From Boxing to Sobriety: John's Journey

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

Please spell the speaker name as John.

I did exactly what I was taught at the gym, cut the ring in half, caught up against rope, knocked him out.

I went nuts. The place went nuts, man.

I mean, I hop out of the ring, man.

Everybody's hugging and kissing me, man.

Girls are crying.

Even the Mexicans are crying.

My whole life, I've been nothing, nothing.

Achieved nothing, did nothing, just got loaded and partied.

I'm not a white guy down there, but we love boxing, you know.

And I don't know if you remember what it was like when you would hear the bell for recess when you were in grade school.

When I came to that gym, it was a hoover's creak.

That's why I felt it was recess.

I loved it down there.

And, you know, when I realized what it was like to win a fight, I'm going to have more than one or two minutes.

I'm going to be taking this to the end.

And, you know, I won the Dino Melt 75.

I won the AAU in 76.

I won the...

I won the Golden Glove in 77.

And I had no idea how I was going to beat this guy.

He defected from the Yugoslavian boxing team.

He had 107 fights.

I was having my 12th fight.

And I had no idea.

I had stood behind him at the Las Vegas Golden Glove where I lost and talked to him.

And I just had...

The guy was an animal.

I had no idea how I was going to beat him, you know.

And he was fighting as a light heavyweight.

He came down the middleweight for the L.A. Golden Gloves.

And, you know, I had to go to the doctor the day of the fight.

I was sick to my stomach.

I thought about not showing up.

I mean, it's one thing to lose in football and baseball.

But to get blown out of the water in front of thousands of people in boxing.

And I showed up to talk to my trainer.

I showed a little black guy, blind in one eye for this sport, Jerry Moore.

I loved him like a father.

And I talked to him a little bit, settled me down, and went out there.

And I could see his left hand was a little low.

So I think I stepped to the left so he can't counter me and threw my right hand.

He almost went down.

The fight was on.

I knocked him out in the second round.

And the Golden Gloves champion, you know.

And, you know, I absolutely love boxing.

I couldn't stop drinking.

And I met this girl.

She liked to drink and fool around.

And I'm fooling around with her and drinking the whole time.

And I lost five of my last seven fights after I met Lori.

She was killing me.

You know, I tell you, there's nothing.

Wait to go out there under the bright light.

And you know you're not living the life you should be living as a fighter, you know.

There's no humiliation when you get found out under the bright light.

And I couldn't stop drinking.

I fought.

I fought Rafael Reyes out of Tinker Rivera.

And that fight was so hard.

I hurt inside the two.

And I was learning to throw.

And I go, rematch this.

I go, yeah, I'll go fight again.

It's going to be different next time.

It was different.

It was worse.

Oh, my.

Good things right now.

Anyway, so I wonder when the Golden Gloves twice.

You know what I mean?

Everybody drops out of the tournament.

They don't want to fight Tony Serda.

They don't want to fight me.

They don't want to fight Tony Serda.

He's had 107 fights.

I don't know.

102 fights.

Twice national champion.

Heard so much about him.

He got done.

Knocked Mark Davis out.

Liver shot.

And, you know, I remember we went out and we threw three punches.

Caught the first two.

Caught the third.

Stuck him in the gut.

And I remember thinking, this is going to be easy.

Next thing I heard was six.

Six.

And just like that.

And next thing I know, the referee's stopping the fight.

I'm screaming and yelling.

What are you doing?

Stopping the fight.

I don't want you getting hurt.

And so I'm talking to my friend.

The guy got me to AA the next day.

And I go, well, second time you went down.

I go, what do you mean a second time?

I went down one time.

And a little people got hysterical.

Stopped the fight.

He goes, no, John, you went down twice.

I'm Marvin.

I was in the ring.

I have to go.

Talk to two other people.

Yeah, I'm done.

Anyway, so after that, you meet Eli.

The trainer got on me.

That's it, John.

You're done.

I'm drinking all the time.

Went from a middleweight to a heavyweight.

Just drinking.

Heavyweight.

Heavyweight.

My girlfriend got my every year.

I didn't want to be in the ring at all.

You know, I knew everything was wrong in my 30s.

All my friends kind of doing okay.

You know, I didn't know what to do.

I know it's related to the drink, you know.

That's how I know I'm in trouble.

Not what I was doing when I was drunk.

How much I was up drinking.

What happened to me after I quit drinking.

I quit drinking.

I quit drinking.

But basically, everything I had was all just throwing me down.

My whole thing.

Just coming up with a problem.

And then again, my friend Marvin, the guy that I talked to you about the market,

the guy that I grew up with.

He was on the pink cloud.

I was scared.

I was scared so much.

He got me going to meetings for me.

And he saw me one day working.

And he stops.

He gives me a Coke.

He started talking to me.

So Marvin, I don't have to go to the exit.

Quit drinking.

No.

And.

No.

and what AA is, it's living your life comfortably without it.

My life was not comfortable.

I thought about blowing my brains out every morning.

I can't go through this anymore.

And so I go with Marvin, and there's two things that kept me coming back.

It was cookies to eat and girls to stare at.

But my life had been reduced to stay at home.

I couldn't go out to the spray and get drunk.

But anyway, some of these meetings I did not identify.

I mean, I couldn't understand what was going here.

I just couldn't relate.

I don't know what I was thinking about.

You know what I mean?

And this is why it's Alcoholics Anonymous.

When I heard a speaker get up here and talk about the way he drank,

he'd open up his throat and pour it in.

The light went off.

He described his drink.

The light went off.

Maybe I got something.

And I wasn't talking in here.

I mean, believe me.

I stood in the back, very grim.

And everybody was hugging and kissing me.

Believe me.

You know what I mean?

And I hooked up with these two girls, Andy, who had just been on the mental institution.

And her sister, Jill, went six months.

And she'd watch.

She'd make sure we don't be around the track and get around.

And, you know, we're still friends today.

I went to a 35-year birthday party a couple days ago.

You know, we've been through everything sober with each other.

We're still here.

I'm 34 years sober now.

And, you know, I got some bad news for you.

Like, you know, I mean, right now, this lady got up.

She talked about cancer being a remission.

You know, I'm like, damn, AAQ is cancer.

But, you know, she went up to Oregon.

Cancer came back again.

And I just, I didn't think bad things happened.

You know, but bad things happened.

Life happened.

And I've been through a lot.

I'm 70.

I've been through a lot.

I spoke today to my mom.

My mom passed away that morning.

I spoke to her.

I mean, I thought, I'm not going to speak.

I'm not going to speak.

I thought, John, you're bugging me, friend.

It is.

Yeah, your first son's back.

Because I put my mom through hell.

I went from a nice, quiet, naive, shy little boy to just this.

She did.

My mom didn't know half of it.

I was going to bring my friend.

Michael Lafferball.

He told me he got arrested twice in his life.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

But I believe.

I said.

And I called her up.

I go, I'm going to open the table.

And he called me over the radio.

And he said, oh, my God.

Anyway, the money is gone.

And I called.

And they let me make another phone call.

And I said, John, you didn't get arrested once.

You got arrested twice.

Oh, she caught me, right?

You know, a little off.

How do you explain that?

How do you explain that?

Arrested twice?

Arrested twice?

Arrested twice?

Once, twice in one day at the Colorado River.

Well, I'll explain it to you.

I got arrested from driving at 930 in the morning.

And then my friends took a collect Easter vacation.

We're on spring break.

None of us can go.

And they took a collection of my car.

They bailed me out.

I only have later.

I got in a fight with some guy at the liquor store.

And we think Michael was driving.

Well, we're so alone.

And anyway, the cops were all up.

I pulled my arm away.

Oh, they did.

And I got out three weeks later.

And then I got arrested.

They said I'm sorry.

I got him.

They got me arrested.

But I have no explaining why they be.

I got him on a truck and just runin' like crazy.

And my friend Michael, I wanted to come with you.

We grew up together.

He's one of the few friends I got.

My oldest friend's gonna die.

Michael's got prostate cancer.

I didn't know his bone.

He's gonna make it.

You know, I wanted him to come with me and I'm gonna go to chemotherapy.

Anyway, um.

And that's part of life too.

You know what I mean.

All my friends are really, really, really important.

I'm having a weird time right now.

I accept that.

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

John L, Quality of Life, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, sobriety, sponsor, home group

and more.

here, I destroyed my hearing.

Anyway, that's how bad it was, and I made it, you know, made it.

But about a month ago, I heard one of the boxers from my gym, and Monroe was like Superman.

He was the baddest cat on the face of the earth.

The guy was, he was such a bad.

It's not like I judge you as a human being, you know what I mean, like that.

Monroe was stupid, and he died.

I realized, the clock is ticking.

I don't know what I'm going through, but it's like all the history is going me down.

There's not many of us left.

Friends with a lot of guys, they used to box with them.

They may not have fought each other or even trained in the same gym, but we'd box at the same time.

In L.A., we all fought at the Olympic Auditorium, and we'd call each other brothers and tell each other we love each other.

Because it's a different time, and we know it.

Anyway, I got diagnosed with prostate cancer in December.

I'm okay with that because we got it early, so I got it at 45 degrees.

And I had a 10K with Dennis Monroe.

It was on my birthday, December 15th, my 70th birthday.

And I set my phone to wake me up at 6.30.

I couldn't go back to sleep.

It was like fight night, you know what I mean?

I couldn't go back to sleep, and it was cold.

And I just thought all these reasons.

I'm not going to run today.

I'm not going to end this thing.

I'm not that good of shape.

I'm not going to win my age division.

I've got maybe three hours sleep.

I'm not going to die.

I mean, and plus, on top of that, well, I just got diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Anyway, I go, John.

You're going to go and win.

And you know something?

I didn't know it, but the route took me all through Venice where I grew up, the Venice Maria 10K.

I went by my old St. Mark's Elementary School, Catholic School, went by the church where I got baptized.

And then we looked around, and we went by the old Venice Police Station.

And then all the Venice Police are out there.

I'm stopping.

I'm talking because I'm not going to win my age division.

I'm talking about a great job they're doing.

Yeah, you know, you beat the hell out of me back in the 60s, man.

You know, I thanked them all for this.

There's such bad press these days.

Hey, I thanked them.

I told them I had it coming.

You know, I had it coming.

And you know, if I listen to my head, I can't say it.

And it was really and truly, it was one of the great days of my life.

I mean, the race was over.

I'm talking to everybody.

I'm talking to the homeless guys down there about boxing.

And they do their stuff, you know.

And I'm talking to some lady that immigrated from Chile on the way back to my car.

And, man, I would have missed it.

You know?

I mean, I would have missed it if I listened to my head.

And our heads are our enemies.

You know what I mean?

That's why you have a sponsor and you talk to other people.

You know what I mean?

Very important.

There's a guy, Mike Dixon.

Every time I, I wouldn't believe me.

I wasn't, like I said, I wanted to be hugging and kissing me when I got here.

And I stayed away from everybody.

Bill and Andy and a few other people.

This guy, Mike Dixon, thanks so much for coming on.

Every time I see him, he's with a good-looking girl.

I want what he's got.

So, I see him at the meet and we start talking.

We start hanging out.

And I've been talking to Mike for 34 years now on the phone.

And he would spoke out in the valley way up on Ventura.

And a girl came up and gave her a chip in her phone number.

It was my sister.

My sister finally got sober.

I'm not exaggerating.

Me and my sister had talked once in 25.

I'm not exaggerating.

I was so sick of her being a victim, you know?

And I go, I'm not going to call her.

I'm so sick of her stuff, man.

Always being a victim.

It was John.

She's a new.

She's a newcomer.

That's right.

I changed everything.

So, I started talking to my sister.

And like I said, I never knew my father.

And my father was orphaned.

I had no brother.

My sister is very smart.

She got on the computer from both sides of my family.

I didn't know my father was a breeder until I was 60, 10 years ago.

And I went back and I visited my aunt Fanny.

My father's sister was still alive.

I called her up.

I go, Loie Corwin-Lichty.

Yep, that's my brother.

Yep, that's my father.

Yep, that's my brother.

He didn't know nothing about me.

My dad, I believe, was one of us.

It runs all through my family.

It runs all through.

And I have heard my father's mother was an orphan.

So, that's my mom.

I never remember until he died.

I kind of knew he hadn't.

But anyway.

So, I'm talking to my aunt Fanny.

You know what?

I've been back to Indiana.

I love it back there.

You know?

My mom's side.

My cousin Charles' dad, he was shot down over France.

They have one of three to bail out.

The other seven were down.

And I've got three of them.

I've got three of them.

I've got three of them.

My mom's side.

My cousin Charles' dad, he was shot down over France.

They have one of three to bail out.

The other seven were down.

And I've got family history now, you know?

And I love my cousins back in Indiana.

It's different.

I mean, it's a small town with 6,000 people.

I get up.

I'm still running.

So, I'm running down by the cornfields.

And people are driving by waving at me.

You know what I mean?

That's a lesson in your own thoughts.

You know what I mean?

Sometimes it's good to talk about it.

It is good.

You get a different perspective.

You know what I mean?

Sometimes it's good to talk about it.

You know what I mean?

And then, of course, everything's different.

You know what I mean?

Plan CMS is my sponsor.

One time I wanted to pray because I got my tender little feelings hurt by some girl that

I got picked up with.

And, you know, I know I had to last about two weeks, so that was operating.

So all I had was a month.

I got a job.

I got a job.

I got a job.

I got a job.

I got a job.

I got a job.

I got a job.

I was a pastor.

I was a pastor.

I was a pastor.

I got a job.

I was a pastor.

I was a pastor.

I had a job.

and, you know, I had low light last about two weeks, so that was operating style.

I had low light for a month, and I wasn't talking to any of you guys yet, and I had about nine months.

I just sat there with the people, and number one, don't get involved your first year, they tell you that,

and number two, the same thing you told me, so easy to slip into your own way, so easy to go back that way.

I was very blessed, too, because I had a plan.

I couldn't imagine my life breaking or using, and that's breaking or using, go back that way.

Quitters are losers, man, like, they don't ever want, you know, we are not blessed, you know, I've been married twice,

and I've lost my wife, and they call me pastor, you know, yeah, you man, you have to feel it, you know, I know.

Like I said, we all got lost, and the toughest thing was, I just knew it was the hardest thing,

but the papers are here for me.

I said, me and him would go for 10, 10 days, 10 days, we'd go for runs, take him to the beach, he's a water dog,

and he loved it, and he loved it.

The thing about me and my wife split up, first wife, was the dog got to sleep in bed with me again.

You know, he had gotten sick with something, I did everything, you know, I tried to impress this girl,

and she would not, she didn't do anything, she saw my dog, she flipped out.

But anyway, you know, he was having some problems, and I called him up, like, I'm bringing him in.

I said, bring him in.

I said, bring him in, buddy, I'm bringing him in right now.

And I brought a man, and I put him on the gurney, and he took all his blood, and lost him.

And I said, yeah, yeah, my life, any roommate, one guy, six men, five hard-working, tough guys,

we stood there staring at each other, we had seen that, we stood there staring at each other,

and we were all in the dark.

They had to go through stuff, and you had to go through it so much, and stuff, and you had to go through it.

And I was convinced, and then 25 years later, I was like, that's it.

There was a guy, he was a three-year-old, and he had something to eat, ran out in the backyard,

and Bob stayed sober with it, and he took a date after that.

He said, still comers, you can stay sober.

And I never forgot that.

And Bob's got a good life, he had a lot of kids after that.

And, you know, I went through all that cancer treatment, and I went to Vietnam, and I'm in a 10K.

A year and a half, and I'm in chemotherapy, you know what I'm talking about.

A year and a half after, I'm in this 10K.

I'm in Hanoi, Vietnam, and this is going to be my coming-out party for beating cancer.

And I'm saying my prayers in Hanoi, and I can't believe this, you know what I mean, because I was so sick.

I couldn't get up, and I put a pail by the couch, and I just couldn't get up.

I could barely feed myself, and this is what chemotherapy does to you.

And I can't believe I'm in this 10K, and, you know, we're coming up to the finish line, you know what I mean.

Everybody's cheering, and I can't believe this is happening, you know what I mean.

And 10 days later, I'm in mass.

It goes to the funeral in Hanoi, Vietnam.

I don't understand the image, but I could feel it.

There was something going on.

I could feel his presence, and, you know, I don't want to say I had a spiritual experience.

And I'm a gardener.

I have a tree service.

That is my church outside.

The birds fly by me.

God, here I am, John.

Here I am.

And some butterfly was flying around my head the other day to serve them.

They go, I know, I know.

I hope, you know.

I mean, I see God everywhere.

Even at the weeds, I mean, it's not fearful.

On this little plant, perfectly situated from the sun.

And this vast universe, you know what I mean.

And here we are, you know.

And, you know, I just, I love my work.

I love being out there.

I can't imagine anything else for a living, you know.

And, you know, like I said, I mean, sometimes showing up is hard.

And, but like I told you about, like when I was fighting the Golden Gloves, I didn't want to fight.

I didn't want to fight this guy.

I didn't want to show.

I had no idea.

You know, so, and there I was, man, running around the ring out of my mind with joy.

Golden Gloves Champion 1977.

I'm linked to all the great champions.

I don't want to show up no matter how dismal it seems.

Sometimes there's a great surprise waiting.

Thank you.