The Thrill Isn’t Gone After 15 Years : Carlos Palomino Scored Upset to Win Welterweight Title in ’76

Fifteen years seem to have sneaked right past Carlos Palomino.

“Oh, man,” he said, covering his face and laughing. “It’s been that long already? Don’t tell me that.”

On June 22, 1976, Palomino shocked everyone but himself and his trainers by knocking out England’s John Stracey at Wembley Empire Pool in London and winning the World Boxing Council’s welterweight title.

Not many had taken Palomino, a 26-year-old, little-known challenger from Westminster, seriously. Not the British media, which brashly predicted the round in which Stracey would knock out his opponent. Not British promoter Mickey Duff, who considered the bout as nothing more than a tuneup for the champion. And not Stracey, who apparently was still basking in the glory of having won the crown from Jose Napoles six months earlier.

But he soon found out that Palomino wasn’t there simply to take his $10,000 and run.

“I was so confident going into that fight,” Palomino said recently. “I saw Stracey fight Napoles and (Hedgemon) Lewis, and I saw something in his style that I thought was perfect for my style. He was a very straight-up kind of fighter. A classic European-style fighter. He protected his head, but his body was always open. The plan was to go to the body until his hands dropped and then move up to the head.”

It worked. Palomino unleashed one combination after another to the body, and by the 10th round of the 15-round bout, Stracey was beaten. He managed to hang on until the 12th, when a left hook to the liver floored him.

Stracey got up, but Palomino sent him to the canvas again, the end coming at 1:35 of the round, when referee Sid Nathan stepped in.

Palomino said he had sensed from the beginning that the championship was his.

“I knew it was just a matter of time before I knocked him out,” Palomino said. “It was just blind confidence I could beat him. When I had a guy in front of me who was stationary, I knew I could beat them. That’s how Stracey fought. He didn’t move much.”

After the bout, Palomino retreated to his hotel and tried to call home. And tried. And tried again. He desperately wanted to share the euphoria with his family, but the line was always busy. Beating Stracey had been easier than making a phone connection.

“Every time I dialed, the line was busy,” Palomino said. “It turned out that all my friends and relatives were calling my parents. I was in my room alone with a bottle of champagne the hotel manager had sent up, congratulating me. It was frustrating. I wanted to talk to someone at home so bad. I was ready to bust.”

It’s the middle of another sunny morning in Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains between the San Fernando Valley and the Pacific, and Palomino is at home with his 6-year-old daughter Chontel, one of his three children from two marriages.

They entertain a guest in the den of a Mediterranean-style home Palomino bought in 1983. A three-piece bookshelf holds numerous trophies, and the walls are covered with plaques and awards presented to Palomino for his athletic accomplishments and participation in civic affairs. There is a large photograph of one of the legendary Joe Louis-Billy Conn fights and a picture of Muhammad Ali, both bought at auction.

One spot is reserved for one of Palomino’s prized possessions, a drawing by his 20-year-old son, Carlos Jr., as a Christmas gift last year. It depicts, in what could be an interpretation of the Luis Firpo-Jack Dempsey heavyweight fight in 1923, a boxer falling through the ropes while his opponent looks menacingly from the ring.

But the giveaway of what Palomino is about these days rests on a coffee table. It’s a script for a boxing film called “Kwela Man,” one of several acting projects Palomino said he has in the works.

He said he is also planning for co-starring roles in “Night of the Coyote,” a film about illegal aliens crossing the Mexico-United States border, and “Jo,” a movie starring Lauren Hutton as an undercover cop who hunts down the drug cartel kingpin who murdered her husband. Palomino is to be her partner.

But finding success in Hollywood hasn’t gone quite the way Palomino had envisioned when he retired from boxing in 1979. Encouraged initially by a guest appearance in TV’s “Taxi” while still world champion, Palomino decided to pursue a show business career.

He landed TV parts in “The White Shadow,” “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” and “Hill Street Blues.” He thought a star was about to be born.

It turned out to be false labor.

“When I came into the business, I was very naive,” said Palomino, 41. “I saw a lot of athletes getting work in acting. I thought that if I studied and prepared myself, the opportunities would be there. But over the years, I’ve found that there’s not a whole lot of work for Hispanic actors.

“I read that things are supposed to change, but I don’t see it. They are offering the same kind of roles to Hispanic actors they were offering in ‘79--drug addicts, drug lords, pushers. I don’t see any progress.”

In 1988, Palomino figured he had finally landed a substantial role when he got the lead in “Fist of Steel,” the story of a Vietnam veteran who loses his hands in the war, has them replaced with steel hands and is hired by the U.S. government to seek and destroy a drug ring. Not a potential masterpiece, but Lee Majors made a living playing a bionic guy, so why not?

Unfortunately for Palomino, the film never made the theaters. Palomino said the producers sued one another, and the movie was shelved. It was recently released as a video.

With no steady acting jobs, Palomino took the next-best option--commercials. He was featured in two Miller Lite spots. It was sort of pseudo-show business, and it helped pay bills, but it wasn’t exactly stardom.

“(The commercials) were beneficial monetarily,” Palomino said. “I made really good money on them. I was one of the first Hispanics selling products on American television. It helped in some ways, but it didn’t do much as far as getting me a break in Hollywood.”

The attempts to land that big, knockout role have taken their toll. He was divorced in May from his second wife, stunt woman Cris Thomas-Palomino, after an eight-year marriage. Palomino said two failed marriages were hard to handle.

“This (acting) career has really humbled me,” Palomino said. “The problems in finding work had a lot to do with my second marriage falling apart. We had some financial pressures that were difficult to live with. It was depressing. She hung in there, but it just came a time when things didn’t work out for us.”

Palomino said he has remained friends with his former wives. He also spends time with his children--Carlos Jr., 13 year-old Alina, Chontel and 10-year-old Kevin, Cris’ son from a previous marriage. Carlos Jr., will transfer in the fall from Cerritos College to College of Idaho on a basketball scholarship. He will major in architecture.

Besides spending time with the children, Palomino stays in shape--he runs daily and works out on a punching bag and an exercise machine--gives motivational speeches at schools on the importance of an education and the evils of drugs, and does color commentary on boxing cards for the FNN Score cable network.

And he is never too far from a phone. The studios could be calling.

If Palomino hasn’t become an acting star, he still is a boxing celebrity.

Born in the village of San Luis in Sonora, Mexico, Palomino was 10 when he moved to Santa Ana with his parents and 10 brothers and sisters. His father, Pablo, found a job in a flower shop and later as a construction worker.

Palomino attended public schools and eventually went to Westminster High, where he played baseball briefly before graduating in 1968. He planned to become a welder after graduating. But trainer Noe Cruz found him at the Stanton Athletic Club, where Palomino was working out, and got him into boxing.

Palomino was drafted into the Army in 1970 and, because boxers received preferential treatment, got into the sport full-bore, eventually becoming the Army welterweight champion.

After his discharge, Palomino enrolled at Orange Coast College and then went to Cal State Long Beach, where he graduated with a degree in recreation. He was the first in his family to attend college.

While still in school, he launched his pro boxing career. His first bout was on Sept. 14, 1972, at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles against Javier Martinez. He got the decision and $80 for his trouble, but the fight almost didn’t get off the ground.

“It was supposed to be a six-rounder,” Palomino said. “We got to the Olympic at seven, which was an hour before I was supposed to fight. I got on at 11. After the main event. I think there were 10 people left in the place. The referee and the judges wanted to leave, so they cut the fight to four rounds and the rounds from three minutes to two minutes. I thought, ‘Do I really want to pursue this?’ ”

He did, and four years later, he was ready to challenge for the title. After beating Stracey, Palomino defended the title against Armando Muniz in January of 1977 at the Olympic Auditorium.

Although he was guaranteed $60,000, the biggest payday of Palomino’s pro career to that point, his manager, Jackie McCoy, didn’t want any part of the veteran Muniz, a crowd favorite in Los Angeles. But Duff, the British promoter, had options on Palomino’s next two fights and sold them to former L.A. promoters Aileen Eaton and Don Chargin. They picked Muniz.

“That was probably my toughest fight,” Palomino said. “I guess he had the same kind of confidence I had when I went to London. We used to spar in the same gym, and he used to beat me up. But he forgot that I had progressed.”

Palomino beat Muniz on a technical knockout in 15 rounds. He defended his title successfully six more times before losing the belt in January of 1979 to Puerto Rico’s Wilfredo Benitez in San Juan on a split decision.

Coincidentally, Palomino had his last pro fight June 22, the same date on which he had won the title. On that date in 1979, he lost a 10-round decision to Roberto Duran in what he thought was going to be an elimination bout for a shot at Benitez’s title. But three days before the Palomino-Duran fight, Benitez signed to fight Sugar Ray Leonard instead. The news was devastating.

“I took the fight (against Duran) because I wanted to get my title back and retire,” Palomino said. “(Benitez signing to fight Leonard) took the wind out of me. I knew that was the end, and I fought (Duran) that way. I was very uninspired. I just wanted to move on with the rest of my life.

“But I have no regrets. I accomplished a lot in boxing. I’m very pleased with my career. That night in London is one I’ll never forget. That was an unbelievable feeling.”