever, youknow, whatever, whatever the
(10:43):
case was, you never saw them getoff the stage and and brag
about those things.
It was just meant to be there.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You know, amazing, bro, like that was you're right,
because I mean, like, honestly,that's one of the traits that I
loved about my brother he wasso humble.
Yeah, you know, that was great.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That was great you know he was Johnny Pacheco.
He was Pacheco in the years.
Let's go through some memorylane here.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
This is.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Puerto Rico.
Look at this photo.
Yeah, you have Ostar RobertoRuena Ibelito, a young Mark
Antony.
Yeah, you have your brotherthere on the far what's that
left?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, you have Titecure Alonso, you know.
Yeah, ruben Blades, you haveMontalvo de Gerirribas.
Who else you have?
You have the late Rafferizari,who we lost not too long ago.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So your brother was around.
You know I don't have to tellyou, but your brother was around
, the greats of the greats man,I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh man, yeah, you know it's.
Yeah, I had the photo.
I mean it's great to hear othermusicians speak so highly of my
brother.
You know, I mean of course he.
I'm biased because, yes, he ismy brother and I love him dearly
and he was always the way he iswith you.
He's the same way with us, likehe was so humble.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Like I was saying before, I was listening to an
interview he did with Jose Masoand I was getting a little
emotional because, you know, youremember this.
Like you just said, the guytreated everybody the same.
You know, and with musicians,once you meet a musician, it's
like you know them forever.
Look at Ray Ray, I know over 20years your brother.
(12:33):
I can say I know over 20 yearsas well.
Look at that.
But we never had a longconversation, though.
It was just like I get to thevenue, he's standing there
saying, hey, what's up, ray, youplaying on the chat?
Get on stage and just watch himdo what he does.
It's, you know, it's amazingand I'm meeting your family.
This is awesome, bro.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
All right, who's this ?
Oh, that's my cousin.
He's in Rochester, Melvin.
How you doing?
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's amazing, man All right Hilton, Hilton Bonilla,
okay.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Hey Hilton, how you doing, bro.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's awesome, man.
And so, while your brother wasplaying, you were in the police
and you were running the city.
What was that like theexperience of being a New York
City police officer?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
It was always drama, it was always a show every night
.
I used to work the midnight andI worked in Brooklyn, crown
Heights breakfast divison.
So you know, I yeah it wastough.
It was tough.
But I tell you one thing Icouldn't wait to complete my 20
years because I wanted to getout so bad, so bad, and I felt
(13:42):
like a prisoner because I usedto cross up the calendar Every
day that I went by.
I would cross it off, you know,but they closed it to retiring.
So, finally retired in 2004.
And the 20 years, and you know,thank God, I'm still collecting
my pension.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You're doing that in a whole lot more, bro.
I mean I get to your stories, Imean, but I mean that's a crazy
time.
I mean 20 years in Brooklyn atmidnight.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, brooklyn midnight, and then, of course,
9-11,.
You know, yeah, had thatexperience too.
So you know, there was anotherreason why I couldn't wait to
retire, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Sure, so you would.
You're a police officer duringthose years and you also go into
the clubs.
Do you remember what clubs youhung out at more or less?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well, my brother was performing.
You know, like, to be honest, Iwasn't a party animal and,
believe it or not, he neitherwas my brother, even though he
went to clubs because of hisprofession.
He wasn't a party animal, hewent there because of business.
So I was the same way, like Inever liked to hang out, so, but
I would go to see him perform.
(14:56):
So, yeah, the Copa, thePalladium, the Corso, the Club,
broadway, you know, yeah, themain ones, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
There's so many others.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I can't think of them with hand, you know.
And then, of course, theconcerts that he did in Madison
Square Garden.
You know, I was right therewith him, I was a shadow.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
This is a photo that I took of your brother at
Lincoln Center.
Oh, he was dancing, you know.
Oh, that is nice.
He went by the name in LaCampana Que Baila right.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, that's right, and then he gave him that name,
you know, and that was a greatinterview as well with Ray
Vieira.
You know, ray Vieira was agreat guy.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, you guys grew up almost all together.
Man, I mean yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh, that was in Venezuela when they went to.
They actually went toAzigheon's house, Wow.
He was the manager of theChicago White Stocks at the time
and you know, and my brotherlearned a lot about him and vice
versa you know, to find outthat Azigheon's favorite war
player was Roberto Clemente.
(16:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Not by that, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
That's a great photo.
Yeah, it was amazing.
Like I think about it all thetime.
You know, again, like I wasjust telling someone the other
day I said, how many people getto actually go to the White
House and actually shake handswith the president?
You know, yeah, you know, lookat that Clinton at the time.
You know, yeah, and he wasshaking hands with the president
, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I'm telling you, bro, you know, and that's all
because of that's, I believethat's when he was already part
of Spanish Harlem Orchestra, theRuebenblades.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, yeah, I think at that particular time he was
performing with the Ruebenblades.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
What a moment, bro.
So this is we've met anAmerican president.
Now do you remember the bandsthat you're, or do you want to
tell the public the bands thatyour brother, you remember him
playing with?
Or?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know it's a who's who,because look Ruebenblades Celia
Cruz, ipeto, santa Rosa, johnnyPacheco, eddie Pauro.
He performed.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
The Fine War.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Stars Eddie Montabo.
Eddie Montabo had a little band, ray Vieira, ray Sepulveda,
who's who?
You know any really?
Cologne, there you go.
You know it's like there's justso many.
I mean all of the great artistsin Southam music, larry Harlow,
oh.
Larry Harlow you know there'sso many, you know and you know
(17:49):
I'm thankful that you know hegot to do what he loved and left
his this legacy.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And sadly we lost George this year.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
My parents moved back from Puerto Rico in 2015.
He took them in.
He lived in Long Island andthey had medical issues.
He took them in and he was thecaretaker.
He did everything for them.
It got to the point where healmost gave up the music because
he was so involved with myparents and the music didn't
(18:24):
faze him because he wanted tohelp my parents.
So then my father passed awayin 2020 during the COVID
epidemic.
He had some other issues and hepassed, and then it was just
him and my mom in his house.
So then my mother she hadAlzheimer's and it was fully
(18:50):
blown.
It was really, really, reallybad.
So when she passed in Januaryof this year, he was heartbroken
I mean, we all were, of course,but because he was taking care
of her, that was like his mother, his baby, you know, his
everything.
So she passed in January.
(19:10):
Two and a half months later, mybrother passed and that was a
shock.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But that's what happened.
Yeah Well, he put his fulleffort into taking care of your
parents and again, that's ablessing in itself.
You have those years with yourparents and I'm sure it wasn't
easy for him.
It wasn't easy for anybody?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
No, it wasn't, especially when the person has
Alzheimer's.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah.
It was bad, but the fact that hewas there says you know your
family, you know the fact thatyou guys were there and then
doing those things.
It's just you know.
That's the beauty of it.
You know, unfortunately, lifeis life, but that's the beauty
of it.
Your parents are.
Look, my mom came to visit meat work today.
(19:59):
She wasn't going out because ofthe pandemic for a long time
but today, you know, she I gotI'm not going to do a suffetix
guy and he's like I wassurprised and I look at him as
her.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
That's great.
That's great.
That's what it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Again, you know, condolences to your family.
Thank you, thank you.
You know.
I remember seeing photos of hisfuneral online, the Facebook.
And again, nothing bad to sayabout your brother from anybody.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I mean anybody, I still you know, during his wake,
you know like there was so manypeople there, so many musicians
showed up, but when you seeRuben Blades and Willie Cologne
come to your brother's wake,that's like speaking volumes.
You know, especially with RubenBlades take the time you know
(20:51):
from his extremely busy schedule, you know, and he was so humble
and he says some great, greatwords about my brother and you
know I'll never forget that.
And then you know it was nicebecause during the week they did
like a little jam thing for mybrother, you know, bobby Allende
and a couple other musiciansand stuff, and it was really
(21:12):
really nice.
You know, yes, george, georgeZagalo, of course he was there
as well doing, you know, doingthe little memory jam thing that
they did, you know, and I gotto and I got to actually play
some novels.
You know, and you know, honorand memory of my brother.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, bro, I remember sitting in between because I
wanted to be a team mother.
You know, like I said, failedat that.
But I remember, during therehearsal that Boyz Harbor, you
know, I would sit between yourbrother and Harry and I would
watch your brother play.
You know, and again knew thatclose to somebody that great,
you know, as a musician, youknow those things like that, you
(21:51):
just like, you know.
I think I appreciate it morenow, you know, because of course
I didn't know him like that,you know, right away.
But now, thinking like thisgreat, great times man, you know
, and music is music, the worldis blessed with his, with his
music and his recordings.
You know those, those iconicman, those are never, you know,
(22:13):
they're never going to go away.
You know those memories, youknow.
Yeah, it was nice.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
It was nice, I mean like my parents had the house
and Queens were moving growingup.
Our bass was hooked up like alike a rehearsal studio, I mean
we had every major instrumentand it was like a live band
every day, every day, you know.
So that was, it was fun.
We had fun growing up,especially with music.
(22:41):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
That's awesome.
Man.
What's your favorite you knowfavorite album that he recorded
that you play once a while, oryou know?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
to be honest, I mean, you know, for me they were all
great, you know.
But I guess I guess SpanishHarlem you know because because
I guess you know he was withthem for so long, you know and
then Ray Vieira's album is likeincredible.
So it's like between SpanishHarlem and Ray Vieira like I
listen to those a lot,especially when I'm working out,
(23:11):
and I got a list of aggressivesalsa and Ray Vieira and Spanish
Harlem aggressive.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
This is the Mambo in the City Salsa podcast.
We're here with referee RickyGonzalez.
We're going to get to why he'sa referee in a few minutes, but
let you guys know that we havesome events Now we, but there
are events happening in New YorkCity.
How about this protective song?
This is the Gran Combo dePuerto Rico, Red Ruis and with
Ferro Algas.
This is going to be Saturday,February 10th, 2024.
(23:44):
Ready to go into 2024.
And a lot of people are gettingthis for Valentine's Day bro.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Look at that Richie Bastar, that bongo cello.
You know it's funny becauseRichie Bastar and I were the
same age and when he, when heused to live in the Bronx, he
and I, we, we.
There he is, he's such a greatguy, yeah yeah, we used to go
together to get Jerry curls whenthat was a big thing back in
(24:14):
the day, me and Richie used togo together to get Jerry curls.
He's like he's going to kill menow when he hears this.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Times, man, those are good times.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I got to.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I got to see a photo of you and I'm rich with the
Jerry curls.
I'm assuming this is whenRichie was like with classical
right those years.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, I mean, I was like maybe 18 years old, 17, 18,
you know, and you know we'regetting Jerry curls, you know
and it was drifting.
You know the whole thing, youknow.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
What was the name of that movie?
Was it coming?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
to America.
Coming to America, you mean upagainst the wall, and so stamed
you know.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I love you.
Better than better than Uh-ohbrother.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Here we go, Richie.
What's up, Richie?
I gave it up man.
I told him we used to get JerryCurls.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Absolute gold man.
You got to find a photo ofRichie and you in the yard and
Jerry Curls.
I love you bro, we love you bro.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You're a come-up.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
All right, so your brother's playing Southside
around the world, and how do youget into refereeing?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, my father.
He was, besides being a hugeSouthside fanatic, he was the
same way we boxed him.
He loved boxing.
He was.
That was like his number onesport, you know, yeah, so
whenever there was a big fighton TV Like Felix, Felix he was.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I don't know if he looked before that.
Before that, when there was nocable.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
There was no cable.
You know there was no cable.
So whenever there was a bigfight, they would show it on ABC
Sports or NBC.
You know it was free, right.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
So it blew to the TV, I was the only one that would
actually sit there with him andwatch it.
And then I was like I wasobsessed, I loved it so I never
missed a fight.
And then when I turned 15, thenI started going to the boxing
gym, you know.
So I started to have that loveat such an early age.
(26:46):
And then he knew it.
So when he purchased a home inQueens he hooked up the garage
like a little boxing gym, hebought us a heavy bag and then
that's kind of like pretty muchwhere that love came from.
Joey's thing was the music andthen my thing was just boxing.
(27:07):
Right and the very first timethat I went to see a fight live
was at Madison Square Garden.
Got to see Durant fight SugarRay Leonard, but close circuit.
It was like on the screen butthere were also some life fights
as well.
And then I was like man, thisis incredible, you know, to see
it up so close.
So then one day a cousin ofours he was around maybe 13
(27:35):
years old, 14 years old, hewanted to get into boxing
Started going to the gym.
I started going with him and oneday he competed as an amateur.
That particular day they neededan extra judge because it was
like an in-house type oftournament.
It wasn't sanctioned by USABoxing, so it was in-house, so
(27:59):
they needed an extra judge.
And I was like, if they say youwant to do it, I say yeah, sure
.
I said I'm watching the boxing,I guess I can probably judge,
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
So once I did it, I was like I was it.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Like I had that bug, like I just wanted to officiate.
So then I joined USA Boxing inMetro and I became an official
and that was like back in 1998or 1999.
And then I did the amateurs forabout seven years and when I
retired from the oh yeah, benjiand Earl Brown that's one of my
(28:34):
mentors right there, benji.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Benji, established, established, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And.
But yeah, when I retired fromthe NYPD that same year I went
to the commission's officebecause I already had seven
years out of my boat as anamateur.
So I went to the commissionersoffice and then I gave him my
resume and it was just strictlyI was lucky because he so
happened to be there as I waswalking in and I handed him my
(29:03):
resume.
He's looking at it all.
He's like this whole thing.
He goes you're the kind of guythat we want in our commission
Because you're a retired cop.
So that kind of helped being aretired cop.
That kind of gave it a littlepush or whatever I don't know.
But yeah, then that's hishistory, thank God.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
So how many fights have you reff over at that time,
when you started to know whatwould you say?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I think about 450.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
About 450 fights.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, 50 professional fights Wow.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I don't think I want to put the total number on.
So 450 fights, that's prettyintense, man.
How do you maintain staying inshape?
Because you got to workbackwards, you got to work
forward, you got to run aroundthe ring.
So how do you maintain yourbalance?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I tell you and that's why I kind of mentioned with
the music, like I need to listento a progressive salsa.
Because of my occupation as aboxer referee, I have to
maintain a certain physical peak.
So I work out every day, I workout six days a week and I run
(30:20):
six days a week, I do weightsand I do not a lot of weights,
but I do boxing routines twice aweek and then I do my running
six days a week.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
So yeah, that's pretty much what I do.
That's awesome, man and I gotup to 4.45.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I get up before 4.45 in the morning just to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Every day, every day, yeah, wow, yeah, I wonder.
Man, you're in great shape.
Now you're on TV onpay-per-views.
If you guys have been seenbreaking on pay-per-views, well,
let's go over a couple of.
You know, this is the beginning, right?
Michael Buffer, behind you.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
That's the yeah Lomachenko.
That was in the garden.
That was actually a great fight.
He got dropped for the firsttime in that fight, lomachenko.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
That's crazy, man.
Look at the stair, bro.
You've seen a lot of thesestair downs.
Do you think you can tell who'sgoing to make it and who's not
going to make it, based on thestair down?
Because a lot of guys start offwith fighting with that face
like I'm going to go through youand it doesn't really happen
like that.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
You know what?
To be honest, I'm not eventhinking about that, I'm just
giving the instructions and justyou know what's going through
my head.
I'm just like, ok guys, youknow, just give me a clean fight
.
You know, yeah.
But yeah, you know, that's kindof like goes out the window
once that ball rings, you know?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Wow, you didn't see the body posture.
You know it's like it's such ahead game there.
Talking about somebody who'sbeen in, I think I boxed maybe
four or five times.
I was in, you know, but I haveto say the scariest shit as a
boxer for me was the instruction.
I was nervous in this becauseyou face the face of the guy
Right before that ball rings,bro.
(32:04):
That's when I used to thinkwhat the fuck are you doing?
Yeah, you know what you want inthe corner and you're like
ready, you ready, you ready,yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You know it was funny .
I'll tell you a funny story.
When I made my pro debut, Imade my pro debut in
Poughkeepsie, so you know,everything was fine.
I went there, you know I wasexcited.
I'm like, oh my God, I'm goingto actually do this, you know.
So I went into the dressingrooms, I gave the fighters
instructions, so now the fighttakes place.
(32:37):
I get in the ring, but Inoticed that as I'm climbing up
those stairs to go through theropes, my legs were a little
shaky.
So then I get into the set ofthe ring, the boxes come close,
right, so I can give them theinstructions.
My legs were like spaghetti,they were shaking like crazy.
Thank God the camera didn't,you know, angle down so that way
(33:01):
you can see my legs, because Iwas like I was present, you know
.
Yeah, so oh, that was theCanelo fight.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Wow bro, let me ask you this how, how much of a thud
for those who will never be infront of Canelo operas, like me
and a lot of people, how much ofa thud is a Canelo punch?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Okay, that's a great question, because I've been
asked that a few times, like whowas the fighter that you would
say was the hardest puncher inthe ring?
Or Listen, I've done everysingle weight category, every
single weight category.
Canelo's punches, they sounddifferent.
They sound different from everysingle fighter that I've been
(33:47):
in that ring with.
They sound different and, and,um, by far, canelo Hardest.
The hardest punch I've everheard In my career was Canelo.
It was, you know, like itsounds like, uh, like a truck,
you know I would.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
What is?
What does his opponent soundlike when Canelo hits them?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
You can actually hit him, you know, like knocking the
breath out of it.
You know, kind of like whatTyson used to say.
It's the same way with withCanelo, you know, and uh, you
know I feel bad for the guy, youknow.
When I think three times inthat fight.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Wow.
So at what point do you decide,you know, even though, again,
boxers don't want to give up.
You know this, I don't have totell you.
But at one point do you, youknow, mentally, see what?
What do you see that will Forthe, for the person watching
says he can still go.
What do you see in front of the?
(34:43):
Uh, what's in front of you,like Well, you know, usually,
the body language.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
You know, there's this, this body language.
If a guy's taking a pounding,um, you know he'll start backing
up, get away from the punchesyou can see of his, his, his
face, uh, you know, um, there'sa little distorted, you know,
from from the agony of the pain,um, so there's you, there's,
(35:11):
there's you.
Just look at the body language.
You know, and the body languagejust doesn't lie, you know, and
a lot of times, uh, these guysthey're thankful because you're
doing the right thing bystopping the fight.
You know, and of course I'veI've had situations where the
guy wanted the fight stopped,but then he would kind of like
play it off and like hey whatyou know what are you doing, but
you know that's part.
(35:33):
That's part of the game, thoughyou know.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, you know.
I mean it's probably thepromoter that's probably gonna
complain more than more than theboxer at the end of the night,
right, I mean some promotersyeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, that's like something youshow.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know, you know what I mean.
I've had that done.
I've had that like, justexactly like you said, but At
the end of the night,commissioner, don't want to
tells me you did a great job.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
That's all that matters, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, I don't care what the promoter says, but but
you're right.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
And, as a former police officer, the intimidation
is out the window because, youknow right, I'm up at 445, bro.
All right, here's a questionthere you go.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Hey, that would be a great fight.
That would be a great fight.
You know, I can't give aprediction, because it might
take place in new york, I mightget the fight.
So I can't, I can't make aprediction, but that would be a
great fight.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Awesome bro, I'm a, I'm a big.
Have you done heavyweight likelike?
You haven't done like yeah no,I never.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I never did Tyson fury, but I know I've done a lot
of heavyweights and, um, andlike I said, I mean even with
the heavyweights that I've done,kind of those punches.
They seem harder and louder.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
That's crazy, man.
Do you do happen to have any ofthese like hung up at home or
you know, I have.
A few.
The guy in the front there onthe bottom, on the bottom right
hand, that's why I want to begrowing day.
I'm sure there's a lot.
Matter of fact, just give thepeople Just a glimpse of what
(37:09):
happens when you're on ashowtime pay-per-view which is
no longer exists.
Right, showtime is done.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, you're right now.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
It's the zone you know the zone pretty much over
yeah but when you were, when youwould, let's say, you do one of
these big fights with canelowhen you got to the arena,
what's the atmosphere?
Like you know when you'rewalking in, you know production.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Well, especially, you know, being in the garden, just
the garden itself.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
It's the magnitude of the event.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Um, you, you can, you can feel it.
I mean, you can just feel likethere's just an atmosphere
that's different from any othervenue and uh, and then, of
course, being in new york, youhave a lot of, uh, latinos, a
lot of mexicans, so they wereall out in force for for canelo.
Um, and then you can, you can,you can feel it, you know, you
(37:59):
can just feel that whole vibeand the atmosphere, um, so you
know, I'll get, I'll get to thevenue and, um, you know, I just
kind of like block everythingout.
Come to the dressing room hey,how you doing, you know, and I
kind of like, I kind of like tobe by myself, you know, in those
situations just to get mythoughts together, um and uh,
you know, and then when it'stime, when the box is in the box
(38:20):
to get to the dressing room, Ilike to go there immediately
because you know they want toprepare, you know, so I'm going
to give them the instructionsand then I can get out and then
just give them their time to,you know, to prepare or to relax
and get ready for the fight youknow, are there?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
are there any particular instructions?
You know?
Is there any different from theamateur fighters?
I mean, I'm aside from being inthe garden.
It's kind of the same routinethough, right, yeah, yeah, you
know.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I don't, you know, there's some referees that go
into a whole thing of theinstruction.
I just, I just want to go overthe basics.
And go over the basics, make itshort, sweet, um, fight clean,
fight hard, and you know, and uh, uh, yeah, that was, that was a
, that was a great fight.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So how hard does Amanda Serrano hit bro she's she
punches hard.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
She punches hard.
You know what her thing is?
She's, she has Speed, she'svery, very fast, she's very fast
and very durable, like she'slike, like a machine, like
non-stop punching.
Yeah, she's not stop punching,like the energizer bunny rabbit.
You know no non-stop punching.
You know this.
It was, uh, a lot of action.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
What a great photo, bro.
I mean, honestly, man like thisis, this is iconic stuff.
You know, you and your brothervery talented people, man.
I mean thank you, man, Iappreciate that.
You know you have check thisout.
Look at this.
Crossfit yeah what do you fighthere?
Crossford Um.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I forgot the guy's name.
He has a long name.
I think he's Greek, so he hasone of those like long names.
Uh, but um, but yeah, I was.
Uh, that was a good fight too,I was at the garden right yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Do you enjoy?
Do you only do the new yorkstate ones, or do you you get to
travel and do other?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Oh no, I mean I'm, I'm licensed in new york, I'm
licensed in jersey road island,um, and then um, I belong to um.
No, I'm also licensed in the,the mohegan son, um, and then I
belong to the ibf Organization.
So you know, if there's like achampionship fight out of the
country, you know they'll,they'll send me out of the
country.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, wow man, what a time bro.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I mean it was nice because you know, I got to um,
my, my boxing idols were votedthe ring, so I did, I did a
fight for the ibf in Panama.
So when I went to Panama, theguys that picked me up you know
we're talking, or whatever sothey asked me you know, have I
ever been to Panama?
(40:58):
I was like no, this is my firsttime, you know.
I said, um, you know my, myidols from here.
So they were like well, who'syour idol?
They know who it was, you know.
But they just wanted to ask,right.
So I said I said I said RobertoDurán.
And they're like okay, tomorrowwe're gonna go to his
restaurant and we're gonna gomeet him.
So I'm saying to myself, ohyeah, right, okay, you know.
I said okay, thank you.
(41:18):
Next day they picked me up Goto the restaurant.
There was one person standingoutside the restaurant.
That person was a brotherDurant.
Come on and I got out the carand approached him.
He hugged me and he kissed meon my cheek.
I mean, I meant to say thatRoberto Durant kissed him on the
(41:38):
cheek.
I was like at Christmas.
I'm sorry, I was like a kid atChristmas.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
You know, At that moment, you know you're thinking
about your dad and you'resaying Again thanks to him.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
You know, like of course you know, and in fact
From there I sent them a thephoto.
I sent him a photo and you knowyeah.
I'm being Roberto Durant.
You know what do you say he was?
He was so, so happy, so proud.
You know, I got to eat withDurant and we, we sat together
for like two hours.
I mean, like it was.
(42:14):
It was just amazing.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
That's awesome, bro.
Hold on, I'm gonna share.
Uh, I'm gonna show you anaction.
This is the canelo fight, allright?
So what are you looking forhere, bro?
What are you?
Well, you know, I'm given.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I'm giving the guy a chance.
I'm giving him a chance.
You know, I'm hoping that heshows me something.
You know, if you've thrownpunches, you know, um, but you
know I see that he's, he's, it'sthe one sided.
So I'm trying to, you know,give Canelo a little space, not
not into fear, you know, and andum, and then, of course, at the
same time, just Uh, observe, IWas that body shot.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yeah, so this count right here is coming from.
For people who don't know whenis this count coming from, what
is this start?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You pick it up from from the, the knockdown ref.
There's a knockdown ref, soyour your.
Your first job is to send thethe fighter, to neutral corner.
The fighter that scored theknockdown.
You send him to a mutual cornerand then you pick up the count
from the knockdown ref.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Gotcha.
So there's a lot of peopledon't know.
That's right, you know.
So right there you have five.
So somebody who doesn't knowthat is thinking that you know
you're already counting fast,but you actually.
You have somebody on your sidethere.
Okay, let's see.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Right, right, yeah, you know, and then, of course,
you get them mandatory account.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Okay.
So when you check the guys, uh,I've always wondered this what
does it mean when you check theguy's hands, like that?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Well, because sometimes you know there's
particles on the canvas, so youdon't want those particles to go
on as a glove.
And then if he punches hisopponent it can scratch him with
those particles, you know.
So that's pretty much why youwipe.
You know the gloves.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Gotcha.
Okay, hold on.
So Are you giving instructionsto him at this point?
Oh listen, you know, show mesomething, or are you?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
I think I said that after the second, the second
knockdown, he got knocked downthree times.
So I think after the second oneI said I said that to him.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
So you got to show me something.
So now you now the radar's onhim right, Because now he has to
show you something- yeah, butyeah, his arms and and side was
was bruised.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
It was right.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Wow, what'd you learn this distance from?
Because a lot of box, a lot ofrefs stay away, you know, or get
a little closer, but you, youhave a nice, a nice, you know
distance here to see everything.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate that.
You know, like I said, Ilearned a lot from from Ben.
I learned a lot from a lot ofreferees.
You know Ben was one of mymentors, adicolio, and you know
and uh of course knows lane.
I used to love those lane Comeon.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
No, I don't know.
Okay, that's the bell.
Right there, bro.
Now then, between the bell,what do you do?
What happens if you have tolike you don't use restroom?
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Let's just say See, I mean, right before I went to
the ring, I make sure I, youknow I use the bathroom and you
know, and I'm talking aboutnumber one.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
That number two, yeah , I mean as a ref.
I mean I would think when youknow this is the time to go
right, if you're gonna doanything, it's the time right
here you know now, you know myfirst referee, a referee referee
my fight.
He's sitting in the crowd here.
I'm gonna show you who he isand then you tell me Now what
(45:38):
happens if cano doesn't stepback.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
When you say you know , etch a patra when the boxer
scores a knockdown, if thatboxer doesn't go to a neutral
corner, you're actually he'sactually helping out his
opponent, because the referee'snot gonna pick up the count
until he goes to a neutralcorner and stays there right.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Wow, maybe people don't know that, bro.
I mean, look this guy's trying,bro, but that's canelo abba.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, it was, he was just, it was, you know, way out
of his league, unfortunately,you know.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, but again, these are, these are the wars,
bro.
This is what you train for, iswhat you Mildred.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, yeah, who's lame.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Okay, wait a minute.
Why did you come to that?
Let me ask you that.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Oh, the first, your furthest neutral corner.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
I see okay, so he goes down Like no, no, that way.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, because this, this corner was a little close
into the boxer, so you sent him.
You sent him to the furthestneutral corner, meaning you know
from where the book, where thatfighter is over, the fighter is
down.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Right there.
I told him you got to show mesomething, but I'm supposed to.
He didn't.
He didn't.
You know that was it.
He showed me that, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
You know, I just wanted to let him know that it
was coming you know, yeah, likeI'm sorry, bro, but you know, at
least you gave him a littlechance there, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Let me see if I could just find my uh, my my, my uh,
one, the referee that did myface, did you turn pro?
No, I was, I made it to, Ithink, golden gloves or
something like that.
Okay, okay, sorry, juniorOlympics, I mean it's a junior.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Oh wow, that's, that's a great achievement,
that's great, that's a greatachievement.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
So many people say that was like gleason's
gleason's gym.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Oh yeah, gleason.
Wow, that was, that's that gym.
I used to love that gym.
Do you know his background?
Was he a correction officerhere?
We go, here we go oh yeah, thisguy here you talking about.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, with the, with the white goatee, yeah, yeah
that's, he used to be acorrection officer.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Was, did he?
Yeah, he used to be acorrection officer.
He's the top inspector in newyork for, uh, the commission.
Yeah, he's the number oneinspector and, um, wow, he's a
good guy.
He is a good guy, real good guy.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Yeah, that's my ref, bro, right there.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Oh wow, look at that.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Yeah, george, he's a big guy, you know who his cousin
is.
Who's that you?
You follow, you followwrestling.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Yeah, diesel, you know, diesel, the big big diesel
, that's, that's his cousin.
Wow, who knew.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
That's true man.
Yeah, my first fight.
I knocked the guy out.
Uh, 30 seconds into the firstround.
Nice nice, he didn't even countthem, bro, so Right that's when
.
That's when I knew that wasthat good, and I retired right
that night.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
He's telling to lala land, there you go.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
The one creed and the rocky movies came out.
You're completely pass thataway.
But buying this and trainingare two different things.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
What?
What did Mike Tyson say?
You everybody has a plan untilthey get punched in the face.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Speaking of Mike, look at my Mike Tyson funko here
, bro.
I'm ready for you, bro.
You know good times, manTerrence.
So how hard?
How hard does Terrence hit?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (49:05):
He, he is very, he's like a very determined fighter.
He's so, so determined like youcan see it in his eyes, you can
see in his movement.
He just wants to win, like hehas that hope, that the right
attitude as a fighter.
Um, and he does.
He hits hard, he hits hard andI can say, you know he's the
hardest puncher, but he does hithard.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, so can you?
Can you kind of tell more orless you know, or you can't tell
more or less?
I was gonna say you know howsoon a guy you know, based on
his record, you know if he'sable to put somebody away pretty
quick.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, you don't, you know.
I mean like to be honest, likewhat I do is like, uh, once I
know I'm doing championshipfight, I'll YouTube the guy just
to see what his style is like.
You know, if I don't knowanything about him, you know,
just to know what I'm gettinginto and and, uh, you know.
So I kind of like do myhomework, like that.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
But you know, I don't go in there like saying, okay,
he's gonna knock him out, or youknow, I just let it, let it
happen.
You know, whatever happens,happens.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yeah, bro, what a great time.
Ricky, I want to thank you somuch.
It's a night for, you know,giving us insights into your
family life, um, insight intoyour club years.
You know your bro, you know andand your experience.
You know family life growing upand your experience in the ring
.
You know these are stories thatyou know people may not know
(50:25):
about or or be able to.
You know, hear from, uh, fromsomebody who's in there with the
greats.
This is the first time I reallyhave a conversation with Ricky
as well, because we him go backand forth on tiktok right.
I don't know if you want to giveyou social media, but do you
want uh, you know folks tofollow you.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
They can follow me on Ricky Gonzalez on facebook.
Ricky Gonzalez on facebook andum tiktok is uh boxing ref,
boxing ref on tiktok Right,that's awesome man.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
And so I was going back and forth.
I put a post up of of yourbrother.
The last time I saw yourbrother performing,
unfortunately, was at, um, uh,lincoln Center when they had
spanish Harlem orchestra and hedid a bongo solo.
You know, it was him, georgeand lustu quintero, and he did a
bongo solo and I recorded itbecause I'm a fan.
And, um, fortunately, that wasthe last time, you know, uh, I
(51:19):
saw him perform, so I put thevideo up, and then I saw Ricky
come with him and then I lookedand I said, queen, he looks like
a minister town, you know.
And then I didn't know that hewas your brother and so, you
know, after that I reached outand and you know, I was in my
condolences and and then I saidwhat are you the referee like?
Like, I had a, you know, I seethese fights live and I didn't
(51:41):
know that you were the guy inthe ring, you know.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Bongo's.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
I purposely bought them upstairs.
I bring them here, bro, let'ssee them yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yeah, he's a bongo that he used for most of his his
gigs and uh recordings.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
That's awesome, bro.
So the top of the stand, sopeople can see the refrikes.
Your brother, have you seen thetop of there?
You see that, bro, top.
Yeah, bro, they tuned Wow nice.
Yeah, that's awesome, bro.
Thank you for sharing that man.
That's Classic, bro.
You know.
And again, I miss your brother,I miss seeing him perform, I
(52:28):
miss his conversations, you know, and smile, and you know the
way he was, at least with me Ican say that he was always
chivalry, you know, since dayone.
Thank you for saying that andyou, I mean, you think that's.
He's only equalito.
You know you have a son.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yes, I do.
Yeah, he's, uh, he's 16 andhe's also a musician.
He's, uh, he plays thesaxophone.
It's in a marching band,regular orchestra.
Uh, they have this Quintet nowwith, with just the, the
saxophone players.
They're gonna be performing aconcert for, uh to christmas.
So he's, he's doing this thing.
Love you too, melvin, thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
Here's my mom.
She's saying I'm the greatestfight in the world, mom.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Yes, yes, he is, he is.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Ricky would have stopped it in the second round
Very good, you raised.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
You raised a great, a great son Awesome.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
You appreciate it.
Thank you, man.
Again, guys, we want to thankRicky Gonzalez for tonight.
Well, again, this has been themambo in the city salsa podcast.
It's been a pleasure havingreferee Ricky Gonzalez on here
and something I never forget.
So you know, you're my firstguest, that's not a salcedo or
that's not a salsa artist.
You know, in my first guest ofthe referee and um the stories
(53:46):
and the moments.
Again, you know, for those ofyou, those of you who are just
joining us, you know Ricky'sbeen part of some amazing fights
.
So make sure that when you'rewatching fights on the zone and
not in the zone now, or you know, oh you go to the garden.
Would you ever do UFC?
Would you ever?
Speaker 2 (54:03):
uh, referee?
No, no, I mean years ago I wasasked if I wanted to.
Oh, yeah, I wanted to do that,but uh, I refuse.
You know just too many rules toremember.
You know I don't want to mixthem up with boxing.
And then you know I'm doing aboxing match and all of a sudden
I'm doing UFC rules during thatboxing match, and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
So I just wanted to stick with just one sport um,
something that that I know anduh, so, yeah, that's awesome.
Also, thank you, guys forcommenting and and, and the
questions and everything aboutSteven, steven Rary he's out in
Puerto Rico and rabie era forjoining and which you, which you
are telling also your family,um, let me try to miss my mom.
Thank you so much, melvin, youknow, for uh, hanging out with
(54:46):
us and hearing some stories, youknow.
All right, guys, that is it.
That's for the mumbo in thecity salsa podcast.
Again, we want to thank rickygonzalez so much and, um, we'll
see you on the next one, on themumbo in the city salsa podcast.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
I pleasure.
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