Rodrigo Valdez

Rodrigo Valdez
Data
Birth Name	Rodrigo Valdez
Fight name	Rocky
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Colombian
birthday	December 22, 1946
place of birth	Cartagena
Date of death	March 14, 2017
Place of death	Cartagena
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.77 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	73
Victories	63
Knockout victories	42
Defeats	8th
draw	2

Rodrigo Valdez (born December 22, 1946 in Cartagena , Colombia ; † March 14, 2017 there ) was a Colombian professional boxer and world champion in the middleweight division of the WBA and WBC . The BoxRec database lists him as number 35 of the best middleweight boxers of all time, and Ring Magazine places him among the top 30 most powerful boxers of all time.

His three fights against Bennie Briscoe and his two duels against Carlos Monzón are among the rivalry classics of the 1970s.

Boxing career

Rodrigo Valdez began his professional career at the age of 16 and played 44 of his 73 fights in his native Colombia. In his 9th fight on October 2, 1965, he suffered the first loss of his career; he lost by technical knockout in round 6 against the unbeaten Juan Escobar. However, this was the only premature loss of his career. On April 2, 1967, he reached a tie against Mario Rossito (45-9-5) and on January 21, 1968 another tie against German Gastelbondo (33-7-5). His strongest defeated opponent until then was Eugenio Espinoza (51-5-4), whom he defeated on March 5, 1967 by winning points.

On February 16, 1969, he fought outside his home country for the first time. He boxed against Daniel Guanin (33-6-3) in neighboring Ecuador and suffered his first loss on points. By then he had won 22 of his 25 fights, 10 of them by knockout. On August 6, 1969, he boxed for the first time in the United States and won in Las Vegas unanimously on points against Peter Cobblah. He was also able to win his next five fights in the United States early, but in 1970 he suffered two more points defeats at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

He was able to win his next 17 fights, 14 of them by knockout. He boxed for the first time in France . By 1973 he had built a remarkable match record, but had not yet boxed against anyone of world class, which prevented him from a title fight for a long time. However, he had defeated several national champions from lower weight classes. On September 1, 1973, he finally won his first title in New Caledonia ; he was by winning points against the powerful Bennie Briscoe, North American middleweight champion. On December 14, 1973 he defeated the multiple Canadian champion Joey Durelle by knockout in round 2.

Since the Argentine Carlos Monzón was preparing to win the WBA world championship title and did not want to defend his WBC world championship belt, it was withdrawn from him and thus vacant . Rodrigo Valdez and Bennie Briscoe were then selected by the WBC to box the title. The fight took place on May 25, 1974 in Monte Carlo . Valdez surprisingly won the fight with a technical knockout in round 7 and inflicted Briscoe's only premature defeat in 96 professional fights. Valdez had established himself at the top of the middleweight division and then defended his world title against the French master and later European champion Gratien Tonna , as well as against Ramón Méndez, Rudy Robles and Nessim Cohen, where he only had to go the full number of laps with Robles.

Still as number 1 in the middleweight division, WBA world champion Carlos Monzón was considered, who had not suffered a defeat for over eleven years. His fight record was 85 wins (59 of which by knockout), three defeats on points and nine draws. On June 26, 1976, the two met in a title unification fight in Monte Carlo. At the time, the WBA and the WBC were the only two recognized world associations in professional boxing, which gave the fight a prestigious dimension. Valdez's brother was murdered five days before the fight, which left its mark on him. So he seemed not very active in combat and went down on lap 14. After the full 15 rounds, Carlos Monzón was declared the unanimous point winner and thus reunited the world titles of both associations.

On July 30, 1977 there was a rematch in Monte Carlo, which Monzón won again unanimously on points. However, Valdez managed a knockdown in round 2, the first and only one in Monzón's career. Subsequently, Monzón resigned from boxing, with his two world titles becoming vacant again.

On November 5, 1977 Valdez was finally able to secure the world titles of the WBA and WBC after he had defeated Bennie Briscoe again in Italy by unanimous victory on points. But already in his first title defense he lost his title by losing points to Hugo Pastor Corro . Also in the rematch on November 11 of the same year, he had to admit defeat on points. In November 1980 he ended his career.

Web links

• Profile in the BoxRec database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carlos Monzón: Murió Rodrigo Valdez, el hombre que puso de rodillas a Carlos Monzón. In: clarin.com. Grupo Clarín, March 15, 2017, accessed March 19, 2017 (Spanish). 

predecessor	Office	successor
Carlos Monzón	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) May 25, 1974 - June 26, 1976	Carlos Monzón

predecessor	Office	successor
Carlos Monzón	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) November 5, 1977 - April 22, 1978	Hugo Pastor Corro

predecessor	Office	successor
Carlos Monzón	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) November 5, 1977 - April 22, 1978	Hugo Pastor Corro