Respect for the Junior Welterweight (diary entry)

"Learn from the Fight" covered the second half of that fateful night on 4th February 1960 with the second world championship presented at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (later changed to Sports Arena). It was noted that although alcoholic beverages were banned from the event, there was plenty of smuggled in Tequila for the predominantly Mexican crowd. These supporters had cheered when their country's champion Jose Becerra had made a successful defence of the undisputed world bantamweight title. Now they were behind their countryman, the 18 year-old protege and knockout merchant, Battling Torres in his first world title challenge. This particular bout carried a lot of national pride within boxing circles. The rivalry went back to 26th June 1934 when Sixto Escobar became Puerto Rico's first world champion when he took the vacant bantamweight title, recognised by the Montreal Athletic Commission, from Mexico's Rodolfo "Baby" Casanova in a spectacular ninth round knockout in Montreal, Canada. A year later the title was recognised by the National Boxing Association when Escobar successfully defended it; lost it in a match where the New York State Athletic Association recognised it; won it back and then finally won a bout with a second round knockout when Ring recognised the title as unified in 1936. The rivalry between the two countries over boxing would stretch into the '70s and to this day.

The junior welterweight division (also known as the light welterweight division and the super lightweight division) had lost recognition from all of the three world authorities in the 1930s with their own individual stopping points. This division does not fall into the glamour divisions i.e. the "original eight". The first person to hold the title was the USA's Myron "Pinky" Mitchell. It was created by Mike Collins, the publisher of a Minneapolis weekly newspaper, the  and conveniently Pinky's manager.Collins asked his readers to vote in the inaugural world champion in 1922. The NBA then recognised it and Mitchell successfully defended it three times before the first of many instances of controversy was incurred in 1925. James "Red" Herring seemingly won the title on a sixth round disqualification and was photographed with the belt. However, it was discovered that several regulations had not been followed when the match had been staged, including Mitchell coming in too heavy for this division. Herring was not officially recognised as the champion by the NBA but he continued to claim it until 1929, this was despite the fact that he lost in a third round technical knockout to Young Ketchell in 1925 in a fight billed as a NBA "Super Lightweight" championship. Mitchell would officially lose his world junior welterweight title in 1926 to Vincent Morris "Mushy Callahan" Scheer. Callahan became the first undisputed world junior welterweight champion when Ring chose to recognise his victory, falling in line with their "to be the best you have to beat the best" policy.

Hopes of order being brought to this new troublesome division were dashed with Callahan's reign. He was an active fighter, as was the norm of the time and especially in the lighter divisions, but only defended the title three times before losing it to Britain's Jackie "Kid" Berg at the Albert Hall in London, England. It was billed as "Jewish Junior Welterweights battle for the World Title". However, before the tenth round knockout, the NBA had already stripped Callahan of his title sometime after he knocked out Fred Mahan out in the third round in his last successful title defence. Berg had already beaten Callahan by unanimous decision just two fights prior to their title fight. The NYSAC stepped in recognise the Callahan/Berg title bout, ensuring Berg had more than just Ring recognition as the world champion. He would win back the NBA's recognition in 1931. However, according to some sources the NYSAC appears to have dropped their support for the title by this time.

Berg successfully defended the title eight times in whilst also winning four non-title fights in less than 14 months before the reigning undisputed world lightweight champion Tony Canzoneri knocked him out in round three. Canzoneri put his lightweight title on the line and, according to the NBA, took Berg's junior welterweight title. However, Berg disputed losing his title and claimed that the match was for Canzoneri's title only. He went on declaring he was still the world champion in this division. This was a claim that Sammy "Little Dynamite" Fuller took at face value when he beat Kid Berg on a split decision in May 1932. The NBA did not recognise him, and Ring totally withdrew their support of the title at this point. They hadn't recognised Canzoneri's victory either and didn't recognise his vanquisher back in January when Johnny Jaddick became the NBA world junior welterweight champion.

A year later Mexico's Battling Shaw won this remaining version of the title. Tony Canzoneri became the division's first two-time champion when he won a majority decision over Shaw in the same year. He made up the trio of great boxers in the 1930s lighter divisions who would be the first since 1903 to win titles in three divisions. The other two were Barney Ross and Henry Armstrong. Armstrong would be the only one to hold three titles simultaneously. Canzoneri wasn't champion for a month as he lost a decision to the aforementioned  legendary Barney Ross also in 1933.

Ross's nine title defences including quashing Sam Fuller's outstanding claim. He also fitted in two non-title fights, and went up a weight division to win and lose the undisputed world welterweight title. After establishing his undeniable dominance of this division and bringing it more respect than it had ever seen, Ross made the decision to vacate his belt in 1935 after his unanimous decision title defence win against Henry Woods in April in order to retake his welterweight crown. The division remained dormant until 1946 when the NYSAC and NBA sanctioned a resurrection of the championship and Tippy Larkin, who would win 134 bouts in his 151 fight career, won the vacant title. He defended it once that year but, due to not being able to retain the restrictive weight limit, vacated the belt soon afterwards.

Again, no title bouts were sanctioned for over a decade until, on 12th June 1959, both the NYSAC and NBA sanctioned a contest between Carlos Ortiz and Kenny Lane for the vacant crown. Ring would not recognise the belt again until 1962.

NYSAC and NBA World Junior Welterweight Championship 04.02.1960

Carlos "Charlie O'Brien" Ortiz was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on 9th September 1936 and later moved to New York, USA when he was six. By his own account, the transition was tough and he was a "bad kid" who gave his parents no end of worries. However, this all changed when he joined the 69th Infantry Regiment, colloquially known as "The Fighting Irish". Part of the New York Army's National Guard, the regiment traced its roots back to the Civil War. Ortiz was proud of his Puerto Rican heritage but also immersed himself in the predominantly Irish task force, rising to the rank of sergeant and earning the nickname Charlie O'Brien.

Ortiz joined the Police Athletic League and took up Boxing where he made speedy progress under the guidance of manager Ed Ferguson. By 1953, and as a member of the Boys Club team, he won his first international amateur championship in London at 135 lbs and followed it with the Metropolitan AAU title.

He began fighting as a professional aged 18 in 1955. His debut fight resulted in a first round knockout win over Harry Bell, a feat he repeat in his next fight against Morris Hodnett. Danny Roberts and Juan Pacheco fell in the third and second round respectively. His fifth fight was a points victory over Jimmy DeMura, his first bout outside of New York city in Syracuse. He won four more in New York, two on points and two by knockout. He finished 1955 with two wins at the Arena in Boston and one in Paterson, New Jersey, two TKOs sandwiching in a points victory. He continued to win throughout 1956 and 1957. Then in May 1958 on his 28th bout and fourth year in professional boxing he lost his first fight, a split decision to 33-6-1 Johnny Busso, which he then avenged on a unanimous decision less than three months later. After beating rugged southpaw Dave Charnley on points in his first professional fight outside of the USA, at London's Haringey Arena in the UK, he took his second loss. This time it was a majority decision that went to Kenny Lane at Miami Beach, ending '58 on a downer. However, he bounced back with vigour in April 1959 by stopping Len Matthews in round 6 in Philadelphia. This was just a tune up, assuring his contender status for the resurrected vacant NBA/NYSAC junior world welterweight title.

Ortiz's opponent was none other than his arch-nemesis Kenny Lane. Lane was an inherently difficult and tricky fighter. He fought southpaw and had developed a very unorthodox style since childhood when he had been forced to defend himself from an Olympic level boxing older brother. By the time he had handed Ortiz his second loss, Lane had a veteran record of 57 wins and six losses, to Ortiz's 29-2 (1). One of Lane's losses had come in a bid for the world lightweight championship in 1958 when he had dropped a unanimous decision to the all-conquering Joe "Old Bones" Brown. After this fight and just prior to facing Ortiz for the first time, Lane had stopped the first man to defeat Ortiz, Johnny Busso, in round six.

Many years later Ortiz would say of his old adversary: ""No one was more difficult to figure out than Kenny Lane, the guy was unbelievably clever". Nevertheless, figure him out he did and it came very quickly with a second round knockout.

Raymundo "Battling" Torres possibly took his nickname from Mexico's old junior world welterweight title holder, Battling Shaw. He was born on 17th February 1941 in Cerritos, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. He was raised in the bordertown of Reynosa,Tamaulipas and earned a secondary nickname, the "Reynosa Rattlesnake". Torres debuted in 1957 with a knockout victory over 49 bout veteran journeyman Rogelio Saucedo. This would be a regular feature as he tore through Mexican competition rarely going the distance. He won all 31 of his fights before facing Ortiz, mainly by knockout, but this was the first time he stepped outside of Mexico to fight.

Carlos Ortiz weighed in at 137 lbs to Battling Torres's 138 lbs. Ortiz stood at 5'7" with a 70" reach. Torres was taller at 5'8" but had a shorter reach of 68 1/2". Over their respective careers, Ortiz was a solid boxer-puncher with a 42.86% knockout average to Torres's 71.01% slugger style. Ortiz came into the fight with a record of 32 wins, 2 losses and one no contest. Torres, at just 18 years of age (the same age Ortiz began his professional career), had an unblemished record of 31 wins, 25 by knockout. Nevertheless, Ortiz was the 7 to 5 favourite.

Carlos Ortiz weighed in at 137 lbs to Battling Torres's 138 lbs. Ortiz stood at 5'7" with a 70" reach. Torres was taller at 5'8" but had a shorter reach of 68 1/2". Over their respective careers, Ortiz was a solid boxer-puncher with a 42.86% knockout average to Torres's 71.01% slugger style. Ortiz came into the fight with a record of 32 wins, 2 losses and one no contest. Torres, at just 18 years of age (the same age Ortiz began his professional career), had an unblemished record of 31 wins, 25 by knockout. Nevertheless, Ortiz was the 7 to 5 favourite.

The fight was refereed by none other than former junior welterweight world champion, Mushy Callahan who refereed over 30 years. The judges were Lee Grossman and Frankie Van.

Both men went to their predictable styles and this was very much a textbook outboxer versus slugger contest. From the beginning Ortiz picked off his shots but they weren't all to the head. Indeed, he had a clear tried and tested body shot strategy that began to pay off after round 5. Torres came in strong from the opening round and held his own for these first four or so stanzas. However, Ortiz did well to block and evade the challenger's hardest punches and found his opponent to be particularly susceptible to overhand rights.

Round 9 - Saw the first confirmed signs that Torres was tiring. Behind on points, he was behaving like a true slugger looking for his opportunity to land a powerful shot.

Round 10 - Ortiz knocked out Torres at the 2:56 mark with a left right combination. The shots were undeniably hard but the cumulative damage inflicted by the champion throughout the fight was also very evident. Torres proved true to his nickname and battling through with courage and determination until he couldn't physically handle the punishment.

Ortiz would next put his title on the line against Italian challenger, Duilio Loi, in June that year and would win a split decision at the Cow Palace, San Francisco. A rematch was immediately set up in September this time in San Siro, Milan, Italy. Video footage is available for this fight so we will hopefully cover it in the near future. Meanwhile, Torres fought five more times in 1960. The first two were easy second round knockouts back in Mexico. The third saw him lose for the second time in his career to 42-6-1 Cisco Andrade. It was another knockout. This time in round 7. He stayed in the US for his last two fights that year, taking a 10-round split-decision win over Paul Jorgensen. Then he faced world lightweight champion Joe "Old Bones" Brown who tested his chin for a third time, ending the fight in the fourth and giving Torres his third career loss.

Next lesson we will travel to Bangkok 16th April 1960 and see the Argentinian, Pascuel Perez, still the reigning world flyweight champion take on Pone Kingpetch who attempts to be the first Thai to get boxing world title. We last saw Perez in highlights from his 1954 victory over Yoshio Shirai, the first Japanese fighter to win a boxing world title. 

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