Vicente Rondón

Rondón, Vicente
Data
Birth Name	Rondon, Vicente Paul
Weight class	Middleweight, light heavyweight
nationality	Venezuela
birthday	July 29, 1938
place of birth	Rio Chico , Miranda , Venezuela
Date of death	December 28, 1992
Place of death	Caracas
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	57
Victories	39
Knockout victories	22nd
Defeats	15th

Vicente Paúl Rondón (born July 29, 1938 in Rio Chico , Miranda , Venezuela , † December 28, 1992 in Caracas ) was a Venezuelan boxer . He was the light heavyweight professional boxer world champion .

Career

Vicente Rondon grew up in extreme poverty in San Jose de Rio Chico. To escape this poverty, he joined the Venezuelan army at a young age. There he came into contact with sports and became a good boxer. In the amateur field, he played 34 fights, all of which he won. However, he could not record any major title wins.

In 1965, at the age of 27, Vicente Rondon became a professional boxer, wrongly giving 1944 as his year of birth. His manager became Tuto Zabala. He played his first fight on June 28, 1965 in Caracas and won the middleweight division over his compatriot Joe Carabella by knockout in the 3rd round. He fought his next fights in Venezuela or Puerto Rico . He remained undefeated in his first fourteen fights.

On January 12, 1968, he boxed for the first time in New York . He met the second class American Bobby Wartem, against whom he lost on points after 10 rounds. He got anyway on April 9, 1968 another fight in New York, in which he was defeated by the former WBA middleweight champion of the USA Jose Monon Gonzalez after 10 rounds on points. With this defeat Vicente Rondon nevertheless made such a good impression that he in on June 3, 1968 San Juan in Puerto Rico against Luis Manuel Rodriguez , a native Cuban and ex- world champion and the WBC. WBA welterweight, was allowed to compete. He lost this fight after 10 rounds on points, but defeated Rodriguez on July 19, 1968, again in San Juan, in the revenge after 10 rounds on points.

On January 26, 1969 Vicente Rondon lost in San Juan against the American Bennie Briscoe , who was then one of the best middleweights in the world, by tech. KO in the 8th round. After this fight he only boxed in the light heavyweight division in order to avoid the constant exhausting training. This measure paid off immediately, as the most successful years of his career followed. He was the first on May 30, 1969 in Caracas Venezuelan light heavyweight champion by a points win after 12 rounds over Jose Luis Garcia. On December 6, 1969 in Buenos Aires he defeated the Argentine light heavyweight champion Avenamar Peralta after 10 rounds on points; with the same result he beat Roger Rouse from the United States on November 8 in San Jose and had thus secured the right to fight for the vacant WBA world light heavyweight title.

This fight went on February 27, 1971 in Caracas Vicente Rondon and the American Jimmy Dupree . Rondon took his chance and won this fight by knockout in the 6th round and was the new world champion of the WBA in the light heavyweight division. He successfully defended this title on June 5, 1971 in Caracas by knocking out the Italian Piero del Papa in the first round and on August 21, 1971 in Caracas by winning points after 15 rounds over the American Eddie Jones . On October 14, 1971, he fought in a non-title fight for the first time in Germany and defeated Conny Velensek in Berlin after 10 rounds on points.

On October 26, 1971 Vicente Rondon defended his title by a tech. KO victory in the 14th round over Gomeo Brennan from the USA successful and on December 25, 1971 in Cleveland , Ohio , also won over Doyle Baird from the USA by techn. KO in the 8th round.

On April 7, 1972, Vicente Rondon played perhaps the most important fight of his career. he met in Miami Beach , Florida , in a so-called union fight on the reigning light heavyweight world champion of the WBC Bob Foster from the United States. Bob Foster won this fight through tech. KO in the 2nd round after killing Vicente Rondon twice. Rondon therefore had to surrender his WBA world title to Foster.

After this defeat, Vicente Rondon played twelve more fights, of which he won only three. He also boxed in the heavyweight division against physically far superior opponents, which gave him defeats such as on July 11, 1972 in Denver , Colorado , against Ron Lyle by KO in the 2nd round, on August 26, 1972 in Canton , Ohio , against Ernie Shavers on points and on December 1, 1972 in Madrid against Jose Manuel Urtain from Spain on points. On October 17, 1973 he lost in Frankfurt / Main against the German ex-European champion Rüdiger Schmidtke on points. His last professional fight he finally played on June 6, 1974 in Tampa , Florida. In this fight he lost to Jose Roman from Puerto Rico by knockout in the 2nd round.

After boxing

After his boxer career, Vicente Rondon had to pay tribute to the hard blows he received, especially in his last fights when he faced physically superior heavyweights. He ended up in a nervous hospital in Caracas. After his release, he was criminally detained and detained for a long time. After his release from prison, he was a wrecked human body, both physically and mentally. He, who was once a celebrated national hero in Venezuela, lived forgotten and totally impoverished until his untimely death with his old mother in Santa Ana de Carapita near Caracas.

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1965 to 1974,
• Website "www.boxrec.com",
• Website "www.boxemania.com"

Web links

• - 6k ​​- Portrait of Vicente Rondon in Spanish