If a guy can handle a couple thousand pounds of irate muscle with horns like sabers on the end of it, a 160-pounder with bitch mittens is pretty small beer?
?Look how he knows how to use his horns. He?s got a left and a right just like a boxer.??The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Papa was a bit optimistic, don?t you think? After all, not all boxers have a left and a right. Some don?t have either. As for bulls?remind me to tell you one day about the time my brother and I found ourselves in a field full of bulls?in Scotland of all places. We stuck around long enough to demonstrate some grace under pressure, but not long enough to discover how well the bulls knew how to use their horns. But here?s the 411 on a guy who knew all about lefts and rights, in both boxing and bull rings.
Spaniard Luis Folledo fought from 1958 to 1969, winning 128, 59 by knockout, and losing only six. Save for the sole draw of his career, he won his first 42 fights, finally losing to Chris Christensen on points in Copenhagen on November 3, 1960. He became Spain?s welterweight champ the same year, a title he defended eight times, and middleweight champ in 1962, defending that title five times.
Folledo was less successful in his quest for Europe?s middleweight crown, losing to Laszlo Papp by eighth-round TKO in his hometown of Madrid on December 6, 1963, Nino Benvenuti by sixth-round KO in Rome on October 15, 1965, and Juan Carlos Duran by 12th-round TKO in Turin on November 17, 1967. His loss to Duran was the last of his career, winning 13 fights between June 1968 and March 1969.
Luis made his professional debut as a bullfighter on February 2, 1964, which didn?t stop him from facing France?s very tough middleweight champ, Souleymane Diallo, beating him on points in Paris just 22 days later.
The Spanish Boxing Federation objected to the bullfighting, and threatened to strip Luis of his license. Can?t imagine why. The way I look at it is if a guy can handle a couple thousand pounds of irate muscle with horns like sabers on the end of it, a 160-pounder with bitch mittens is pretty small beer.
Impossible to write about bullfighting without bringing to mind Ava Gardner. Hemingway, who wouldn?t change the water in his pool following her skinny-dip, introduced her to famed matador, Luis Miguel Dominguin. Ava spied Luis leaving the bedroom after their first night of lovemaking. ?Where are you going?? she asked. ?To go tell!? he said.
Ava was acquainted with several bullfighters. Could another Luis have been among them? Luis Folledo perhaps? Given that my respect for facts (except for those that can be easily checked by the tiresomely persnickety) is pretty much on a par with your average National Enquirer editor, I say?Ol?!
