Antonio Cervantes

Antonio Cervantes
Data
Birth Name	Antonio Cervantes Reyes
Weight class	Light welterweight
nationality	Colombian
birthday	December 23, 1945
place of birth	Palenque, Colombia
style	Left delivery
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	106
Victories	91
Knockout victories	44
Defeats	12
draw	3

Antonio Cervantes (born December 23, 1945 in Palenque, Colombia) is a former Colombian boxer.

"Kid Pambele" turned professional featherweight in 1964 after having previously only completed three amateur fights. Until 1970 he boxed only in Colombia and Venezuela . Eight of his twelve defeats fell into this early phase of his career, due to his inexperience and the lack of boxing training. So he lost, among other things, in November 1969 to the later featherweight world champion Antonio Gomez.

On December 11, 1971 he got a title fight against the Argentine WBA semi-welterweight world champion Nicolino Locche , to which he was defeated on points in Buenos Aires .

Locche lost his title a little later, however, to the Panamanian "Peppermint" Alfonso Frazer , trained by Ray Arcel , which gave Cervantes another chance for the title on October 28, 1972. He succeeded in the tenth round of the knockout and thus the win of the WBA world title.

He defeated Locche in a rematch, this time on neutral ground in Venezuela, prematurely and knocked Frazer out a second time. In 1975 he also defeated the Durán captive Esteban de Jesús and Hector Thompson.

After ten title defenses, he lost his title in 1976 in San Juan by a point defeat to the 17-year-old unbeaten Puerto Rican Wilfred Benitez .

He beat Saoul Mamby in a non-title fight and won the now vacant WBA title against Carlos Gimenez, again in Venezuela against an Argentine, by technical knockout in the sixth round and defended him six times, including 1979 against Miguel Montilla.

In August 1980 he fought in the USA against the unbeaten Aaron Pryor in his hometown. He knocked Pryor to the ground in the first round, but then went KO himself in the fourth round and had to give up the belt again. It was one of only two KO defeats in his career.

He made a few more fights, mostly in his native Colombia, and retired in 1983.

He is the only Colombian in the International Boxing Hall of Fame . The " Ring Magazine " rated him as the fourth best light welterweight of all time behind Julio César Chávez , Pryor and Barney Ross .

Web links

• Antonio Cervantes in the BoxRec database