Lupe Pintor Vs. Jovito Rengifo

Lupe Pintor 118 lbs beat Jovito Rengifo 117 lbs by TKO at 1:21 in round 8 of 15

• Date: 1981-07-26
• Location: Showboat Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
• Referee: Joey Curtis
• Judge: Dave Moretti 67-66
• Judge: Paul Smith 66-67
• Judge: Chuck Minker 66-67

Notes

• Fight was televised live on CBS.
• Pintor received $65,000 and Rengifo received $5,000. (Reading Eagle, p.21 7/27/81).

"Bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor, nursing a swollen right hand and cuts on his face, retained his WBC crown by a TKO over Jovito Rengifo. Referee Joey Curtis stopped the 15 round title fight at the Showboat Hotel Sports Pavilion at 1:21 into the 8th round. The champion was cut over the left eye and under the right cheekbone when he sent Rengifo to the canvas in the 8th with a hard right and a straight left to the head. The 9th-ranked challenger had taken some hard head punches in the previous two rounds." -United Press International

Post fight comments

• "I was winning the fight. I caught him going back and I fell. It was a real bad decision." -Jovito Rengifo

• "The only way he lasted that long was because of his physical condition. That was the only way he kept going. I felt I was winning when they stopped the fight." -Lupe pintor

• "Rengifo took some severe head shots in the 6th and 7th rounds. I picked the count up at four and asked him if he was OK. He didn't say anything so I asked him again after five, six and seven. His eyes were rolling and he was wobbly. I was half holding him up." -Referee Joey Curtis, explaining his decision to stop the fight.