Vicente Rondon

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 27 Feb 2002, 19:23

I'm trying to find ot Rondon's weight for his fights with Bennie Briscoe and Earnie Shavers.Did anyone see any of Rondon's fights. I only saw him against Bob Foster.A friend of mine who is Venezuelan speaks highly of Rondon, but he is not a boxing fan; I wonder if his praise of Rondon is warranted or a case of bias?

phil · Post by **phil** » 28 Feb 2002, 05:00

RING mag had Rondon as 191 lbs...

Phil

delisa · Post by **delisa** » 28 Feb 2002, 13:07

Vicente Rondon -- "El Muchachote de Barlovento" -- started as a middleweight and was a good little fighter -- only problem was he liked to drink and get laid.

As an amateur and in the military he had about 34 fights, winning 31 by kayo -- including the heavyweight title of Venezuela (and he was a solidly built middleweight).

In January 1967, he was involved in a huge drunken street brawl in Caracas -- a warrant was issued for his arrest that June because of the fight, and he fled to Puerto Rico.

His Title fight win over Dupree was tainted as Dupree claimed he had been drugged. Kid Gavilan commented after the fight: "Que barbaro! Que manera de ponerle corazon. Se merecia la corona!"

Rondon, himself claimed he was drugged by his cornerman before the Foster fight. In reality, sycophants such as Ferdie pachecho let rondon enter the ring woefully out of condition.

The loss to Foster was his first loss in a 20 fight streak where he had beaten some really good fighters (Zurhiede, Dupree, Jose Luis Garcia, Connie Velensek (who was the reigning Euro-LH Champ, Gomeo Brennan, Del Papa).

His slide to Heavyweight fodder was quick.

By the mid-eighties, Rondon was living with his mother in the same slum he was born in. A sad, sick alcoholic, he would beg in the streets for money for booze. When his mother died, his depression/sickenss worsened, and he died, totally forgotten on Dec 28, 1992. He was 54 years old.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: delisa on 2002-02-28 17:07 ]</font>

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 28 Feb 2002, 18:29

Mike DeLisa's synopsis of Vicente Rondon's career was very informative. What a tragic end to a life. Are any of Rondon's fights available on tape? Perhaps from a Venezuelan video collector?

delisa · Post by **delisa** » 28 Feb 2002, 18:31

The Professor, E. Castillo (trainer for Leo Gamez, etc) told me he has a collection. Next time I go to VZ I hope to get together with him.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: delisa on 2002-02-28 22:41 ]</font>

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 28 Feb 2002, 18:32

Mike DeLisa's synopsis of Vicente Rondon's career was very informative. What a tragic end to a life. Are any of Rondon's fights available on tape? Perhaps from a Venezuelan video collector?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 28 Feb 2002, 19:35

I believe the next time Mike goes to VZ, he's going to get together with the professor.

Dane Clark · Post by **Dane Clark** » 04 Mar 2002, 16:34

I saw Rondon defeat Oliver Wright in a 10 rounder in Miami Beach. He was a good inside fighter, as the entire fight was fought inside. In 1974, I saw Rondon TKO'd in 3 to Rodney Bobick. Rondon was "shot". He did nothing. He was unable to get off the stool for round three. A month or so later I saw him KO'd by Joe King Roman.

DAN C. · Post by **DAN C.** » 04 Mar 2002, 18:34

What I remember most about RONDON was that the weigh in for the FOSTER fight was a circus and RONDON, who took the WBA title after they stripped it from FOSTER, actually was said to have weighed 185 lbs. "They let a heavy fight for the Lightheavy title", screamed FOSTER. After blowing him away in 2 rds FOSTER bitterly described RONDON as the dumbest fighter he had ever fought. Actually RONDON was not a bad fighter when he was right and matched right as he fought some of the better light heavyweights and middleweights of his day. I remember his fight with SHAVERS as 10 rd draw. Dan Coli

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 04 Mar 2002, 21:38

Rondon's distance loss to Shavers is curious considering two points:he gave up a lot of weight to a murderous puncher and he was stopped by Bennie Briscoe who of course was a middleweight.Perhaps the Briscoe defeat was on cuts or a between rounds TKO.Rondon's loss to Foster was frightening.I'd sure like to see the two Rondon-Luis Rodriguez fights as well as the Rondon-Urtain match.

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 16 Mar 2002, 19:26

I came across an old article in a British fight magazine that quoted Tuto Zabala as saying that Rondon was 183 pounds the day before the Foster fight and spent hours in a sauna in an attempt to lose the weight.

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 28 Sep 2003, 02:43

Unfortunately, foster was furious going into that fight because of having half of his title stolen,and then he saw how they were trying to steal the other half by giving rondon such a weight advantage and then jigging the scales around it looked as if rondon was just a pound or two over the lightheavy limit. in an interview i read a long time ago foster said he went into that fight determined that there'd be no doubt who the real lightheavy champ was when he came out. he also went for the quick kayo because he didn't trust the officiating.

foster was the kind of champion that makes those phoney title holders...like ray leonard's so-called "light heavy" title match look so ridiculous.