Can someone tell me about 50's-70's lightweight Bernabe "Baby" Vazquez?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by IntentionalButt, Apr 30, 2010.


  1. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me

    401,493
    83,322
    Nov 30, 2006
    Preferably an old-timer who actually saw some of him.

    My curiosity is piqued, and all I have via perfunctory web search is this collection of stills:
    [yt]LMXeHM8KIq8[/yt]

    ...this short but high-praising obit, written by Jose Sulaiman:
    http://www.saddoboxing.com/7936-boxing-news-jose-sulaiman-mourns-passing.html

    ...these scraps of press from 1956:
    "VAZQUEZ STOPS ROSI
    MIAMI, Fla. Dec 28http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=12
    Baby Vazquez, the eager lightweight champion from Mexico, stopped Italian Paolo Rosi on a seventh round technical knockout tonight in a toe-to-toe slugging match at Miami's Biscayne Arena."
    -The Victoria Advocate

    "Baby Vasquez, the clever, hard-hitting Mexican lightweight champion, made a big hit with American boxing fans on television last night when he stopped Paolo Rosi, the quick-handed Italian from the Bronx, on a TKO in the 7th round. The two fighters stood toe to toe and slugged it out, and the crowd roared its approval. 1:55 after the start of the 7th, referee Mike Kaplan called time and steered Rosi to his corner. The commission doctor took a quick look at the two clean slashes and ordered the fight stopped. Vasquez himself was bleeding freely from a gashed ear."
    -Associated Press

    (Rosi would win a rematch by split decision the next year and go on to have a very satisfying career of his own as a contender in the same deep era).

    ...and his record, which shows that he logged an astonishing 1,337 rounds (107 of his 149 career bouts spanning 24 years went the scheduled distance).

    Further deductions:
    He seemed to be quite the willing road warrior, and that in spite of having nearly a hundred bouts in his native country, and dozens in his home state.

    He looks physically strong but had a low KO ratio...with a good number of his stoppages coming later in his career (including his farewell the week he turned 43).

    His highest class of opponents seem to have been (in order) Jose Napoles, Sugar Ramos, and Jorge Gutierrez - against which class he went 1-5 in a sextuplet of ten-rounders, but was only stopped once (by Ramos, one of only seven stoppage losses). That's premium resistance.

    He looks and sounds to have been popular domestically and abroad despite never having caught a whiff of a world title (his sole pair of 12 round wins were over Gutierrez and Alfredo Urbina for the Mexican 135lb title). This could be due to protracted give-and-take wars, given his good chin, lack of power, and reported willingness to get his gloves dirty. The almost omni-present sly-dog smile probably didn't hurt. He seems to have been a very likable type.

    What can those with good memories tell me about his style? How he carried himself in the ring? How lopsided were the losses to Napoles and Ramos?

    If anyone knows of there being film of any of those, please do tell.

    Having never seen the man in action (yet), it's still pleasing to see that he lived a rich life to a ripe old age.
     
  2. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me

    401,493
    83,322
    Nov 30, 2006
    Come on. Don't we have septua- and octogenarians on here??

    This time period is not that long ago. This is well into the TV era.