Was he the greatest journeyman of all-time? Cuban who fought out of the same legendary 'Fifth Street Gym' stable as Napoles, Paret and Rodriguez. After Castro banned professional boxing in '61 he moved to Paris. Throughout his 23 year career - spanning from 1955 to 1978 - he also fought out of New York, Miami, France, Spain & Italy. His final record read - from 236 fights - 133 wins including 53 by way of knockout - 82 defears, only 3 which came via stoppage and 2 of those were from cuts, and 21 draws. Along with wins over fights with very good record, he got draws against Carlos Hernandez & Francois Pavilla, and also lost to but went the distance with guys like Hernandez - again, twice - stablemate Napoles, Robert Duran, Esteban De Jesus, Ken Buchanan, Billy Backus, Eddie Perkins, Wilfred Benitez and Ismael Laguna - all over 10 rounds. He was your typical journeyman, went from one town to another, knew how to put up a good fight and last the distance with quality guys - even if not in particularly great shape - collecting paychecks before moving on the next town and next opponent, and so on. A testament to how good he was as a journeyman, his many wins over fighters with some great records - like multiple weight Italian champion the 72-8 Giordarno Campari - his draw with Hernandez, but more specifically it's his losses. Ismael Laguna for example called him the toughest fighter he ever faced - despite having been in with Hernandez, Buchanan, Carlos Ortiz, Vicente Saldivar, Manda Ramos, Flash Elorde & Nicolino Locche. Garcia had Laguna on the canvas 3 times and apparently should of been awarded the decision - in a fight where he received his highest ever purse of $6,000. He was also ranked in the top 10 at light-welterweight from 1961-66. How does he stack up to the other journeyman of his time or indeed from all of history? Who else deserves the title of 'the greatest journeyman of all-time'? Who are your personal favourites?
I made a similar thread about 2 months ago and john garfield had some interesting stuff to say about him, as he had actually seen him spar and train in a gym.
atsch Probably should of looked first. Thanks for the heads up. Yeah I was just looking through his record again and the places he's travelled to along with the competition. Belgium, United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Ivory Cost, England, Denmark, Finland, Tunisia, Jamaica, Mexico, obviously Cuba aswell.
Bump. http://www.boxing.com/exquisite_angel_robinson_garcia.html It's always great to discover and read up on these old fighters. Very interesting character.
@roughdiamond I think you might find this fighter fascinating. From what it seems like he was like a watered down version of Sugar Ray Robinson and Kid Gavilan.
That's what I find interesting. You'd think that with all the fights that he's had, and him facing the likes of Napoles, Duran, Buchanan, Benitez, Laguna, etc. there would be more videos of him. I would like to have seen more of him. He was pretty much the Emanuel Augustus of that era.
Bump. Wish more people could talk about this guy. He fought 200+ times and had 80+ losses and only stopped 3 times on cuts! Surely he must have had one hell of a chin to not be KO’d flat with that many fights!
