Perico Fernandez vs Lion Furuyama 'September 21, 1974'

[Rover]

Saturday Night - September 21, 1974

Palazzetto dello Sport - Rome, Lazio, Italy

Attendance; 3500

'vacant' WBC Light Welterweight Championship

Promoter; Umberto Branchini (Fight Purse Bid - $65,000)

#1 WBC - Pedro 'Perico' Fernandez (Spain) ~ 31-2-8 (17 KO's) ~ Age; 21 years, 10 months ~ Height 5' 6 1/2" ~ 138 lbs.
vs.
#2 WBC - Tetsou 'Lion' Furuyama (Japan) ~ 31-7-2 (22 KO's) ~ Age; 26 years, 8 months ~ Height 5' 7" ~ 139 1/2 lbs.

WBC Light Welterweight Champion, 32 1/2 year-old Italian - Bruno Arcari 'vacates' his Championship, as he can no
longer make the 140 lb. weight limit. Arcari will now focus his efforts in going after the Welterweight Champion -
Jose Napoles.

'Perico' {Parakeet} Fernandez is a slight underdog {5-3}, to the heavy-handed southpaw Lion Furuyama, who has
had more experience in the ring with World Class fighters.

The Fight,

The early rounds, it looks like Furuyma will be too strong for the smaller Spaniard, as he attacks the body with
hard right and left hooks. In Round 5, Furuyama lands a crushing right hook to the ribs, and Fernandez whinces
in pain, but does not go down.

In between Rounds, Perico wants to quit. But, his cornermen (Martin Miranda and Joseph Couto) encourage him to go
on, and advise him to change his fight plan from two-fisted slugging to right-hand leads and quick counter-punches.

Perico answers the call, and rallies in Round 6 with quick right-hand leads. In Round 7, Perico staggers the Japanese
opponent with a crushing right hand to the jaw, and nearly drops him out with a barrage of punches.

Perico keeps up with the 'high punch-rate', and shows his suprising strength by out-muscling Furuyama in Rounds
9, 10 and 11.

Lion Furuyama tries a late-fight rally, as he loads up and throws many hard left hooks over the last 4-Rounds, but
he cannot penetrate the Spaniard's guard who also counters with well-placed right hand leads.

Scorecards;
Referee - Roland Dankin........146-145 (5-4-6 in Rounds) Perico Fernandez
Judge - Yusaka Yoshida.........148-146 (4-2-9 in Rounds) Lion Furuyama
Judge - Juan Perotti..............148-143 (7-2-6 in Rounds ) Perico Fernandez

Fight Purses;
Perico Fernandez.........$32,500 (U.S. Dollars)
Lion Furuyama............$32,500 (U.S. Dollars)

Bruno Arcari, 'I though that Lion Furuyama did enough to win. He was in control during the early Rounds,
and the Spaniard was not really effective until the 7th Round. It was a close bout, but neither fighter did enough to
impress me that either one will be a Champion for a long period'.

Note; Perico Fernandez suffered a broken left rib in Round 5, as a result from a Lion Furuyama right hook
to his side.

Arcari's prediction turned out correctly.
A Spanish fighter v. a Japanese fighter in Italy.

[Rover]

The 6000 Italian fans were unhappy with the 'Split-Decision' also, and showered the ring with garbage.

WBC President - Ramon G. Velazquez was at Ringside, and the feeling was, he was present to make sure a
Spaniard won the 'vacant' title.

Perico's late rally was the difference in this bout, and he did something that even the great Antonio 'Kid Pambele'
Pambele could not do in 15-Rounds, he 'staggered' Lion Furuyama not once, but 'twice'.

The Italian Boxing Press scored it 6-5-4 in Rounds (145-144) for Lion Furuyama.

They gave Lion each of the 'first' 6-Rounds, and scored Rounds 7, 9, 10, 13 and 14 for Perico, with Rounds
8, 11, 12 and 15 'Even'.

Sounds like a fight that could've gone either way.

[giacomino]

Classic old-school scoring with a bunch of 10-10 rounds. Fernandez wound up having a long career at the Spanish domestic and European level but he was only marginally world class by the time he was in his mid-20s. If I remember correctly he got Ko'd by the 2-0 Muangsurin a year later.

[giacomino]

Pedro 'Perico' Fernandez

The Parakeet, was a good little fighter. Less than 22 years of age when he won the WBC Light-Welterweight Championship.

Super popular in Spain, and was held in high-regard. Was really a 5' 6 1/2" Lightweight, but fought fairly well at 140 lbs.

The problem with Perico, is that he liked to party more than train, and that was his downfall. In 1974 and early-1975
he was called the 'Roberto Duran of Spain'. A compact, but powerful fighter when he wanted to be.

On a personal note, I thought the bout between Perico and Lion Furuyama was a Draw 5-5-5 in Rounds, as it was
very hard to pick a winner in several rounds, as the action was evenly paced.

He was in his prime a little before my time, but i remember my father-in-law saying he preferred Miguel Velazquez and Jose Duran during that era. Of course they were, like him, from Madrid and Fernandez was from Zaragoza in Aragon, so that might have had something to do with it.

[jj5000]

Giacomino: Are you into Spanish boxing? It's an area of interest for me.

[Rover]

Giacomino: Are you into Spanish boxing? It's an area of interest for me.

Never had a particular interest in Spanish boxing, but I was in a class called Spanish Culture in college, and, knowing that my professor had once asked me if I'd ever heard of Jose Urtain, I decided to do my final paper on him.

[giacomino]

Giacomino: Are you into Spanish boxing? It's an area of interest for me.

I'm no expert, but I have family there who are interested in the sport and visit at least once a year, so I occasionally see a fight or two. Also have seen a bit of old footage on visits. Plus I have a soft spot for blue-collar fighters who overachieve, so I was a big fan of Javier Castillejo, and guys like Roberto Castanon and Jose Duran back in the 70s-80s. Watching Castillejo KO Sturm at age 38 was one of my favorite boxing memories of the 2000s.

[jj5000]

I thought Castillejo's win over Sturm was the best of his career. But I have to say that Javier did not come to win against De La Hoya, only to survivie.Still, I enjoyed his career.

[giacomino]

I thought Castillejo's win over Sturm was the best of his career. But I have to say that Javier did not come to win against De La Hoya, only to survivie.Still, I enjoyed his career.

Yeah, I recently re-watched that fight on TV and he seemed to realize pretty quickly that DLH was too quick for him and that he had no real chance unless he got lucky. In general, he was a hard-working overachiever who had some nice wins over decent guys at junior middleweight/middleweight but was never going to beat the best.