Born in Argentina in 1966, Julio Cesar Vasquez spent most of his career fighting at Jr. Middlweight.. He compiled an incredible 53-1 record before losing to ATG Pernell Whitaker and has claim to having won 12 world title fights. Most of his defeats came between the ages of 35-42. overall pretty good resume.
Good fighter. Solid long time champion. Padded Argentinian record (See Jorge Castro for further explanation) makes him look better than he was. Best win by far is his victory over Winky Wright in Argentina. I never got to see the fight, but multiple knockdowns of Wright supposedly occurred (which would be impressive). However, I also read an account indicating the knockdowns were suspect, and Wright was never hurt. (The fight went the full 12). I did see a video of one of Vazquez's other defenses in Argentina, and it was the single most flagrant example of cheating in the ring I have ever witnessed in my entire life. Vazquez was dropped and in seriously bad condition against a non-descript opponent (I forget his name. It was nobody of note). Not only did Vazquez not legitimately beat the count, but, the referee actually picked Vazquez off the canvas and helped him to his corner (where he was given even more unjustified time to recover. The video was truly shocking!). After those shenanigans Vazquez won the fight by premature stoppage. It should have been a straight KO loss for Vazquez against a nobody. It was disgraceful. In spite of the squarest jaw I have ever seen, his chin was far from un-dentable. (Dropped several times in his prime) He went life and death with mediocre Carl Daniels (although, to his credit, he won by knockout in a fight where he was desperately behind on the cards) and was basically shut out by the only really good fighter he fought in his prime. (Pernell Whitaker) Could be a potential H.O.F.er given who gets in today. But, in my opinion he falls short. Certainly he was a very good fighter. But, he falls short of great in my eyes. If he had tougher matchmaking with some of the other beltholders, it is likely his title reign would have ended much sooner.
Off my memory, and I only saw what happened inside z ring, hiz win over Wright woz e tru biting end z KDz wer lejit
He was hardly shut out. Lederman scored 114-111 WITH two dubious point deductions going against Vasquez. Whitaker kept ducking and turning and JCV's lefts were strafing the back of Whitaker's head. I saw that as much as Pernell's problem and Julio's. My card was even closer, especially with JCV's KD of Whitaker in the 4th.
I remember the scores being more like 10-2 or 9-3. But, I have to admit it has been 20 years. From what I remember, the knockdown of Whitaker occurred when Pernell was clowning around doing his silly "dipsy-doo". He seemed to be having an easy time with Vasquez those fist several rounds and he certainly didn't appear hurt. I would still like to actually see the Vasquez-Wright fight. If he truly dominated Wright I would give him his props. Is it available on youtube? It wasn't last time I checked.
The Whitaker fight was very close. I had Whitaker winning by a couple rounds, but just that. It was that fight that convinced Whitaker that 154 was a jump too far and that 147 was where he should stay, so the story goes.
And is it just me, or is every Argentine fighter aside from Monzon a squat, hairy, thick-necked little sasquatch?
I don't know-- Lampley explained during the fight that this was going to be Whitaker's first and only at 154, no matter what the outcome. He was too short for the weight.
The Wright knockdowns were legit but he only seemed really hurt by one of them. Took knee on one and the others were sort of a mix between flash and accumulation knockdowns. They definitely weren't slips though. Winky outboxed him for much of the fight and he seemed to have the better skills, but he just couldn't handle him physically. Also worth remembering that this was a young and extremely inexperienced Wright and he didn't have the same defense-oriented style that he had during his prime.
I'm in the middle of watching the fight. I have it even through 8 (with 2, maybe 3 rounds that could have gone either way). Haven't seen any point deductions yet but JCV hit Whitaker behind the head several times earlier in the fight and each looked pretty blatant (or at least reckless) to me.
I've noticed that too i would add big square heads to the list. Guys like: Jorge Castro Juan Roldan Carlos Baldomir Santos Laciar Victor Galindez Sergio Palma Jorge Jose Fernandez JC Vazquez Omar Narvaez Raul Balbi All fit that mold.