José Nápoles

José Nápoles
Data
Birth Name	José Ángel Nápoles
Weight class	Welterweight
nationality	Cuban
birthday	April 13, 1940
place of birth	Santiago de Cuba
Date of death	16th August 2019
Place of death	Mexico city
style	Left delivery
size	1.71 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	88
Victories	81
Knockout victories	54
Defeats	7th

José Ángel "Mantequilla" Nápoles (born April 13, 1940 in Santiago de Cuba , Cuba ; † August 16, 2019 in Mexico City , Mexico ) was a Cuban-Mexican boxer .

career

Boxing glove from Mantequilla Nápoles El Dux de Venecia bar in Mexico City .

Nápoles had an amateur record of 114 wins, one loss. He turned professional in Cuba in 1958 and boxed light and light welterweight, but left his homeland for Mexico in 1962 after Fidel Castro's professional boxing was banned in Cuba when he came to power . In 1963 he lost two fights on points, but was able to win the rematches. In 1966 he was defeated by LC Morgan due to lacerations. His susceptibility to these injuries should have been a constant nuisance throughout his career.

Nápoles was a defense specialist with good upper body movement, which earned him his battle name "Mantequilla" (butter), he had a world-class chin, a powerful left hook and was very precise with his punches, but his susceptibility to injury was always a major risk factor.

In 1967 he rose to the welterweight division. In 1969 he outclassed the WBC and WBA world champion Curtis Cokes and won the title by technical knockout, as Cokes gave up before the fourteenth round. Nápoles also won the rematch early because his opponent broke off the fight again in the round break after the tenth round.

In the same year he defended his title confidently against Emile Griffith and Ernie Lopez . In December 1970 he lost the title after dropping out because of lacerations to Billy Backus, the nephew of Carmen Basilio , but won it back in 1971 and successfully defended it until 1975.

During his time as welterweight world champion, he also competed against middleweight world champion Carlos Monzón on February 9, 1974, but had no chance against the physically superior Argentine and gave up the fight. It was his only defeat by impact.

In May 1975 he put down the WBA title and then defended the WBC title again in July until he lost the belt on December 6, 1975 to the British John Stracey, again due to lacerations. After this defeat he ended his career.

In 1990 Nápoles was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Web links

• José Nápoles in the BoxRec database