Jose Napoles Part One: The Long Wait
Jose Napoles Nicknamed Mantequilla , the Spanish word for butter - as in he was as smooth as butter - suited the sleek Cuban boxer, who made the sport look so effortless. Born as Jose Angel Napoles in Santiago de Cuba , on 13th April 1940, he composed an amateur record of over one hundred fights, losing just one. Napoles turned professional as a featherweight aged eighteen on 2nd August 1958, stopping fellow Cuban Julio Rojas in the first round in Havana. He remained undefeated until his eighth fight when he dropped an eight-round unanimous decision to Florida’s Hilton Smith at the same Coliseo Nacional he debuted at on 22nd August 1959. Napoles won his next thirteen bouts to go 20-1 (6 KOs), and his ten-round unanimous decision victory over countryman Angel Robinson Garcia on 3rd June 1961 proved to be his final contest in Cuba, as the country’s president, Fidel Castro , banned professional boxing. Mantequilla then defected to ...