AGAINST a backdrop of corrupt politicians, a widespread polio epidemic, hunger and the lack of autonomy and sovereignty of the ruling class the people of Panama grieved in April of 1951 as Alfonso Teofilo Brown passed at the tender age of 48. Despite having lived in Paris before his eventual death from tuberculosis in New York, the man better known as Panama Al Brown was not just a hero to those in his homeland but to a whole race having become the first Hispanic world champion in boxing history. There was little to suggest amidst the hopelessness of the masses that almost two months later on 16 June, another legend of the sport would be born as a son to the same nation and would go on to be the pride and the scourge of its inhabitants before eventually being the prodigal son who would be lauded as a king among men. really terrific effort by Paddy Dwyer, worth a read
