The man who discovered Julio Cesar Chavez, Mexico's Juan Antonio Lopez, passed away today at just 52.
The Culiacan man had been battling cancer and leukemia.
Lopez was a friend of Chavez's father and agreed to take Julio down to the gym as a boy. "From his very first spar," Lopez said of Chavez, "his left hook to the body was a thing of beauty."
But Lopez was a fighter, too - a fighter who upheld all the proud traditions of Mexican battlers. I watched him go 10 hard rounds with Wilfredo Gomez in a challenge for the WBC super-bantamweight title in 1982 on the Holmes-Cooney bill in Las Vegas. He gave Gomez a great scrap but eventually succumbed to a brutal left uppercut to the body (Gomez knocked out all 17 of his super-bantamweight title challengers).
Just take a couple of minutes to look at the names on Juan's record. They don't make 'em like him any more.
http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=002096
Juan Antonio Lopez bids farewell at 52
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The Devil In Roy Jones
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 166
- Joined: 09 Mar 2004, 16:13
A real hard man, twenty year career and only stopped by world class opponents. The Chavez connection will ensure he's remembered.
You can click on his name on the main page and it takes you to his record. I was looking at some of his opponents and noticed Eder Jofre. Jofre only lost twice in 78 fights, both times to Fighting Harada in Japan. I might well be wrong, but I'm sensing these were hometown robberies? I only bring it up because that would truly suck if those were his only two losses.
You can click on his name on the main page and it takes you to his record. I was looking at some of his opponents and noticed Eder Jofre. Jofre only lost twice in 78 fights, both times to Fighting Harada in Japan. I might well be wrong, but I'm sensing these were hometown robberies? I only bring it up because that would truly suck if those were his only two losses.
No, they were genuine losses, Devil. But Jofre was dead at the weight both times and moved up to featherweight after the second setback.The Devil In Roy Jones wrote:A real hard man, twenty year career and only stopped by world class opponents. The Chavez connection will ensure he's remembered.
You can click on his name on the main page and it takes you to his record. I was looking at some of his opponents and noticed Eder Jofre. Jofre only lost twice in 78 fights, both times to Fighting Harada in Japan. I might well be wrong, but I'm sensing these were hometown robberies? I only bring it up because that would truly suck if those were his only two losses.
The legendary Brazilian is one of the few fighters in history to disprove the theory: they never come back.