Snips and Snipes with Eric Armit

By Eric Armit

It takes a lot to upset me but I am really disappointed. I have realized that everyone else has been mentioned as the next opponent for Saul Alvarez except me. I threw my hat into the ring but it seems it was just too much trouble to dig through the 999 other hats to find mine. What have I done wrong? How hard can it be to pick out an opponent who is no threat and cheap? I qualify on both of those criteria so came on “Canelo” make your choice before it become a bore and we lose interest in who you are going to face next.

Boy it has been a depressing couple of weeks. We have Mike Tyson talking about fighting; we have Oscar De La Hoya “training” for a fight. We have Floyd Mayweather Jr apparently ready to fight again and Michael Nunn at 47 appearing in a MMA exhibition and in the ultimate exhibition of hypocrisy we hear the poor WBA whinging that it is so very difficult to cut down the number of titles. That’s like some guy driving whilst using his mobile phone complain about the number accidents caused by people driving and using their mobile phone. If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. Here’s a hint WBA try to stop inventing more. That would be step in the right direction. Lock down madness rules, OK!

Jarrell Miller will hear his fate on 5 August when he is called in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission to explain his latest positive test. After his positive tests before the Anthony Joshua fight I was surprised Top Rank gave him another chance to save his career but Bob Arum has made it clear that Miller betrayed the trust they placed in him so even if his career is not over finding someone else to trust him is not going to be easy and if his career is over he only has himself to blame.

To be honest boxing does not need Miller. If there is one thing there is no shortage of it is heavyweights. Putting aside such as Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Dylan Whyte etc. there is a huge list of unbeaten heavyweights active right now. We have Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, Filip Hrgovic, Efe Ajagba, Tony Yoka, Agit Kabayel, Jermaine Franklin, Junior Fa, Frank Savage, Guido Vianello, Petar Milas, Cassius Chaney, Jared Anderson, Darmani Rock and Viktor Vykhryst all unbeaten so the future of heavyweight boxing is in safe hands.

Both Joyce and Dubois have matches coming up as they look towards one of the biggest heavyweight fights in the history of British boxing. In two Britain vs. Germany bouts Joyce faces Michael Wallisch on Saturday and Dubois takes on Erik Pfeifer on August 29. If they both come through those bouts then Joyce and Dubois are paired in a fight for the vacant European title with the winner mandated to fight Marco Huck. I can’t see the winner being interested in a Huck fight. Whilst there is plenty bubbling up at heavyweight with the talk of two or three fight series featuring any two of three from Fury, Joshua and Wilder and with Dillian overdue a chance those guys have a stranglehold on the four titles and boxers such as Joyce, Dubois and Oleg Usyk could find themselves still waiting for a title shot this time next year.

Boxing is slowly shaking off the effects of the COVID-19 virus. Top Rank has led the way. Golden Boy re-launches on Friday with Vergil Ortiz vs. Samuel Vargas in Indio. German promoters are continuing action there with a clash between Jack Culcay and unbeaten Abass Baraou set for 28 August in Berlin and Tyron Zeuge tackling Giovanni De Carolis on 27 November. Culcay vs. Baraou is a real 50/50 match. Another big fight will see Jeff Horn and Tim Tszyu exchanges punches in Brisbane on 26 August. There are signs all over that the sport is stirring. Queensberry staged the first show in Britain, Miguel Cotto has asked for clearance to stage a show in Puerto Rico on 22 August. Gyms are scheduled to reopen in South Africa on 1 September. European title fights featuring French fighters will see Samir Ziani making a voluntary defense of the super featherweight title against Alex Dilmaghani on 22 August in Redditch with the winner to face mandatory challenger Martin Joseph Ward and Maxime Beaussire challenging champion Matteo Signani in Caen on 10 October. There will be a show in Aarhus, Denmark on 19 September. It will be mainly amateur matches with on professional fight. There was a small show with spectators in attendance in Okinawa on Sunday and Oleg Usyk is reported to be staging his first promotion on 1 August.

Filipino Eumir Felix Marcial has been signed to a professional contract by Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions. He won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships and a silver medal at the World Championships and had qualified for the 2020 Olympics. He has reportedly received a $200,000 signing bonus and the intent is to still have him compete at the rescheduled Games as well as fight as a professional.

The last few weeks have seen some tragedies hit boxing. Three promising members of the Kazakh amateur team who had recently advanced from the Youth squad to the Senior level died in a car accident, and unbeaten American super welterweight Travell Mazion was killed in another car accident this one outside Austin, Texas. The 24-year-old Mazion was 17-0 and had won the NABF title in January. Javier Gonzalez was another unbeaten young fighter to pass away recently. The 21-year-old from Gomez Palacio was 15-0 and was ready to move up to eight rounds when cancer ended his young life.

Let’s hope the outcome is better for retired Nigerian heavyweight champion Ngozika Ekwelum who is fighting cancer of the bladder and is about to start another series of chemotherapy. He faced British heavyweights Billy Aird and John L Gardner in the UK in the 1970’s.

From a personal point of view I was so very sorry to learn of the death of Dickie Cole. Dickie was a great referee and was the head of the Texas Commission, but for me he was a much loved friend who was head of the WBC Ratings Committee when I was a member. Dickie would often attend the Ring Officials and leave me in charge of the Ratings. Later Dickie would catch up with me and say “Jose wants to see me-what have you done to the ratings I can’t leave you alone for a minute." He was such a lovely man and any time I met with him was a good day for me. My thoughts go out to his family. RIP Dickie, the world is a poorer place without you.

South Africa’s former WBA featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka, who saw his career ended in 2018 when he was hit by a passing vehicle, has made a successful return as a trainer of amateur boxers and has already produced some local champions.

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This Past Week in Action with Eric Armit

By Eric Armit

Highlights:

-Filipino Mike Plania wins upset decision over WBO No 1 bantam Joshua Greer

-Giovani Santiago goes to 26-0 with debateable decision over Antonio DeMarco

-The Jose Pedraza vs. Mikkel LesPierre fight is called off after LesPierre’s manager tests positive for COV-19 on the day of the fight

-Gabriel Flores moves up for his first ten round fight and is 18-0 after outpointing Josec Ruiz

-WBO super bantam champion Emanuel Navarrete halts Uriel Lopez in non-title action for win No 28 by KO/TKO

-Edwin Palomares spring upset as he stops 25-2 Carlos Ornelas

June 16

Las Vegas, NV, USA: Super Bantam: Mike Plania (24-1 W PTS 10 Joshua Greer (22-2-1). Welter: Giovani Santillan (26-0) W PTS 10 Antonio DeMarco (33-9-1). Super Welter: Bobirzhan Mominov (11-0) W PTS 6 Cameron Krael(17-16)

Plania vs. Green

Filipino Plania gets a big win as he floors WBO No 1 bantam Greer twice on the way to a majority decision victory. Plania made a dream start putting Greer down with a left hook in the opening round. Greer survived the crisis and began to work his way into the fight from the second. Plania continued to be dangerous with his left hooks and he produced another in the sixth to score his second knockdown. Greer was not out of the fight and he began to eat into Plania’s lead as the Filipino tired over the late rounds. The stronger Greer clearly won the last three rounds but it was not enough to offset Plania’s early work and the two knockdowns. Scores a harsh 97-91, and 96-92 for Plania and 95-95. The 23-year-old “Magic” Plania makes it nine wins in a row since suffering his only defeat against former WBO champion Juan Carlos Payano in 2018. He was unrated before this one but that will change now and obviously a fight with WBO champion John Riel Casimero would be a dream match but Casimero has his eyes on a unification fight with Naoya Inoue. Greer had scored good wins over Nikolai Potapov and Antonio Nieves but this is a huge set back when a title fight had looked a certainty for him later this year or early next.

Santillan vs. DeMarco

Santillan maintains his 100% record but looks lucky to do so as he takes a razor-thin majority verdict. Santillan’s youth and strength were expected to prevail against former WBC light champion DeMarco who had been finding life tough. Santillan worked hard trying to force the fight against the older man but DeMarco’s experience showed. He was if anything busier than fellow-southpaw Santillan and more accurate with his work. Most of the rounds were close with neither fighter dominating and the punch stats showed little between them but DeMarco just seemed to have the edge. The judges saw it differently on scores of 96-94 twice for Santillan and 95-95. The 28-year-old “Gallo de Oro” from San Diego was facing his toughest test so far and if he takes away his lessons from this fight he could be challenging for a title by late 2021 or early 2022. At 34 DeMarco still has plenty to offer but his run of just two wins in his last eight fights put him in the “useful scalp for younger fighters to collect” category.

Mominov vs. Krael

The Kazaks march on. Mominov outworks and outpunches a useful Krael for a points victory. Mominov pressed the fight working behind a stiff jab and scoring well in the early rounds with short punches from both hands. Krael has a good chin and plenty of heart and weathered the early punishment to fight back hard over the closing rounds. Mominov was cut over his left eye and lost a point in the last round for a punch to the back of the head but it had no effect on the final result. Scores 58-55 twice and 57-56 for Mominov. The 28-year-old former World Military Champion is making steady progress. Hawaiian Krael is now 1-3 in his last 4 fights but the win in that run was over useful Ravshan Hudaynazarov.

June 18

Las Vegas, NV, USA: Super Light: Light Gabriel Flores (18-0) W PTS 10 Josec Ruiz (21-3-3)

Flores vs. Ruiz

When the manager of Trinidadian Mikkel LesPierre tested positive for COVID-19 on the morning of the fight with Jose Pedraza that bout was cancelled and Flores found himself topping the bill. The unbeaten prospect stepped up in style winning every round over Honduran Ruiz. After dominating the first round with some powerful jabs and good movement Flores put Ruiz down in the second with a left hook followed by a straight right. Ruiz made it to his feet and saw out the round and never again looked seriously hurt. Flores boxed for much of the fight on the back foot rattling Ruiz with counters. Ruiz tried hard to get inside to work on the body but the lateral movement and speed of Flores frustrated those attempts with Floes too slick to be caught. He plugged Ruiz with stiff jabs and hard rights and outpunched and outlanded the slower Latino all the way with only his lack of punching power (just six inside the distance wins) and the sturdy chin of Ruiz (just one loss by KO/TKO)  allowing the fight to go the distance. Scores 100-89 for Flores for all three judges. Still only 20) he signed pro with Top Rank at 16) Flores is an immense talent and is being sensibly matched. He could be a real title threat by 2022. Miami-based “Scorpion” Ruiz is flattered by his record as his opposition has been somewhat less than modest but he gave Flores some useful ring time.

Collard vs. Kaminsky

After winning only one of his first five fights Cassius Clay Collard has found some form and he took a deserved split decision over previously unbeaten Kaminsky. Collard made a strong start working well to head and body and soon had Kaminsky bleeding from the nose. Kaminsky worked the body trying to slow Collared but also suffered a cut over his left eye. He was countering well but lacked the power to keep a storming Collard out and although he made a strong finish it was not enough to overcome Collard’s early dominance. Scores 58-56 twice for Collard and 58-56 for Kaminsky. Collard is now 6-1 in his last 7 fights with four of those wins coming against unbeaten fighters albeit with modest records. Israeli Kaminsky, 19, “The Lion of Zion” was a silver medallist at the US Under-19 championships. He has plenty of time and now needs to take a deep breath and start again.

Mexico City, Mexico: Feather: Feather: Emanuel Navarrete (31-1) W TKO 6 Uriel Lopez (13-14-1). Edwin Palomares (13-3-1) W TKO 5 Carlos Ornelas (25-3)

Navarrete vs. Lopez

Navarrete gets a workout as he halts Lopez in six rounds. Navarrete was not putting a great deal into this early. He was content to use his longer reach to keep banging home jabs on the advancing Lopez. Navarrete was constantly changing guards and although not loading up on his punches he was keeping a high work rate. Lopez kept marching forward and had some success but not much. Lopez landed a cracking right to the chin in the fourth and that caused Navarrete to up his pace. He was spearing Lopez with long jabs and powerful hooks and uppercuts but to his credit Lopez kept marching into the hurt zone. A short left hook stopped Lopez in his tracks in the fifth and a series of shots from both hands dropped Lopez to his knees. He was up at eight and had to survive some fierce attacks to make it to the bell. In the sixth Navarrete handed out a brutal beating to a game Lopez who just kept soaking up the punishment and trying to punch back. The end came when Navarrete forced Lopez to the ropes and then buried a straight right to the body that saw Lopez fall to his knees. He made it to his feet but the referee just waived the fight off. The 28-year-old WBO super bantam champion gets win No 28 by KO/TKO and his twenty-sixth victory in a row. It is difficult to see who can match him at his weight or to see any big money fights in his division so by next year he will probably be trying unify the titles at featherweight. Lopez just a gutsy journeyman. 

Palomares vs. Ornelas

Palomares gets a career best win and springs a major upset as he halts Ornelas in five rounds. Ornelas started well scoring with his right jab and straight lefts. In the second Palomares, sporting pink hair, was getting past the jab and scoring with hooks and uppercuts inside and he dominated the action in the third with relentless attacks. Ornelas tried to turn things around with some lefts in the fourth but was soon on the retreat as Palomares banged home to head and body with both hands forcing Ornelas to hold. Ornelas simply surrender in the fifth. He dropped to one knee when under pressure and then started to rise only to go down on one knee again. He stood up at nine but the referee rightly stopped the fight. Palomares, 24, the Mexican featherweight champion, had put up a good performance in taking 21-0 Irving Turrubiartes to a split decision in his last fight but BoxRec had him 25 positions below Ornelas in their world ratings. Ornelas was rated in the world’s top 15 as he went 21-0 at the start of his career but is now 3-4 in his last 7 with all three losses by KO/TKO.

Arlamow, Poland: Super Middle: Robert Parzeczewski (25-1) W PTS 8 Sladan Janjanin (27-6). Feather: Kamil Laszczyk (28-0) W TKO 5 Piotr Gudel (10-5-1).Super Middle: Przemyslaw Gorgon (10-6-1) W PTS 6 Patryk Szymanski (20-4)

Parzeczewski vs. Janjanin

Pole Parzeczewski brutalises Bosnian Janjanin on the way to a wide unanimous decision. Parzeczewski scored a knockdown in the first, two in the second and one each in the third and fifth rounds. Despite this and a broken nose, Janjanin survived the eight rounds and did a “victory” dance at the end of the fight to celebrate going the distance. Parzeczewski was not taking this fight lightly and tried hard to get the much smaller and lighter Bosnian out of the fight but failed and also suffered an injury to his right hand. The scores were 80-67 for Parzeczewski on all three cards. He has useful wins over Dariusz Sek, Dmitri Chudinov and Patrick Mendy and is said to be facing experienced Canadian Ryan Ford in his next fight. Janjanin is 4-5 in his last nine fights including a points loss to Martin Murray in November.

Laszczyk vs. Gudel

No problem here for Laszczyk. His speed gave him a big edge and he rocked Gudel with a right to the head in the first round. Accurate jabs and some tasty left hooks gave Laszczyk the second round and he scored well with right hooks in the third. In the fourth a right to the head forced Gudel to drop to one knee. He made it to his feet and the bell saved him. Laszczyk ended it in the fifth flooring Gudel twice before the referee intervened. After nine years as a pro and with a 28-0 record the 29-year-old Pole has been fed a stream of soft-touch opponents and seems to be going nowhere-slowly. Now 3 losses in his last 4 fights for Gudel. 

Gorgon vs. Szymanski

Szymanski’s slide continues as he losses a split decision to a very ordinary Gorgon. Szymanski had much the better technique and used his skills to edge in front. He then seemed to lose his way and boxed very defensively looking to hold and smother Gorgon’s attacks. Gorgon finished strongly and a right to the head saw Szymanski take a knee in the last round. Scores 58-55 twice for Gorgon and 57-56 for Szymanski. Just very ordinary prelim fighter Gorgon was 3-3-1 in his previous 7 fights and should not have caused Szymanski any problems but after winning his first nineteen fights, including five victories in the USA Szymanski has fallen to 1-4 in his last 5 with three of those losses inside the distance. 

Fight of the week (Significance): Mike Plania’s win over WBO No 1 Joshua Greer has shaken up the WBO bantamweight ratings

Fight of the week (Entertainment): Plania vs. Greer was close and hard fought

Fighter of the week: Plania for beating WBO No 1 Greer with honourable mention to Gabriel Flores beating useful Josec Ruiz in his first ten round fight

Punch of the week: The right to the body from Emanuel Navarrete which finished Uriel Lopez

Upset of the week: Plania beating Greer was a surprise as was Edwin Palomares stopping 25-2 Carlos Ornelas

Prospect watch: No new names this week

Next Week’s Action:

Tuesday, June 23:

Las Vegas: Super Fly: Andrew Moloney (21-0) vs. Joshua Franco (16-1-2) (WBA super fly title): Feather: Chris Diaz (25-2) vs. Jason Sanchez (15-1). Light: Joseph Adorno (14-0-1) vs. Alexis del Bosque (17-5).

Thursday, June 25:

Las Vegas: Bantam: Jason Moloney (20-1) vs. Leonardo Baez (18-2). Light Abraham Nova) 18-0) vs., Avery Sparrow (10-1).

Friday, June 26:

Small shows in Tijuana and Haltom City, Texas.

Saturday, June 27: 

Shows in Brampton, Canada, Czech Republic, Wuppertal Germany, Mexico City, Moscow and South Korea.

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1960 - The Champions

By Eric Armit

I occasionally get someone asking me about how I started to write about boxing and although I can’t recall when I first wrote I can recall approximately when I first began to compile records of current boxers and that was in the late 1950’s. That started me thinking about who were the champions in those days, what were their achievements, what was their quality and what was the level of their experience? There were no computers and no internet and no BoxRec. There is nothing that sucks you into following the career of a boxer like filling an index card by hand result by result week after week and year after year. I was my own BoxRec. Having started in the late 1950’s the 1960’s began a new decade of record compiling for me so I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and look at the world champions in the first year of the new decade and what happened to them later and hope you will join me. To some of my age-not too many of them now-it will hopefully bring back some fond memories. To some a good bit younger it might fill in some blanks about fighters heard of but not really known in detail and for younger fans of boxing offer some insight into those who are spoken of in reverence by oldies such as myself. 

One of the biggest differences was the absence of the WBC, IBF and WBO. The early forerunner of the WBA was there in the shape of the National Boxing Association (NBA) but no one paid much attention to them and the New York Commission (NYSAC) thought it was the major force in boxing so they occasionally had their own “world” champions. If anyone it was Ring Magazine under Nat Fleischer who ruled on who the world champion was and most of the world went along with Ring’s judgement.

Title fights were held over 15 rounds and how they were scored depended on where the fight was held. If it was in New York or California it was scored on rounds and not points i.e. 8-7, 10-5, 9-6 - Nevada it was on a 5 points per round system i.e. 75-74, 75-73 etc. and in Florida it was the 10 points per round system we use now. In Britain the referee was the sole arbiter and his score was rarely released.

There were the eight traditional divisions heavy, light heavy, middle, welter, light, feather, bantam and fly. There had been some flirting with other weight divisions such as super feather/junior lightweight and super lightweight/light welterweight in earlier years but generally speaking only the NBA and the New York Commission recognized them then and they had died out and were not given any real recognition. However, in 1959 the NBA and NYSAC reintroduced the super lightweight division and the NBA also brought in the super featherweight division.

Even including these two recently introduced divisions there were only a total of seventeen world title fights in 1960. These days there are sometimes almost that many in a month. Can you imagine the dog fights that we would have today if the various cable, streaming, terrestrial channels and the promoters were scrambling to get a share of just seventeen world title fights. When you hear any of these bodies complaining that the proliferation of titles is ruining the sport, try asking if they would like to turn the clock back to 1960 and then try to fill their schedules.

There was a mixture of champions in 1960. Ingemar Johansson was the heavyweight champion having scored a huge upset in 1959 flooring Floyd Patterson seven times and stopping him in three rounds. Maybe not as huge as Andy Ruiz vs. Anthony Joshua I but of that magnitude. In June 1960 Patterson became the first fighter to regain the title when he knocked out Johansson. If they were active today both fighters would be considered as cruiserweights. Patterson weighed 182lbs in their 1959 fight and was a then career highest of 190lbs for the return and Johansson was 196 and 194 ¾lbs respectively.

Patterson had won the heavyweight title in November 1956 at the age of 21, the youngest fighter to win the heavyweight title until 1986 when Mike Tyson beat his record. 

Patterson’s title winning fight back in 1956 was against Archie Moore when he knocked out “The Old Mongoose” in five rounds. It is difficult to think of two more disparate roads than these two had traveled in their careers. Patterson had won the heavyweight title at 21 in his thirty-second fight. Moore won the light heavyweight title at the age of 36 in fight No 104 in the seventeenth year of his career. He had his first pro fight before Patterson was one year old. Moore put his title in storage in 1960 making no defenses but having four non-title fights. The WBA stripped Moore of the title in October just before he lost on points to Giulio Rinaldi in Italy. Moore beat Rinaldi in New York in June 1961, a fight that was officially recognized as a title fight by the NYSAC and the EBU and most of the public before Moore gave up any claim to the title in May 1962. 

Paul Pender was a somewhat underwhelming middleweight champion having beaten Sugar Ray Robinson in January and he made a successful defense against Robinson in June. Robinson had won the title in 1958 in a historic battle against Carmen Basilio that was voted “Fight of the Year”. He had only one fight in 1959 and the NBA stripped him of the world title for inactivity. The NYSAC had continued to recognize Robinson as having the majority of boxing people, and he was in his fifth reign as middleweight champion. Again there was a contrast with Pender in fight No 43 of his career and a 38-year-old Robinson losing the title in fight No 152 in his twentieth year as a pro. Pender was unfortunate to be following guys such as Basilio and Robinson and was always going to suffer by comparison.

Going into 1960 Don Jordan was welterweight champion having dodged the clutches of Frankie Carbo. Convincing wins in title defenses in 1959 against Virgil Akins and unbeaten Denny Moyer had boosted his stock but then it plummeted as he was knocked out by Luis Federico Thompson in December 1959 and then in June 1960 he was beaten on points by modest Candy McFarland who had lost three of his previous four fights. Benny “Kid” Paret took the title from Jordan with a unanimous points decision in May. The rest of the year was a switchback for Paret as he lost a split decision to Denny Moyer in a non-title match but retained the title with a win over Thompson in December. In 1961 Paret would go on to lose the title to Emile Griffith then beat Griffith in a return to close 1961 as welterweight champion but in December 1961 lost to Gene Fullmer in a challenge for the NBA middleweight title. On March 23 1962 in his third fight with Griffith Paret took a savage beating being stopped in the twelfth round and lost his title and his life. He was in a coma and never regained consciousness after the stoppage before dying on 3 April.

“Old Bones” Joe Brown held the lightweight title. The year started and ended badly for him. In non-title fights in January he did a “no mas” when body punches from Ray Portillo left him with two separated ribs and in December he was floored and outpointed by Giordano Campari. Brown showed his class when it counted as he retained the title in October with a comfortable decision over Cisco Andrade. Brown had won the title in May 1956 at the age of 30 and in fight No 108 of his career. Not being “connected” meant that it had taken him almost twenty years to get the title shot. 

Davey Moore “The Springfield Rifle” held the featherweight title. He had won the title and defended it in 1959 with inside the distance wins over Nigeria’s first ever world champion Hogan Bassey. Moore was very active in 1960 fitting in seven fights. He retained the title with a wide unanimous decision over Kazuo Takayama in Japan. Unlike today in 1960 champions regularly engaged in non-title fights and five of Moore’s six non-title fights were staged outside the USA. Moore won five of those non-title bouts but suffered his first inside the distance loss in March 1960 when big punching Venezuelan Carlos Hernandez reportedly fractured Moore’s jaw and the champion retired after seven rounds of their fight in Caracas.

The bantamweight title was held by Jose Becerra. The heavy puncher from Guadalajara entered the year on the back of a 19 bout winning streak with 16 of those wins by KO/TKO. He had won the title in July 1959 by knocking out Alphonse Halimi in eight rounds. He retained the title with a repeat win over Halimi in February when after being down in the second round and trailing on all three cards he knocked Halimi out in the ninth round. He made another defense in Japan in May when he won a split decision over Kenji Yonekura. Two judges had Becerra winning by six and four points and the Japanese judge saw Yonekura the winner by five points! Like Moore, Becerra also had some non-title fights. He won three but the fourth was a shocking kayo loss in August against unfancied Eloy Sanchez who had lost his previous three fights. Becerra was so disappointed with his loss that he retired and in November Brazilian Eder Jofre knocked out Sanchez to win recognition by the NBA taking his record to 35-0-3. Jofre went on to unify the titles winning the WBC belt and retaining the WBA title (the NBA had morphed into the WBA in 1962) and also won the WBC featherweight title on his way to eventual recognition as one of the greatest bantamweights of all time.

Going into 1960 Argentinian Pascual Perez was flyweight champion.  The little South American had won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in London in 1948 before turning pro in 1952 and when he beat Yoshio Shirai in November 1954 he became Argentina’s first world champion. As the year started he was 33 years old, had defended his title nine times and had a 54-1-1 record. His glorious reign came to an end in April 1960 when he dropped a split decision in Bangkok by Pone Kingpetch in a fight where Ring Magazine editor Nat Fleischer was a judge. Fleischer scored Kingpetch a clear winner. The size difference-Perez was 4’11” and Kingpetch 5’6 ½”- just proved too much for Perez to overcome. The Thai stopped Perez in eight rounds in a return fight in September 1960. Kingpetch eventually lost and then regained his title in fights against Fighting Harada before being recognized as the inaugural WBC flyweight champion in 1962. He lost both his WBA and WBC recognition when he was beaten by Hiroyuki Ebihara in 1963 but then regained them with a win over Ebihara in 1964 only to lose them to Salvatore Burruni in 1965.  

As I said at the beginning of 1960 the super lightweight and super featherweight titles were reintroduced by the NBA. The super lightweight/light welterweight title had died out in 1947 with Tippy Larkin the last title holder. On its resurrection in June 1959, Carlos Ortiz won NBA and NYSAC recognition with a second round cuts stoppage of Kenny Lane. In 1960 Ortiz retained the title with a tenth round kayo of 31-0 Mexican Battling Torres in February and a split decision over Italian Dulio Loi in June which was only Loi’s second defeat in 111 fights. Loi had his revenge taking the title from Ortiz on a majority decision in September 1960. These two would meet again in May 1961 with Loi flooring Ortiz and winning a wide unanimous verdict. The NBA morphed into the WBA and Loi lost the WBA title to Eddie Perkins who floored Loi twice on the way to a points win in September 1962 but Loi rebounded and regained the title in December before retiring as still champion in January 1963 with a 115-3-8 record.

The super featherweight/junior lightweight title had fallen into disuse when Sandy Sadler was champion back in 1951 and when the title was again contested in 1959 Harold Gomes climbed off the floor four times and outpointed Paul Jorgenson for the NBA belt. He lost the title to Filipino great Flash Elorde in March 1960. Elorde had lost on a cut against Sandy Saddler for the featherweight title in 1956 but in front of 36,000 wildly ecstatic fans at the inauguration of the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City Metro Manila Elorde destroyed Gomes flooring him six times before being knocking him out in the seventh round. They met again in August with Elorde putting Gomes down twice and the fight was over in 80 seconds. When the WBC came into being they recognized Elorde as their champion on 14 February 1963 and just two days later he outpointed Johnny Bizzarro in defense of the WBA and WBC titles. In an achievement that could not happen today at the same time as winning and losing in world title fights at super featherweight Elorde had three terms as OPBF lightweight champion going 17-2 in OPBF title fights. A forerunner and inspiration to budding Filipino boxers who would strive to follow in his footsteps.

With so many sanctioning bodies and so many weight divisions it would not be impossible to have had fifty fighters holding a version of a world title in any year. In 1960 in the 10 division only 17 fighters held a world title: Ingemar Johansson, Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Ray Robinson, Paul Pender, Don Jordan, Benny Paret, Joe Brown, Davey Moore, Jose Becerra, Eder Jofre, Pascual Perez, Pone Kingpetch, Carlos Ortiz, Dulio Loi, Harold Gomes and Flash Elorde. In 1960 four champions Archie Moore, Robinson, Loi and Brown all had more than 100 fights to their name, something we will never see again. Something we are more familiar with is that in the list of champions there were two former Olympic gold medal winners, Patterson at middleweight, Perez at flyweight. Davey Moore and Ingemar Johansson  represented the USA and Sweden respectively at the 1952 Olympics and Eder Jofre boxed for Brazil at the 1956 Olympics. Tragically within the next three years two champions Paret and Davey Moore would go on to lose their lives when defending their titles.

Of those title holders in 1960, Ingemar Johansson, Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Brown, Eder Jofre, Pascual Perez, Carlos Ortiz and Flash Elorde would go on the be enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 1960-A year of champions.

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