Jose Torres vs. Wayne Thornton - Great fight, Extremely rare footage

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Tremendous light-heavyweight battle, Torres' first defense of his LHW title.

After winning the LHW title by crushing Willie Pastrano, Torres didn't defend his title for over a year. First he made an attempt to campaign at heavyweight (which he aborted after a tougher-than-expected fight against Tom McNeeley), then he was hospitalized with a kidney ailment. When he finally got around to defending his title, he defended against mandatory challenger Wayne Thornton.

Thornton was a tough, swarming, brawling fighter, very much similar to Jeff Harding. He had first made a name for himself a few years earlier by upsetting Willie Pastrano (before he won the title). Losses to Pastrano and Bobo Olson had set him back, but with both Pastrano and Olson having already been crushed by Torres, Thornton had put himself into the role of top contender by twice beating perennial contender Eddie Cotton.

The fight looked like it might be a quick night for Torres, as he twice pounded Thornton to the canvas in the first round. The fight almost justifiably could've been stopped right there, but because it wasn't, we instead got to see 15 rounds of slugging action.

This is the only footage that I know of that exists of the fight, taken from a hand held camera from someone at ringside. As it turns out, the up-close view gives a great shot of the first round knockdowns.