Boxing in Puerto Rico
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.
Prestigious boxing publication Ring Magazine has considered Puerto Rico as, pound per pound, the best boxing nation in the world.
As of 2023 13 Puerto Ricans were inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, all of them men. Of these, 11 were former boxers, with one being a former referee and one a writer. In December 2023, Ivan Calderon became the 14th Puerto Rican to be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame; he was inducted in June 2024.
Boxing in Puerto Rico is overseen by the Puerto Rican Boxing Commission, whose president in 2021 was Jorge Colón Colón.
Throughout the history of boxing, Puerto Rico has been locked in a rivalry with Mexico, which intensified beginning in the 1970s. Both nations have two of the most important boxing schools, whose boxers have starred in numerous non-heavyweight title fights.
Beginning of boxing in Puerto Rico
Like other sports, such as baseball and basketball, boxing was first introduced to Puerto Rico by the U.S. Military at places such as Camp Las Casas in San Juan. Nero Chen, who died from tuberculosis in 1924, was the first Puerto Rican to register as a professional boxer. He traveled to New York City for fights.Broadcasts of Jack Dempsey fights to the island by radio brought interest in boxing to Puerto Rican sports fans. Boxing in Puerto Rico was first legalized by governor Horace Mann Towner in 1927. Governor Mann Towner, an American, signed into law in May of that year a proposal that had been first carried by Puerto Rican legislator, don Lorenzo Coballes Gandía, who suggested to him that the sport be legalized in the island. Subsequently, the "Primera Comisíon Atletica de Boxeo" was formed to oversee rules and regulations of the sport in the island, and the "Estadio Universal" opened in San Juan as the first venue to offer regular boxing shows, with the first fight there being between the then future Venezuelan national Bantamweight champion, Enrique Chaffardet, and an opponent named Al Clemens. That contest was declared a draw or tie by the scoring judges. Soon after, stadiums were also built around the island, many of which had regular boxing shows to attract spectators.
Sixto Escobar era
was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. He debuted as a professional on Thursday, July 17, 1930, at the Victory Garden Stadium in San Juan, knocking out Luis Emilio Perez in two rounds as part of a show headlined by a bout between José Quelin Angulo and Octavio Almonte.Escobar began getting international attention and moved to Venezuela, where he lost to Chaffardet in an attempt to lift that country's national Bantamweight title.
On June 26, 1934, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Escobar beat Mexican boxer Rodolfo Casanova to win the vacant world Bantamweight title, recognized by the Montreal Athletic Commission, thus becoming the first boxer from Puerto Rico to achieve recognition as a world champion and, unbeknown-sly at the time, ushering in the Mexico - Puerto Rico boxing rivalry. Escobar beat Tony Marino by thirteenth-round knockout at the Dyckman Oval in Manhattan, New York, to gain universal recognition as a unified Bantamweight world champion.
Escobar went on to become a national hero in Puerto Rico and lost and recovered the Bantamweight title twice afterwards.
Cocoa Kid
Concurrently with Escobar's world titles run, Herbert "Cocoa Kid" Hardwick, a Black Puerto Rican from Mayaguez, became the "Colored Welterweight Champion" when he knocked out Young Peter Jackson in round two of a fight held at Heinemann Park in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, July 26, 1936, in a fight refereed by the legendary former Heavyweight contender and also International Boxing Hall of Fame member, Harry Wills. Hardwick defended the title successfully against Holman Williams on June 11, 1937, at the Coliseum Arena in New Orleans by winning a 15-rounds unanimous decision. He defended the title successfully once more before losing it to Charley Burley, losing a fifteen-rounds unanimous decision to Burley on Monday, August 22, 1938, at the Hickey Park in Millvale, Pennsylvania. Cocoa Kid, Burley and Williams were each members of a group of Black boxers who were dubbed as the Murderer's Row, who were known both for their ability as well as for their inability to secure fights for world titles held by other boxers not in that group. Hardwick, Burley and Williams were all later elected to the IBHOF.Despite the considerable talent of the title's holders, in modern times, the Colored Welterweight Championship is generally not considered as a world title by most boxing fans and historians alike.
Pedro Montanez
, from the central Puerto Rico city of Cayey, was another outstanding Black Puerto Rican boxer of the time. Unlike Hardwick, however, he was not a member of boxing's murderer's row, and he was allowed to compete for regular world titles. Montanez debuted on Sunday, February 1, 1931, at the Victory Garden in San Juan by beating the undefeated Antonio Melendez by six-rounds decision as part of a program headlined by a young Escobar himself.Montanez's victory over Felix Perez on Wednesday, March 7, 1934, at the Salón Nuevo Mundo in Barcelona, Spain, a seventh-round knockout win, set off a streak of 50 consecutive fights in which he did not lose; he went 49–0–1 during that streak, the lone tie being against Saverio Turiello of Italy over ten rounds at Milan's Teatro Puccini on Monday, April 15, 1935. Among others, during that streak, he beat Bobby Pacho, Aldo Spoldi, Frankie Klick, Enrico Venturi, Lou Ambers, Wesley Ramey and Freddie Cochrane.
That undefeated streak came to an end when Montanez challenged Ambers for the world Lightweight title as part of a program that included three other world title fights on Thursday, September 23, 1937, at the Polo Grounds in New York City. In a close match, Ambers was able to edge the Puerto Rican by a fifteen-rounds majority decision to retain the world championship. The New York Times agreed with the decision, but in Puerto Rico at least, Montanez was called an "uncrowned champion".
Montanez went on about keeping his status as a contender and hoping to become Puerto Rico's second world boxing champion; he then embarked on another undefeated streak after the title-fight loss to Ambers, this time reaching 22 bouts without a loss, with only one tie among the wins he got during that sequence. He defeated, among others, Jimmy Garrison, International Boxing Hall of Fame member and former world Junior Welterweight champion Jack Kid Berg and Young Peter Jackson at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, April 25 of the same year.
That latter streak also came to an end, but this time it was in a controversial way: boxing against Davey Day on Thursday, May 23, 1939, at the Madison Square Garden in New York, Montanez was even on the scorecards when the fight was stopped in round eight in favor of Day, therefore Montanez took an eighth-round technical knockout defeat. The stoppage was due to a cut Montanez suffered on one of his eyes. The New York Times claimed that Day was "clearly beaten" and that the crowd "jeer thunderously". But the Chicago Tribune disagreed with that stance, publishing that "Day's victory was a popular one" and that most ringsiders felt the fight was tied before the stoppage, and the Hartford Courant expressed their opinion that the fight was tied when it ended.
Montanez nevertheless kept his march towards a second world title fight. He won three more fights, then faced the immortal, International Boxing Hall of Fame member, three-division world champion Henry Armstrong for Armstrong's world Welterweight title on Wednesday, January 24, 1940, at the Madison Square Garden in New York, at a show promoted by Mike Jacobs. Armstrong had won 103 of 122 previous fights, and that night, proved to be the best of the two future International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees, knocking out the Puerto Rican star in round nine to retain the belt. Montanez had one more contest and then he retired with 90 wins, 9 losses and 4 ties to his ledger, becoming a popular figure in Puerto Rico and specially in Cayey, where his nickname, "El Torito" was adopted by the town as the city's secondary demonym and several sports teams are now named after him.
1960s and 1970s
from Ponce, Puerto Rico, moved to New York City at an early age and later established himself as a professional boxing prospect in the Junior Welterweight division. He became Puerto Rico's second world champion by knocking out Kenny Lane in two rounds to win the vacant Junior Welterweight world title on June 12, 1959, at New York. He defended that title twice, but after losing it to someone he had beaten previously in a title defense, Duilio Loi in a rematch, and failing to recapture it in a third fight with Loi, Ortiz moved down to the Lightweight division and won that title by beating Joe Brown on points on April 21, 1962, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Being that the era of major boxing title fights in Las Vegas was just beginning, Brown-Ortiz was one of the first major fights to take place at the Southwest American desert's city. Ortiz lasted as Lightweight champion until 1968; including losing the title and regaining it against Panamanian Ismael Laguna. Ortiz, like Escobar before him, inspired a large number of Puerto Rican youngsters to take up boxing as a sport.José Torres followed Ortiz as the third Puerto Rican to win a world title, when he knocked out Willie Pastrano in nine rounds on Tuesday, March 30, 1965, at the Madison Square Garden in New York city to win the undisputed world Light-Heavyweight championship. In doing so, he also became both the first Hispanic world Light-Heavyweight champion and the first Afro-Puerto Rican to win a world boxing championship.
The 1970s are generally considered the beginning of the golden era of boxing in Puerto Rico, an era that lasted until almost the 1990s, due to a number of factors. On December 31, 1972, Puerto Rico's largest sports hero up until that time, baseball player Roberto Clemente, died in a plane crash, leaving the island in need of a new sporting hero. In January 1973, Roberto Clemente Coliseum was opened; it was named after him. The first main event bout to be held at that coliseum was a February 15, 1973, world championship fight, when the WBA's world Junior Welterweight champion, Colombian Antonio Cervantes, faced Puerto Rican challenger Josue Marquez, the Colombian retaining the title by a fifteen-rounds unanimous decision despite having a brief scare in round three when he was floored but the fall was not counted as a knockdown against him. The coliseum has hosted, as of early September 2023, 104 professional boxing shows, many of them featuring world title and other important fights including the likes of Muhammad Ali, Panamanian Roberto Duran, Wilfredo Gomez, Wilfred Benitez, Hector Camacho, Alfredo Escalera, George Foreman, Mexican Carlos Zarate the also Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza and others. Gomez and Zarate fought their bout there on October 28, 1978, and the also Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez fought one of his pre-world champion days fights there, beating Javier Fragoso on May 1, 1983, as part of the undercard of a program whose main event was a contest between Edwin Rosario of Puerto Rico and Chavez's stablemate and countryman, Jose Luis Ramirez, which Rosario won by unanimous decision in twelve rounds to lift the WBCs vacant world Lightweight title.
Meanwhile, the Hiram Bithorn Stadium, adjacent to the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, was also contributing to this era in Puerto Rico's boxing history. That stadium has seen 71 boxing events including fights by Rosario, Benitez, Gomez, Azumah Nelson, Alexis Arguello, and the August 7, 1983, contest between Camacho and Mexico's Rafael Limon, fought for the WBC's vacant Junior Lightweight title and which Camacho won by fifth-round technical knockout.
On September 1, 1973, José Roman became the first Puerto Rican to challenge for the world Heavyweight title. He lost that day to George Foreman by a first-round knockout in Tokyo, Japan.
The fight between Ali and Jean Pierre Coopman, which took place February 20, 1976, at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, was the only time a world Heavyweight championship fight was contested in Puerto Rico; it was won by Ali by a fifth-round knockout. Elsewhere, the first fight between Arguello and Escalera, the so-called "Bloody Battle of Bayamon", was fought on Saturday, January 28, 1978, at the Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in the San Juan neighboring city of Bayamon. Considered by many fans and experts as a classic, the bout, for Escalera's WBC world Junior Lightweight title, was won by Nicaragua's Arguello by a thirteenth-round technical knockout.
Benitez's gym-mate, Esteban De Jesus, also formed part of this era. On Friday, November 17, 1972, he became the first boxer to defeat the feared, World Boxing Association's world Lightweight champion Duran, winning by ten-rounds unanimous decision, after dropping Duran in round one, in a non-title affair held at the Madison Square Garden in New York, and beginning the Duran-De Jesus trilogy of fights. Duran and De Jesus rematched with the WBA world Lightweight title on the line on March 16, 1974, at the Gimnasio Nuevo Panama ; the WBC title was not on the line as it was now held by Rodolfo Gonzalez, who had beaten Chango Carmona for that title. In a tremendous fight, De Jesus again dropped Duran in round one, but Duran got up and dropped De Jesus in round seven before stopping him in round eleven to retain the crown. Rodolfo Gonzalez, meanwhile; lost the WBC title to Ishimatsu Suzuki, who, in turn, lost it to De Jesus, who became the WBC world Lightweight champion by outpointing the Japanese boxer over fifteen rounds at the Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon on Saturday, May 8, 1976. De Jesus defended his title successfully three times and won one non-title bout, setting the long-awaited third match with Duran, which was fought on January 21, 1978, in Las Vegas as an unification match for the WBA and WBC world Lightweight titles. The third time around, Duran dominated a valiant De Jesus and won by a twelfth-round technical knockout. De Jesus would fight on until 1981 when, afflicted by drug addiction, he murdered a teenage boy. He was sentenced to life in prison but was diagnosed with HIV during the middle 1980s, becoming the first world champion boxer to die of AIDS disease in 1989, but not before being pardoned by Puerto Rico governor Rafael Hernandez Colon and then released from jail, later receiving a public visit and a hug from his former ring nemesis Duran.
On Saturday, March 6, 1976, Benitez made history by becoming the youngest world boxing champion ever when, at the age of 17, he beat Colombia's Antonio Cervantes by a fifteen-rounds split decision, for Cervantes' WBA's world Junior Welterweight title at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
Samuel Serrano won the WBA's world Junior Lightweight title by defeating Ben Villaflor by a fifteen-rounds unanimous decision on Saturday, October 16, 1976, at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan. With Alfredo Escalera having won the WBC world Junior Lightweight title on Saturday, July 5, 1975, by knocking out Kuniaki Shibata in two rounds at Nara, Japan, the two boxers made history by becoming the first two Puerto Ricans to hold world titles simultaneously in the same division, a feat that would be repeated many times thereafter by other Puerto Rican boxers.
Also in 1975 but on Saturday, June 28 at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, one week before Escalera's world championship victory, Angel Espada of Salinas, beat Clyde Gray of Canada to lift the WBA's vacant world Welterweight title, a belt that had been stripped from Cuban Jose Napoles for failing to defend it against Espada. With Espada and Escalera's wins, Puerto Rico, having had only 3 world champions previously, almost doubled its amount of world champions in the space of a single week, from three to five.
On May 21, 1977, at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Gomez recuperated from a first-round knockdown to defeat South Korean WBC world Super-Bantamweight champion Dong Kyun Yum, winning his first of three titles, later beginning a string of 17 world title defenses, all won by knockout, the streak of knockouts in world title defenses constituting a world record in boxing.
In November 1979, Sixto Escobar died, becoming the first Puerto Rican world champion boxer to pass away. Also in November 1979, on Friday, November 23. specifically, Willie Classen of Santurce, Puerto Rico, fought Wilford Scypion at the Felt Forum in New York City. Classen lost the fight by a tenth-round technical knockout and later died from his injuries, becoming the first Puerto Rican professional boxer ever to die of injuries caused during a contest.