Stocky, fierce, often brutal: Rojas dished it out in a golden era for boxing in Los Angeles in the 1960s and developed into a major box-office attraction as he feasted on men of the calibre of Antonio Herrera, Ricardo "Pajarito" Moreno, Kang-Il Suh and Chucho Garcia, among many others.
He went unbeaten in his first 24 fights (16 early) to secure a crack at undisputed world featherweight champion Vicente Saldivar in front of a huge crowd at the Coliseum in LA in May 1965. Rojas, just 23, taking part in his first 15-rounder, piled into the Mexican southpaw great and both men busted up; however, it was Saldivar who proved too savvy and he stopped an exhausted Rojas with 10 seconds remaining in the fight.
Rojas bounced back with 10 straight wins, including a brace of toe-to-toe stoppages of Moreno, before capatalising on Saldivar's retirement when he captured the vacant WBA title with a 15-round decision over Colombia's Enrique Higgins at the Olympic Auditorium in LA in March 1968. (Here, Howard Winstone captured the vacant WBC featherweight title with a cuts win over Mitsunori Seki.)
Sadly, Rojas was never able to cash in on the belt which he lost in his first defence to Japan's vastly underrated Shozo Saijyo at the Coliseum in September 1968, dropping a unanimous 15-round decision to a man who had previously whipped him in a non-title 10-rounder.
Rojas came back with a few wins but then suffered four defeats in a row to Sugar Ramos, Ruben Navarro, Yoshiaki Numata and Mando Ramos respectively. He was beating Numata in a stab at the WBC super-featherweight title in Japan when the home man launched a right uppercut from the floor and, amazingly, landed it. Rojas was counted out. Raul's final fight came in a grudge match with California bad boy Ramos, who proved too young and finished Rojas with a left hook in the sixth round. "All I ever was was tough," Rojas said later.
There was a disturbing postscript to Raul's boxing career when he was discovered living in a rusty old car in Los Angeles, clinging to life. Boxing fans rallied and the fighter spent his last years in a care home in Long Beach.
Saldivar and Rojas compare bruises.