Esteban de Jesús

Esteban de Jesús
Data
Birth Name	Esteban de Jesús
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	Puerto Rican
birthday	2nd August 1951
place of birth	Carolina
Date of death	May 11, 1989
Place of death	San Juan
style	Left delivery
size	1.66 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	62
Victories	57
Knockout victories	32
Defeats	5

Esteban de Jesús (born August 2, 1951 in Carolina , Puerto Rico , † May 11, 1989 in San Juan , Puerto Rico) was a Puerto Rican boxer.

Professional career

The hard hitting counter boxer turned professional in 1969 in the featherweight division and won his first 25 fights before losing to Venezuelan Antonio Gómez on points in his homeland.

On November 17, 1972, it came to the most famous fight of his career in lightweight, when he beat the undefeated Panamanian world champion Roberto Durán in Madison Square Garden on points in 31 fights and even had him on the ground in the first round. Durán is widely considered to be the best lightweight of all time, it was the only defeat during his time in lightweight, even if both weighed in a little over the weight limit in this fight, as it was not about a title.

In the same year De Jesús beat Ray Lampkin twice and was North American champion. In 1974 he defeated the Panamanian ex-world champion Alfonso "Peppermint" Frazer prematurely, then there was a rematch against Durán for the WBA title on March 16, 1974 , this time in Panama . This time, too, after the parade blow from De Jesús, the left hook, the well-known taker Durán had to go back to the ground in the first round, but this time won by knockout in the eleventh round.

In May 1975 De Jesús lost the light welterweight to the Colombian Antonio Cervantes in the fight for the WBA title in this weight class on points.

On May 8, 1976, he got his next title chance and defeated the Japanese Guts Ishimatsu to secure the WBC lightweight title. He then defended the title three times, but was always clearly overshadowed by WBA world champion Durán. On January 21, 1978 it came to the unification fight in the third duel against Durán, which this won by technical knockout in the twelfth round.

He played a fourth and final title fight on July 7, 1980 against WBC light middleweight title holder, Saoul Mamby. After he again lost prematurely, he ended his career.

Others

De Jesús repeatedly came into conflict with the law. He killed a man because of drug arguments and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In prison he was visited by his old nemesis Durán. When it became known that he had AIDS , he was pardoned and died a short time later.

Web links

• Esteban de Jesús in the BoxRec database