He was a great technician, very savvy and tough, quick on his feet, and could bang with both hands. He came out of relative obscurity in the early '60s to unify the vacant bantam title. He made a string of defenses against top bantams of his day, and was touted by those who followed the lower weight classes as possibly the best P4P fighter of the day (better even than Liston and Clay). However, a combination of weight making and ex-flyweight champ Fighting Harada's intense, non-stop attack style took the title from him in a big upset. He was outhustled again in a rematch with Harada, and it looked like he might retire. However, he made a comeback sometime after that and put together a string of wins over several years that earned him a shot at feather champ Jose Legra. Jofre, who was now in his late '30s, scored a big surprise when he took the title on a close decision from Legra. After that, he fought a long overdue "superfight" with ex-FW champ Vicente Saldivar, a fight that was supposed to have happened several years earlier if Jofre had gotten by Harada. Jofre scored one of his last great performances by blasting out Saldivar in 4 rounds. Jofre never defended his title after that, was eventually stripped, and retired for good after a few more non-title wins. The two close losses to Harada were the only losses of his career.
Right on the button description. You could mention that he looked similar to Joe Louis stylewise. Arguable a Top20 fighter of all-time. Often overlooked I must say.
he actually took the title off a neighbour of mine, johnny caldwell, who unfortunately just died recently of throat cancer
I was really sad to hear that Caldwell had passed, it got distressingly little attention - even on an excellent forum like this. You almost never hear him mentioned amongst British world champions these days, and just like Howard Winstone and Ken Buchanan, he was extremely unfortunate that his fighting days coincided with those of arguably the greatest fighter of their respective decade(s). M2S has summed it up nicely really. Jofre was just a master technician at every range who had and could do everything - Nat Fleischer described him as the mini Robinson, and he wasn't too far wrong. There are some who give him a hard time based on the two razor thin lossed to Harada - in Japan - who often gets pointed out as being the only other true great on Jofre's record. If, however, you consider that this is Harada we're talking about, in Harada's back yard when Jofre was knocking on in years and becoming very drained at the weight, and then take into consideration that Harada had to absorb extraordinary punishment in order to land his own blows, I wouldn't hold those two defeats against Jofre too much. Especially after he came out of retirement to win the featherweight title and end his career with over 50 KO wins and no KO defeats - a rare achievement in any era. I know several people whose opinions I respect, none of who rate Jofre outside the all time top 25, with some going as far as to put him as high as #10. At bantamweight, only Manuel Ortiz and maybe Ruben Olivares have a fair argument to be ranked above him. But he's a number 1 for me, owing to his longevity and dominance. And I still stay that Harada's two wins over him are better than any win of Pacquiao's career :tong
The golden bantam was perhaps one of the best pound for pound boxers for his size, and one of the best pound for pound punchers for his size. Jorfe had a smooth, but powerful style. He was an artist in the ring, could take a punch, and had speed. Even Nat Fleischer who was known to be partial to fighters pre 1960 said Jofre was as good as any bantam he has ever seen! If Eder had a draw back his life style ( he was a vegetarian ) hurt him a bit, and he could over comit a tad to his punches. Jofre had trouble making weight for both Harda fights. Harda won both of them, and might have exposed a stylistic flaw in Jorfe. I think the great boxer -punchers like Jorfe always have trouble with the super durable great swarmers. Super durable great swarmers are extremely rare. I rate Jorfe #1 at Bantam.
