John Caldwell is supposed to have said about his trip to Brazil to fight Jofre: "I haven't come across the Atlantic to lose my title to a bunch of monkeys. I come from the home of boxing." Here is Jofre's recollection: "I worked so hard to put Brazil's name on the map and for this guy to come over here talking all that crap? I kicked his butt and I did it on purpose....I was hitting him so badly and laughing so hard from inside. I remember allowing him to recover just so I could punch him more. I wanted to really hurt him; I was not interested in finishing the fight quickly." This is an amalgamation of two interviews he gave on the subject, one from 76, one from 2004, so that's pretty consistent across a long time frame. Chris Smith notes on page 268 of "Brazil's First Boxing World Champion" he is "not entirely sure that those comments cam directly from Caldwell's mouth" but more likely were spoken by his manager, Sam Docherty, later to be surmised. Interesting. Jofre seems such a gentleman, but he had the edge the great ones all need, no doubt. It's fascinating to me that this is such a little known story whereas even the guys who will log on to General for the first time today probably know the "What's my name!" story back to front.
For one of the best slugfests out there, check out his 10th round stoppage of Medel. Really good fight.
Without a doubt - two of the best ever bantamweights fighting each other in their primes, a perfect mesh of styles, skill level off the charts and exciting exchanges to boot. It really doesn't get much better.
