 Doctors speculated that his boxing had caused him permanent injuries, and during a party he was hosting at his house in August, 1962, he became ill. An ambulance took him to Mercy Hospital where he died ten days later.San Diego remembered him by putting flags up and down the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue and inducting him into the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park.Ila sold the paint store and went back to work at her beauty shop.