Wife working late tonite, just wanted to throw another great fighter into the seventies light heavy mix. Jorge was a tough "sumbitch" contender although he was a little early to be put into that mid to late 70's plethera of Lt. Heavy talent. I saw Joe-Jerry II closed circuit in 74 and the Foster-Ahumada title fight was the undercard (actually Joe-Jerry was the first fight and Jorge-Bob from New Mexico was the second) A draw! Jorge built an early lead with his work ethic and Bob came on late with that super-jab! But a good call that draw. He went on to challenge Conte for the WBC title a few months later (in London) and lost a tough UD. Then, on the undercard of Ali-Bugner ll, he dropped a competitive 15 round scrap with Victor Galindez (the best fight that night for sure!) from Madison Square Garden. He and Victor fought 4-5 times in Argentina before either hit the big time. When Jorge finally left his homeland in 71-72? He mainlined in NYC and immediately established himself with KO wins over Hal Carroll, Ray Anderson, Billy Wagner, Andy Kendall, and Bobby Cassidy. His lone decision victory? Jose Gonzalez. Look this guy up for an example of an all-time pugilistic warrior. My $0.02
I believe Ahumada also has a win over Galindez early in their careers. Definitely one of the best light-heavies never to win the title.
Jorge lost a thrilling 15 rounder to the Young John Conteh for the vacant WBC title - not many contenders would have beaten Jorge That Night, it was more a tribute to the Talent and toughness of Conteh. None of the mid 70's Round Robin Champs would of had an easy time with Jorge, Victor seemed to have his No Granted, but Jorge Vs Scott, Lopez, Rossman, Cuello, Saad, Gregory Ect would not be complete foregone conclusions against Jorge A tough talented contender who bridged the gap between the Foster and Golden Age Era's
When my friend and I were watching him against Foster that closed circuit night were were saying, "who is this guy, Bob's gonna lose!" Jorge later said, "I'm not disappointed, a draw here is like a win." We sure knew who he was when we saw the WBC title scrap with Conteh a few months later. Conteh a clear winner tho a very hard earned win, I remember John's eye was pretty swollen. Then the following summer it was Galindez again in MSG for the WBA version in another great scrap. That was good because Joe Bugner didn't even show up against Ali that night and Carlos Monzon had a fairly easy time with the 50-0 Tony Licata. The good ol' days...:bbb
Yes, it was such a fine performance by JC than even Gil Clancy praised him, which was a first where one of his fighters were concerned. A tough tough win.
Ahumada reminded me of a giant Santos Laciar clone stylistically speaking, very good fighter he was and one rugged customer who would give anyone at the weight a hard nights work at his best. I remember in the Galindez fight in MSG that Victor did land a bomb of a punch towards the end of the 14th round that had Jorge in some serious trouble, that is the only time I can remember seeing him visibly hurt by a punch, a testament to Victors punching power I guess. On a sidenote I always thought a matchup between Jorge and Gregorio Peralta would have been a helluva tussle, definately a distance fight but it would be fireworks all the way I`m sure. The Peralta of the first Pastrano fight against the Ahumada of either the Conteh or Foster fights would have been a doozy, its a shame they weren`t around in the same era to make it happen.
In the mid-late 70's there were 10-12 Lightheavies that could have been champs depending on where the fights were and how the breaks went (cuts, etc) Foster, Galindez, Conteh, Ahumada, Y.Lopez, Kates, Burnett, Rossman, Saad, Eddie Gregory (Mustafa), Palov, Hutchins, Fourie, etc.
Jorge should have had his hand raised as the new world lightheavyweight champ in that foster fight. No man was ever robbed worse than him,...not even Jimmy Young.