Armando Muniz, the Artesia Assassin, already has been labeled a man of destiny by those who have observed his rise to fistic prominence.
Seeing Mando in action for the first time, you have to conclude that he is a Philadelphia fighter. The stubby, iron-muscled Chicano welterweight is a go-getter with the unmistakable Philadelhpia style- the homicidal, take-it-to the other guy, never let up offense that for years have marked the brave battlers fro the City of Brotherly Love as the Kamikaze pilots of boxing (witness Black Jack Fox, Gil Turner, Lenny Matthews, Charley Scott, Sugar Hart, Gypsy Joe Harris, Stanley Kitten Hayward, Joe Frazier, ad infinitum).
Of course, Mando isn't really a Philadelphia fighter – he just fights like one. Actually, he was born into poverty 24 years ago in a small, dusty town called Delicias, in the Mexican state of Chihauhua, the second oldest child in a family of six boys and two girls.
His father, Sabino, was a pro middleweight in his younger days. But by the time Mando came along, Sabino had given up the ring to search for more rewarding employment.
It was a long search, and it took the Muniz family across the border to Texas, on to California, back to Texas and then to California again. Along the way, Sabino found employment as a handy man, service station attendant, construction laborer, and migrant farm worker, before finall landing a steady, good paying job as an operating engineer.
Along the way, Mando developed the physical and mental toughness that so often typify a youngr who survives as the perennial “new kid in school”. As the big brother of a tough, close knit clan, he carried himself bravely and fought the bullies of him many neighborhoods (the Munizes rarely stayed in one place longer than a few months) on their own terms, whenever and where he had to. Excerpted from BI April 1972
MANDO MUNIZ BOXING CAREER DVD SET
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