Jose Napoles vs. Des Rea

Jose Napoles 144 lbs beat Des Rea 146 lbs by TKO at 3:00 in round 5 of 10

• Date: 1968-11-04
• Location: Forum, Inglewood, California, USA
• Referee: John Thomas

"Jose Napoles kept up his quest for a shot at Curtis Cokes' welterweight crown with a five-round KO over Des Rea of Ireland. Jose, 145, of Mexico, had too much of everything but heart for the 142-pound southpaw. Rea got himself decked with only about 20 seconds gone in the fight by a right cross that busted his nose and sent blood streaming down his face, but Napoles never got another clean shot at him. Des hit and ran, used his longer reach well and kept on the move. After five rounds the ringside physician decided that the damaged nose and the cuts inside of the mouth were enough and called it off." -Boxing Illustrated, February 1969 issue

• Rea was signed for this bout as a substitute on October 18th in lieu of Maurice Cullen, who was injured in training.
• Napoles blamed his inability to score a clean KO on the fact that he was training for the orthodox Cullen only to end up fighting a southpaw.
• Three other bouts on this card featured a 12-rounder between Arturo Lomeli and Ruben Navarro, another 12-rounder between Dwight Hawkins and Frankie Crawford and a 10-rounder between Richie Sue and Gil Noriega
• Attendance - 10,857
• Gate - $65,860