Ernie Lopez and boxing’s simpler era

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Ernie ‘Indian Red’ Lopez fought during a different era in boxing.

‘Today he’d be a champion,’ said Bill Caplan, longtime boxing publicist who worked on many of Lopez’s fights. There now is ‘a proliferation’ of championships in various levels for boxers to win, but things were simpler when Lopez fought such standout fighters as Hedgemon Lewis and Jose Napoles.

Boxing was televised regularly on television locally and there were weekly fights at the Olympic Auditorium and monthly shows at the Forum.

-- Keith Thursby