The Boxing History Blog

Born in Puerto Rico on 02nd August 1951, Esteban De Jesus was a skilful boxer with a fast array of sharp punches. He turned professional in February 1969, aged eighteen, defeating fellow debutant El Tarita. De Jesus won by a second-round knockout and Tarita never boxed again. In his twentieth contest, he travelled out of his homeland for the first time to take on Venezuelan Armando Mendoza, in his home city of Caracas. Mendoza had only lost the one contest in his thirteen-fight career, but De Jesus kept his undefeated record going with a seventh-round TKO victory. He next fought six weeks later on 24th July 1971, challenging Josue Marquez for his Puerto Rican lightweight championship. Marquez had only been champion for a month, after his points win over Victor Ortiz. De Jesus was too good for the defending champion, taking the title with a twelve-round points decision. He knocked out Ortiz in the fourth round, his national title not at stake, before facing Marquez once more at ...

30th January 1982, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas WBC Light-Middleweight Title Wilfred Benitez Vs Roberto Duran Wilfred Benitez returned to the ring in March 1980 after suffering his first defeat to 'Sugar' Ray Leonard. His opponent was Brooklyn light-middleweight Johnny Turner, who boasted a solid record of 34-3-1 and twenty-six knockouts, one more than Benitez.  Remarkably the former two-weight world champion was still only twenty-one-years-old and he went on to score a ninth round technical knockout over the New Yorker, who played French boxer Laurent Dauthuille opposite Robert DeNiro in 1980's Raging Bull. He continued 1980 with an eighth round TKO over Tony Chiaverini in the August and finished the year by clearly outscoring Pete Ranzany over ten rounds. "Ranzany made me change my mind about a second round knockout. They told me he would be easy, but he gave me a hard fight," said Benitez. "He's a very difficult man to hit. He k...

Wilfred Benitez turned professional at the tender age of fifteen, knocking out Hiram Santiago in the first round in November 1973. Benitez, who was born in New York to Puerto Rican parentage, was a natural talent with wonderful skills. Coached by his ruthless father Gregorio, Benitez went on to win all twenty-five contests, with twenty stoppages, before challenging long serving WBA light-welterweight champion Antonio Cervantes on 06th March 1976. The defending champion from Colombia first took the title from Alfonso Frazer in October 1972 and was making defence number eleven against Benitez. Both men boxed on even terms for the first four rounds, but in round five the skills of the teenager surfaced and he took the next four rounds, mainly due to his jab and the ability of making his thirty-year-old opponent miss. Cervantes did manage to rally in round eleven, but he couldn't press the initiative as Benitez became the youngest world champion at the age of seventeen years, fi...

Miguel Angel Cotto was born in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States on 29th October 1980, but he fought out of his hometown Caguas in Puerto Rico. Cotto started boxing at the age of eleven and as an amateur complied a record of 125-23. In 1993 he lost on points to fellow Puerto Rican and future minimum and light-flyweight champion Ivan Calderon. In 1997 he lifted the gold medal lightweight title at the Pan American Championships in Columbia. In 1998 he picked up silver medals in the junior Pan America Championships and the World Junior Championships and the Central American and Caribbean Games, all in the lightweight division. In 1999 he stepped up to the light-welterweight division and in 2000 won gold at the Central American and Caribbean Games held in Venezuela. That year he represented Puerto Rico at the Sydney Olympics, losing to Muhammad Abdullaev in the round of sixteen. The following February he made his professional debut against fellow debutant Jason Do...