José Torres (boxer)

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José Torres boxer
Data
Birth Name José Torres
Fight name Chegui
Weight class Light heavyweight
nationality Puerto Rico
birthday May 3, 1936
place of birth Ponce , Puerto Rico
Date of death January 19, 2009
Place of death Ponce, Puerto Rico
style Left delivery
Combat Statistics
Struggles 45
Victories 41
Knockout victories 29
Defeats 3
draw 1

José "Chegui" Torres (born May 3, 1936 in Ponce , Puerto Rico , † January 19, 2009 ibid) was a Puerto Rican professional boxer . As an amateur boxer , he had won the silver medal in the junior middleweight division at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne . In 1965 he defeated Willie Pastrano and won the WBC and WBA world light heavyweight titles . In 1971 he published the biography "Sting like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story", which was also published in Germany by Heyne Verlag . In 1997 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame . On January 19, 2009, José Torres died of a heart attack .

Career

Amateur career

Torres began boxing when he was 18 when he joined the United States Army . He won his only amateur title in the army. When he won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, he was still in the army at the time. He lost the final against László Papp from Hungary.

Torres trained at the Empire Sporting Club in New York. In 1958 he won the middleweight title of the Amateur Athletic Union . In the same year he won the New York Golden Gloves competition in the category up to 160 lb. in New York.

Professional career

He made his professional debut in 1958 with a knockout in the first round against George Hamilton in New York. Twelve more wins in a row followed, ten of them by knockout. Then he boxed against the former world and middleweight champion Benny Paret , in which he could only achieve one draw after ten rounds. In 1963 there was his first defeat against Florentino Fernández by knockout.

In 1964, Torres defeated some boxers such as Jose Gonzalez, Walker Simmons (twice), Frankie Olivera , Gomeo Brennan and eventual middleweight world champion Carl Olson . In 1965 he won against the light heavyweight world champion Willie Pastrano . This made him the third Puerto Rican world boxing champion in history.

In 1966 he successfully defended his title against Wayne Thornton , Eddie Cotton and Chic Calderwood . That same year he lost his title to Dick Tiger on points. In 1967 there was another rematch between Dick Tiger and José Torres, which Torres also lost on points.

After these two defeats, José Torres only fought twice and ended his career in 1969.

literature

  • José Torres: "Sting like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story", Heyne Verlag

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Torres, José
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Torres, Chegui
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Puerto Rican boxer
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Ponce , Puerto Rico
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 2009
Place of death Ponce , Puerto Rico