Related Research Articles
Wilfred "Wilfredo" Benítez is an American-born Puerto Rican former professional boxer and the youngest world champion in the sport's history. Earning his first of three career world titles in separate weight divisions at the age of seventeen, he is best remembered as a skilled and aggressive fighter with exceptional defensive abilities, along with his fights with Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard.
Edwin "Chapo" Rosario Rivera was a Puerto Rican professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 1997. He was a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC lightweight title from 1983 to 1984, the WBA lightweight title twice between 1986 and 1990, and the WBA super lightweight title from 1991 to 1992.
Ray Charles Leonard, best known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1977 and 1997, winning world titles in five weight classes; the lineal championship in three weight classes; as well as the undisputed welterweight championship. Leonard was part of the "Four Kings", a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of Leonard, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler. As an amateur, Leonard won a light welterweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Carlos Ortiz was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. He held world titles in lightweight and light welterweight weight divisions. Along with Félix Trinidad, Miguel Cotto, Wilfredo Gómez, Héctor Camacho, José Torres, Edwin Rosario and Wilfred Benítez, Ortiz is considered among the best Puerto Rican boxers of all time by sports journalists and analysts. As of January 2018, Ortiz holds the record for the most wins in unified lightweight title bouts in boxing history at 10.
Thomas Hearns is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 2006. Nicknamed the "Motor City Cobra", and more famously "The Hitman", Hearns's tall, slender build and long arms and shoulders allowed him to move up over fifty pounds (22.7kg) in his career and become the first boxer in history to win world titles in five weight divisions: welterweight, light middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.
Jorge Adolfo Páez is a Mexican actor, circus performer and former professional boxer. In boxing he held the WBO and IBF featherweight titles. Paez's nickname of "El Maromero" is in honor of the somersault acts he performs at the circus. It was in the circus that he learned acrobatic moves he would later use in the boxing ring. Páez is also the father of Azriel Páez, Jorge Páez Jr., and Airam Páez.
John Mugabi is a Ugandan former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1999. He held the WBC super-welterweight title from 1989 to 1990, and challenged twice for world titles at middleweight, including the undisputed championship.
Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns, billed as The Showdown, was a professional boxing match contested on September 16, 1981, for the undisputed welterweight championship.
Donald Curry, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1991, and in 1997. He held the WBA world welterweight title from 1983 to 1986, the undisputed world welterweight title from 1985 to 1986 and the WBC light middleweight title from 1988 to 1989, and challenged once for the IBF middleweight title in 1990. In 2019, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Antonio Cervantes is a Colombian boxing trainer and former professional boxer who competed from 1961 to 1983. He held the WBA and The Ring light welterweight title twice between 1972 and 1980.
Boxing in the 1980s was filled with important fights, events and personalities that shaped the sport. Boxing in the 1980s was shaped by many different situations, such as the continuous corporate battles between the different world sanctioning organizations, the void left by Muhammad Ali as the sport's ambassador and consequent search for a new boxing hero, the continuous presence of Don King as the sport's most famous promoter, the surge of rival promoters as Bob Arum, Butch Lewis and Murad Muhammad, and major rule changes. In 1986, Mike Tyson emerged as a fresh new face in the heavyweight division, which had seen a decline in champion quality level after Ali's retirement and, later on, after longtime WBC ruler Larry Holmes' prime. In addition, the IBF and WBO began operating.
During the 1970s, boxing was characterized by dominating champions and history-making rivalries. The decade had many superstars, who also had fierce rivals. Alexis Argüello, for example, who won the world Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight titles in the '70s, had to overcome Alfredo Escalera twice before the decade was over.
Terry Wayne Norris is an American former boxer, prizefighter and a three time world champion in the light-middleweight (super-welterweight) division. Originally from Lubbock, Texas, he fought out of San Diego.
Ángel Luis "Cholo" Espada Mangual is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer. He was the WBA's world Welterweight champion in 1975-76. A music lover, Espada also organized, during the late 1970s, a salsa orchestra.
Francisco Javier Castillejo Rodríguez, commonly known as Javier Castillejo, is a Spanish former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2009. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBC and lineal light-middleweight titles from 1999 to 2001, the WBC light-middleweight title again in 2005, and the WBA middleweight title from 2006 to 2007. At regional level he held the European light-middleweight title twice between 1994 and 1998, and the European Union middleweight title in 2002.
As in the 1980s, the 1990s in boxing's popularity focused on all divisions. When 1980s legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, as well as others retired, newer superstars filled the void: Pernell Whitaker, Julio César Chávez, in the early 1990s, Oscar De La Hoya, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the mid to late 1990s.
Josue Marquez Acevedo was a Puerto Rican who was once a world title challenging boxer. Not known for his punching power,, Marquez nevertheless gave many of the top boxers of his era trouble and managed to defeat a number of them.
John Davis Jr. who boxed professionally under the ring name Steve Hearon, is an American former professional boxer and convicted serial killer. While Davis never fought for a world title, he held several significant wins as a boxer, including one over future WBC world Junior Welterweight champion, Bruce Curry.
The history of the sport of boxing in Puerto Rico is a varied and extensive one. Boxing is a major sport in the Caribbean country, and the sport has produced many champions for the island, both in the amateur and professional ranks, and among men and women fighters.
References
- ↑ https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/408 [ bare URL ]
- ↑ "THIS TIME CURRY WASN'T SO HOT". Sports Illustrated Vault | Si.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2023-03-10.
- ↑ "Curry Tops Haley For W.B.C. Title". The New York Times. 19 May 1983. Retrieved 2023-03-10.