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Philippines, 18 May 2024 |
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Memorable Pinoy Ring Wins In the "Big Boys" Divisions By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Wed, 22 Apr 2020  Pacquiao (L) and Marcial. (Author's Note: As promised in my earlier article on Eumir Felix Marcial as our Next World Class Big Man After Ceferino Garcia in the 30s, here is a rundown of our few memorable fights and wins in the big boys league or divisions above the lightweights after Garcia and before the era of Manny 'Pacmonster' Pacquiao) BEING SMALL in physical stature compared to Caucasians, Africans and certain other Asians, the Japanese and Koreans specifically, Filipino boxers till today are already considered in the big boys league when they are fighting above the lightweight class. Hence it was extreme rarity when a Pinoy wins a major world championship in the middleweight (160 lbs) class as Ceferino Garcia did in the pre-war period and in the welterweight and junior middleweight (147 and 154 lbs) classes as Manny Pacquiao has done in his still ongoing career. We have had other Pinoy fighters winning world championships in the junior welterweight or super lightweight class (140 lbs) as Roberto Cruz in the 1960s, Pedro Adigue in the 70s, Morris East in the 90s and Pacquiao in 2009 prior to his winning the WBO welterweight belt over Miguel Cotto later that same year. Cruz won the vacant world and lineal junior welterweight crown by spectacular first round knockout of Mexico's Battling Torres at the Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium on March 21, 1963. The title was vacated by the retirement of Italian Dullio Loi after his victorious series against archrivals Carlos Ortiz and Eddie Perkins. Cruz's astounding victory was made more memorable by the fact that his fight versus Torres was part of huge, high profile promotion called Festival of Champions. That featured two more world championship bouts including Emile Griffith vs Manuel Rodriguez at welterweight won by Rodriguez by split decision and the Davey Moore vs Sugar Ramos at featherweight won by Ramos via TKO from which Moore later lapsed into coma and never recovered. Cruz would lose the title in his first defense to Perkins in Manila later that same year via unanimous decision. Five years later, Adigue would win another world title in the same division and exacting a sort of revenge by hammering a unanimous 15 round decision over American Adolph Pruitt at a jampacked and rocking Araneta Colesium on December 12, 1968. Adigue's win also ended the country's drought for world title following the defeat of Flash Elorde in June 1967 to Yoshuaku Numata losing his world junior lightweight championship. Adigue, a precursor of Pacquiao in that both are essentially blownup lightweights also figured in massive upset victories above the welterweight class, winning by crushing knockouts over a pair of Japanese junior middleweights Benkei Fujikura and Koichi Wajima. Adigue met Fujikura early in 1968 with the Japanese coming in as a substitute for then WBA junior welterweight champion Takeshi Paul Fujii, a knockout artist who belatedly backed out of their fight. The Bicolano strongman known as The Rock vented his ire on his bigger opponent and knocked him out in the second round! Fujikura had earlier distinguished himself in losing a decision to then reigning world junior middleweight champion Kim Ki Soo in Korea. After losing to Pruitt in a non title rematch in Hawaii in early 1969 (where he was later diagnosed to be suffering from symptoms of appendicitis and which he had to go under the knife), Adigue later in the year fought in his comeback in Japan a then young and undefeated Wajima who was coming from a 12 wins, 11 by KOs streak. Adigue made short work of Wajima stopping him inside one round (to the shock of Japanese fans)! Wajima would later become a long reigning world champion at junior middleweight. After ceding his world title in Italy by decision to Bruno Arcari (who would later establish a world record reign in the division), Adigue would fight then fast rising junior middleweight Oscar Shotgun Albarado also in Hawaii, losing on points. Albarado by the time had a record of 31 wins, 25 by KOs. Albarado who had also an earlier lost to Pruitt would later on rival Wajima for supremacy at the 154 lbs division in the early to mid 70s. His appendectomy and the rigors fighting bigger men could have taken so much physically from Adigue, he was no longer the same bullstrong and impetuous fighter that he had been in the 60s to early 70s. However, it was not only Cruz and Adigue who provided some pride to Pinoys in the big boys league. In the late 60s, Venezuela's original Carlos Famoso Hernandez who had beaten Perkins for the world junior welterweight title (only to lose it to Sandro Loppopolo who would later lose the same to Takeshi Paul Fujii) took a fancy on a little known Pinoy by the name of Curly Aguirre. Aguirre who has had a rather undistinguished career at the bantamweight and featherweight classes but had grown as a full lightweight found himself as a get busy opponent for Hernandez who was then trying in to rebuilt his championship career as a still rated contender. In their first fight held in Caracas on September 29, 1967, Aguirre forced the much taller and more experienced Hernandez to fight to the best of his abilities before yielding by a 4th round stoppage. The organizers and the fans may have been impressed by Aguirre's courage and durability that a rematch was set two months later in November 1967. To the shock and horror of Venezuelan fans, Aguirre knocked out Hernandez in the very first round! The win merited a box story in the sports section of the Manila Times. To save Hernandez reputation and show that the loss was an upset fluke, a third fight was immediately arranged early the following year with Hernandez winning by knockout. But Hernandez was never the same highly regarded world class fighter again. In the late 70s, another blown up Pinoy lighyweight fighter Rudy Barro make waves in the US boxing circuit by stopping Andy The Hawk Price in their welterweight bout in 1974. In a later interview, Price said he hurt Barro in the first round but got cocky and admitting that Barro, then just 8-8 was a tremendous puncher, "caught me flush and knocked me out cold". Like in the case of Hernandez-Aguirre, Price and Barro would fight two more times with Price winning both by knockout. But Price would never get to fight for the world title after this. Former welterweight contender Andy “Hawk” Price started boxing at age 10 and had a great amateur career and turned pro in 1972. Price would find himself in the ring with many of the best welterweights of the era, including Carlos Palomino, Pipino Cuevas, Harold Weston, Dave 'Boy” Green and Sugar Ray Leonard. Price, however, would never get a shot at a world title. He was inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. He retired with a final record of 33-8-3. Hope Pacquiao would continue to kick noted butts up there with current amateur middleweight standout Eumir Felix Marcial following suit after the Olympics. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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