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Rafael Rodriguez is a retired light middleweight professional boxer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
| The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for sports and athletics .(February 2022) |
Rafael Rodriguez is a retired light middleweight professional boxer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Rafael Rodriguez is a member of Minnesota's illustrious Rodriguez family of boxers: Bobby, Kenny, Rudy, all of whom fought as professionals; brother John, who fought only as an amateur, and Corey, son of John, who is an active professional boxer. Rafael is divorced from Barbara Seeker, they have 3 children. Elizabeth- 5 grandchildren (Kallie, Cameron, Taylor, Ricky, and Riley), Shannon- 4 grandchildren (Kara, Shon, Justin, and Joshua) Rafael II- (Rafael III) and 1 great-grandson Payton.
Rodriguez made his professional debut with a five-round points win against Casey Puskar on December 3, 1970. He remained undefeated through four professional fights, losing for the first time to 0-9 Billy Goodwin in a fourth-round knockout on March 8, 1972. Following this unexpected loss Rodriguez remained unbeaten for another three years, winning ten fights and earning one draw. By March 1975 Rodriguez was sporting a record of 14-1-1. His career after this point is difficult to characterize; he remained competitive, mixing wins and losses to the end of his career, but compiling a distinctly mediocre record of 14-20-1 before retiring in 1983 following a loss to Gary Holmgren in a fight for the Minnesota junior middleweight title. After starting his career in such compelling fashion, Rodriguez finally retired with a record of 28-20-2 with 10 wins coming by knockout. [1] However, it must be remembered that many of Rodriguez's later fights were against notably successful boxers, some of whom he surprised by beating them. [2]
In 2010 it was announced that Rodriguez would be a member of the inaugural class of inductees to the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame. [3]
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 oversized arms and shoulders allowed him to move up over fifty pounds 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.
José "Chegüi" Torres was a Puerto Rican-born American professional boxer. As an amateur boxer, he won a silver medal in the junior middleweight division at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 1965, he defeated Willie Pastrano to win the WBC, WBA and lineal light heavyweight championships. Torres trained with the legendary boxing trainer Cus D'Amato. In 1997, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Michael Spinks is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1988. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed light heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, and the lineal heavyweight title from 1985 to 1988. As an amateur he won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Emile Alphonse Griffith was a professional boxer from the U.S. Virgin Islands who won world titles in three weight divisions. He held the world light middleweight, undisputed welterweight, and middleweight titles. His best-known contest was a 1962 title match with Benny Paret. Griffith won the bout by knockout; Paret never recovered consciousness and died in the hospital 10 days later.
Carmen Basilio was an American professional boxer who was the world champion in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions, beating Sugar Ray Robinson for the latter title. An iron-chinned pressure fighter, Basilio was a combination puncher who had great stamina and eventually wore many of his opponents down with vicious attacks to the head and body.
José Ángel Nápoles was a Cuban-born Mexican professional boxer. He was a two-time undisputed welterweight champion, having held the WBA, WBC, and The Ring welterweight titles between 1969 and 1975. He is frequently ranked as one of the greatest fighters of all time in that division and is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. His record of the most wins in unified championship bouts in boxing history, shared with Muhammad Ali, was unbeaten for 40 years. After debuting professionally in Cuba, he fought out of Mexico and became a Mexican citizen.
Carl Olson was an American boxer. He was the World Middleweight champion between October 1953 and December 1955, the longest reign of any champion in that division during the 1950s. His nickname, Bobo, was based on his younger sister's mispronunciation of "brother".
Ann Wolfe is an American retired professional boxer, trainer and actress. Wolfe held world titles in three different weight classes simultaneously and is regarded as one of the greatest female boxers of all time. She is a member of the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame.
Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli was an American professional boxer. He was a World Light Heavyweight Champion. He took the ring-name Joey Maxim from the Maxim gun, the world's first self-acting machine gun, based on his ability to rapidly throw a large number of left jabs.
Marcel Thil was a French boxer and middleweight world champion. Statistical boxing website BoxRec rates Thil as the second best European boxer ever across all weight divisions, after Joe Calzaghe.
Jermain Taylor is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having won the WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal titles in 2005 by beating Bernard Hopkins, and in doing so ending Hopkins' twelve-year reign as middleweight champion. This made Taylor the first, and to date, only male boxer in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight. He once again defeated Hopkins six months later, making him the only fighter to have defeated Hopkins twice. He retired as a world champion in the months that followed his capture of the IBF middleweight title for a second time, after making a substantial recovery from a brain injury sustained earlier in his career.
Esteban Gallard was a Cuban boxer who found international fame under the nickname Kid Charol. While Charol never won a world boxing title, he did obtain popularity, especially in Argentina where he lived for the last years of his life after moving there from his Cuban hometown of Sagua la Grande. He had a relatively short boxing career before dying at age 28, holding only 67 bouts in an era when many boxers logged more than 100 career fights.
Bobby Cassidy, born April 19, 1944, is a former professional boxer who fought from 1963 to 1980. Although born and raised in New York, Cassidy is of Irish lineage and fought under the name, "Irish" Bobby Cassidy.
Del Flanagan was a middleweight professional boxer from Minnesota, USA.
Daniel Jacobs is an American professional boxer. He is a two-time middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 2018 to 2019 and the WBA (Regular) title from 2014 to 2017. Nicknamed the "Miracle Man," Jacobs' career was almost cut short in 2011 due to osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He went on to make a full recovery after spending 19 months out of the sport, meanwhile recovering from severe operation-induced injuries generally perceived as crippling.
Allan "Al" Ford is a Canadian retired professional boxer. He is a former CBF Lightweight Champion.
Gary Holmgren is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1974 to 1984.
Mike Morgan is a retired professional middleweight boxer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Curtis Delroy Stevens is an American former professional boxer. Stevens challenged for the WBA and IBO middleweight titles in 2013.
Danilo Cabrera is a former professional boxer from the Dominican Republic. Known in professional boxing circles as "Cuero Duro", he fought for world championships three times, losing to International Boxing Hall of Fame members Barry McGuigan, Azumah Nelson and Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., respectively.
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