kikibalt wrote:Rick; do you remember Felipe Torres?
By Randy De La O
Thoughts on Boxing and Boxers and Fights
Felipe Torres
Last Sunday, March 2nd, 2008, the following letter was posted on our message board on the Main Street Gym entry. It is from the brother of Felipe Torres, Epifanio Z. Torres. You may or may not remember but I wrote briefly about my experience sparring with him during the 1970's. They didn't make them any tougher than Felipe. Mr. Torres informs me that his brother Felipe passed away in 1993 under difficult circumstances. Our condolences to the entire Torres family.
My time with Felipe was brief, a couple of years at best. I never forgot him. How do you forget a man that taught you some of life's hardest lessons. He forced me to learn to stand my ground, taught me how to endure pain, forced me to learn how to slip a punch, and out of desperation taught me how to use the jab to keep an opponent off of me. More than anything he taught me humility, and to never judge a man by his appearance. I never made that mistake again and I have carried his memory and that lesson around with me my entire life. I have passed that lesson to my children.
I have no idea how much his family knows about his career or if they have an insight into the mind of a fighter, but I can tell them without even speaking to Felipe that he was proud of his days in the ring. Every fighter is. You carry that pride all of your days. It never leaves you, whether you had a couple of fights or a hundred. Whatever work you do after that, you are still a fighter. With that in mind you should know that when Felipe fought Roberto Duran on March 28, 1970 in Mexico City, he did not just fight another fighter, he fought a legend. How many men have passed that can make that statement? Just a handful, trust me. When Duran was young, and knocking out everyone that was put in front of him, Felipe fought him and went the distance. He went the distance with a legend!
I hope that someone who reads this will be able to provide a photo for the family, or perhaps a personal story. I'll be happy to print it. When Mr. Torres and family provide more about details about Felipe, I'll pass them on to you. Below is the letter by Epifanio Z. Torres
Rest in Peace, Felipe
Dear Sir,
My name is Epifanio Z. Torres. I live in El Centro, Ca. I am Felipe Torres' brother. My mom is right next to me right now, and I was translating to her the part of the article that you wrote about my brother Felipe. It almost brought tears to my mom and I. You probably don't know, but Felipe died in 1993. As you were saying, he was a tough little fighter, but like many of them, he died in very difficult conditions. I'd really appreciate in other information, pictures articles that you might have about him. My mom is 83 yrs. old and she'd probably love to see some of that stuff you and your readers might have about him. I have found, in some other websites, a partial boxing record of his. From what I remember, he fought with the best featherweights of his time: He fought Roberto Duran in Mexico City: Kuniaki Shibata in Japan (he lost split decision there which is equal to a victory), he also fought with Shozo Saijo in Hawaii and lost split decision; Ricardo Arredondo, was another one of his rivals, and I am not quite sure, but I think he fought a boxer named Cesar Sinda who died after their fight. I believe I saw his name on the WBC classifications as being the #7 featherweight of the world in the 1970's. A cousin of mine sent me this link, which I am planning to bookmark. I hope you, or some of your readers might have some more info. about my brother, or other links related to him.
Thank you,
Epifanio Z. Torres
Man, I just posted yesterday and already there's 3 pages added to this thread since then. No moss growing on anything here. In regards to Felipe Torres. He was a real favorite of mine. When he was a featherweight he was considered very fast and even went by the monicker Felipe 'The flash' Torres. He broke into the world ratings with a 6th round KO over Bobby Valdez. I didn't get a chance to see him until he fought lightweight and probably lost alot of that speed in the move up. He was funny, no muscle tone at all but a damn good body-puncher and forget about trying to hurt him. He wasn't big in defense but what a jaw. You could hit him all day but it was like there was a hinge attached to the back of his neck and he would just keep coming. I saw both of his fights with Cesar Sinda and both times Sinda looked phenominal boxing rings around Felipe. In the 1st fight, after losing the 1st 9 rounds, Felipe came out for the 10th like a man on a mission. Throwing nothing but body punches he knocked out Sinda. In the rematch Sinda stayed the course and took the decision. His best weight was probably at Featherweight, but he also held another KO over Angel Mayoral who went on to become #1 lightweight contender and regarding the fight with Duran, I glommed bits and pieces about that fight and found that Felipe hurt Duran pretty good in one of the rounds of their 10 rounder. Incidentally, I once had a conversation with Rick about two of the best jaws I ever saw, Raul Montoya and Felipe Torres. I mentioned to him, "Man, did you ever see Montoya go down?" And to my surprise he said, "Yeah, against Dwight Hawkins." Of course I researched the fight, which I always do and found Rick's memory of course to be 100% correct. And, researching Felipe Torres, which I had to do, I could find only one instance where he went down. Amazingly, against Raul Montoya in the 2nd round of their fight (I think they fought twice), but I believe Torres got up to win. Good memories of a damn good fighter.
Scartissue
