Born May 14, 1943 - Died June 21, 1992, Jose Manuel Urtain was a heavyweight boxer who was born and fought out of Spain. His career stretched from 1968 to 1977 and consisted of a total of 71 professional fights. He retired with a final record of 56-11-4-41, but began his career with a very impressive winning streak that went 31-0-0-29. At points he held the EBU and Spanish heavyweight titles. Standing 5'11" and with a career average weight of around 200 lbs, Urtain was a strong and hard hitting fighter who also partook in rock lifting as a sport in his youth. At one point, he was the champion of Spain in this activity and proportedly lifted a 400 lbs rock. He once made the front cover of Ring Magazine, and Editor Nat Fleischer even said " No man whoever held the heavyweight title could match Urtain's feat of strength." Urtain defeated a number of European notables such as Jurgin Blin, Peter Weiland, Jack Bodell and Richard Dunn, along with two former light heavyweight champions as well.. Tragically, Urtain died in 1992 after falling from a 10th story hotel room, which left mixed theories of suicide vs accidental death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZU9G-E0dlg I recommend watching this short clip of Urtain fighting Juergin Blin. Good little slugfest in which both men exchanged knockdowns.
Here is a documentary of Urtain's life and death which Is approximately 1 hour long and I believe is almost entirely narrated in Spanish. I've already watched part of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3P5sr2V_V0
Funny story, Urtain had two left feet in the ring and was a clumsy oaf, but he was known for being unbelievably strong; a rip phonebooks in half type of guy. One time in the 1970's Ali was looking for a European opponent, so he's in Spain getting ready for an exhibition with Gregorio Peralta (the LHW who almost beat George Foreman). Ali starts doing the Ali thing to entertain the crowd, he then calls Urtain into the ring for some trashtalk when Urtain grabs him, and literally lifts Ali (who was heavier) over his head and military presses him!
I've got the Cooper 70 scrap, haven't seen it in awhile. Jose (probably accidentally) butted Cooper early on opening 'enry's scar tissue. But, to be honest, he didn't have the skills to compete with world class fighters.
there are absolutely no theory of an accidelntal death, it was a suicide and he left a note for his family, he was strongly depressed
i am from spain and i tell you that urtain was overrated like hell, he was crude like hell, he was a strong stones lifter, and it was his best department, the physical strength and some power(overrated), he knocked out tomato cans,and he had a lucky night with some decent guy because urtain had stylistical advantage like vs jack bodell(not a great thing anyway) , when he faced quality oposition his record got worse and worse, a shot henrry cooper schooled him. he could not beat guys like jose roman, but he was lucky because foreman would have raped him in 35 seconds.( urtain would have been the rival of george instead of roman if he would have won the fight). urtain was a good champion in level of spain, a decent guy in europe but it was all
I did not know about the suicide possibility, I remember him being on the front cover of Ring magazine before he imploded, if I remember at the time he feasted on a bunch of European B-C -D level fighter but had a 24-0 record. He was a strong guy and power but it fizzled when he stepped up in class. I guess he could have been better with the right corner but not sure how far his talent would have taken him. That was the first time I saw film of him I believe
