Oakland Municipal Auditorium: Sacred Hall Where Filipino Boxing World Champions Were Crowned
By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 23 Dec 2025
The Oakland Auditorium, now known as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, occupies a holy place in the Pantheon of Philippine boxing. Long before championships were unified and sanctioning bodies standardized the language of greatness, this civic hall became a place where Filipino fighters were not merely featured, but immortalized.
In the early 1930s, opportunity in boxing was unevenly distributed. Filipino fighters, many of them migrants navigating a society shaped by exclusion laws and racial hierarchy, fought often and traveled relentlessly for recognition that rarely came into fruition. Oakland offered something unique. The Auditorium was a public building, built for blue and white collar workers and the city at large. To fight there was to be placed squarely in the front and center of city life, not on its margins. That threshold was crossed decisively in 1932.
Source: THE KNOCKOUT, Vol. 5, No. 41, OCTOBER 15, 1932
On October 12 of that year, the Oakland Civic Auditorium hosted what was openly billed as the first Filipino versus Filipino championship bout on American soil. Promoted as the Battle of Brown Dolls, Young Tommy faced Speedy Dado for the Bantamweight Championship of California. The advertising was explicit and unapologetic. There was no attempt to soften the fighters’ identities or disguise the stakes. Two Filipinos fought for a state title, in a major venue, before a mixed San Francisco Bay Area crowd.
And Oakland became a major part of Philippine boxing history that day. Filipino boxing was no longer an imported novelty. It became a matter of public record. Three years later, the Auditorium moved from legitimizing Filipino boxing to shaping future champions of the squared circle.
Caption: Small Montana wins a 10-round points decision over Midget Wolgast, on September 16, 1935, to win the NYSAC Flyweight title at the Oakland Auditorium (Oakland Tribune)
On September 16, 1935, Small Montana defeated Midget Wolgast in Oakland and earned recognition from the New York State Athletic Commission as world flyweight champion. With that decision, Montana became the second Filipino world champion and the first to be crowned in California. The location mattered more than people realized at the time. New York’s Polo Grounds had announced Filipino excellence to the East when Pancho Villa won his title in 1923. Oakland confirmed that excellence in the West. The Auditorium was no longer merely hosting history. It was making it. By the late 1930s, Oakland’s role was unmistakable.
Source: The Oakland Post Enquirer • Wed, Nov 30, 1938 • Page 16 • (Oakland, California)
On November 30, 1938, the Auditorium staged a fight newspapers treated not as a curiosity, but as a division-defining bout. Small Montana faced Little Dado. Coverage framed the match within a lineage that ran from Jimmy Wilde and Pancho Villa to the present. Betting odds were even. Photographs placed two Filipinos at the center of the boxing universe. The American Flyweight Championship and the World Flyweight Title recognized in California, were at stake. Filipino boxing had become a big part of the conversation in American culture sporting life.
Source: The Knockout, Vol. 13, No. 28, July 15, 1939
Little Dado’s rise confirmed that he belonged. He was ranked among the world’s elite flyweights from 1938 through 1943, and consistently recognized in the top five by The Ring magazine and rated number one in 1939, during a time when the The Bible of Boxing considered the title vacant.
In 1941, Dado won the vacant world bantamweight title (California version) against tough Tony Olivera on April 24, 1940 in Oakland (Boxrec.com), making him simultaneous champ in two divisions.
Oakland remained the place where his rise first seeped into public domain. It was where Little Dado’s name became forever intertwined with Small Montana’s, and where Filipino fistic excellence was etched in stone. Oakland’s significance was never limited to champions alone. It was also a proving ground for fighters who carried Filipino boxing forward.
Source: THE KNOCKOUT, Vol. 5, No. 10, MARCH 12, 1932
Early in his career in 1936, Ceferino Garcia boxed at the Auditorium and lost a California welterweight title there before moving up in weight. Oakland did not crown him that day, but it catapulted him. He refined the bolo punch, and ultimately became world middleweight champion.
Source: THE KNOCKOUT, Vol. 5, No. 42, OCTOBER 22, 1932
Pinoy stars like Young Tommy returned repeatedly to the Bay Area circuit, embodying the grind that sustained Filipino boxing between headline moments.
These fighters fought often, traveled constantly, and filled cards that kept the Auditorium alive as a fight hall. Behind the scenes, promoters understood the importance of the venue. Men such as Joe Waterman and Louis Parente placed Filipino fighters on Oakland cards because the venue conferred legitimacy. To fight at the Auditorium meant scrutiny, press coverage, and consequence. It meant being part of the city’s sporting life.
The audience completed the equation. On fight nights, the crowd reflected the Bay Area itself. Filipinos sat beside Mexican fans. Black and white dockworkers cheered side by side. In an era shaped by segregation and exclusion laws, the arena offered a brief suspension of rigid boundaries. Inside the ropes, endurance and skill carried the argument.
Oakland’s place in boxing history is confirmed by what happened inside its ring. The same canvas that crowned Montana and framed Dado also welcomed fighters who would later stand among the sport’s giants— most notably Sugar Ray Robinson, widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, along with American greats such as Max Baer and Archie Moore.
Just as important, Oakland played a singular role in Filipino boxing history. It hosted the first Filipino-versus-Filipino championship ever staged on American soil. It crowned the second and third Filipino world champions. Over the years, the building saw younger fighters come through as well. Ceferino Garcia and Speedy Dado boxed there before their names carried weight, alongside many others working their way forward. The fights added up. Taken together, they explain why the Oakland Municipal Auditorium remains part of boxing’s shared memory.
The Comeback Trail
The Auditorium, now restored as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, has undergone a major interior transformation and is scheduled to reopen to the public in January 2026. A grand reopening is already set, including a family musical among the early offerings.
Located on 10th Street near Lake Merritt, the Beau-Arts style building was built in 1915 as a grand municipal venue that has featured numerous public spectacles, concerts, conventions, rallies, and historic sporting events for more than a century. It too has served the public once as a temporary hospital run by the Red Cross during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
The ring and the ropes may be gone but the memories remain. In Oakland, Filipino boxing crossed from presence into permanence…where Filipino boxers once stood, fought and crowned champions of the world.
Acknowledgements:
This article contains selected excerpts, quotations, images, and archival references used under the Fair Use provisions of Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. These materials are presented for educational, scholarly, and cultural preservation purposes. Every effort has been made to properly attribute sources and limit use to what is necessary to honor the historical and cultural narrative.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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