What was the deal with this guy? Looks really good on film. Beat Bob Foster, Eddie Cotton, Henry Hank but I hardly know a thing about him 'cept he was from Peru.
I live in Peru. He's considered the best boxer ever from this country (there was never a Peruvian world champ, but currently there's a female boxing WBA champ). Mina was an afroperuavian fighter, born in Chincha, a poor city 300kms to the south of Lima (the capital city), in the peruvian desert, a very dry and hot place. He had pretty good athetic body type: taller than the average guy, very muscular. Must've had a very humble education and childhood. Then he came to Lima, started boxing, became a contender and the rest is history. Mina retired because of a detached retina. He died in 1994. 6 years ago, I practised boxing in a gym founded by him and currently run by his family. They have photos of him and Muhammad Ali and other stars. His nephew told me that Mauro was #1 contender for a long amount of time, and was ducked by an "old champ". I assume he was referring to Archie Moore. So, the family's version is that Mina was ducked by Moore in the early 1960s. He made some money out of his boxing career, but wasn't wealthy. He was born as a poor peruvian and became a middle class peruvian until he died. The Mina family now lives in a middle class district and they have professions, as well as their boxing gym. Right now there's a decent peruvian boxer called Carlos "Mina" Zambrano, who is also a nephew of Mauro Mina: http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?cat=boxer&human_id=441161
Interesting that you mentioned a retina problem..I read somewhere that he had an eye problem which was a issue to him when the title shot was near.....Sadly he never got one..... Was a very good fighter, with a versatile game.....I like him....
Just wish the dang documentary about him was available!: http://www.imaginingmina.com/Page2_about.html
Great thread. Mauro was a Peruvian icon, he has an arena named after him in his home town of Chincha. I asked a dear friend who is a Peruvian native about Mina, she became quite emotional and said something along the lines of "he was the Ali of our country", meaning how highly he was regarded there. There was a lot of love for Mina in Peru. There was a nephew of Mina who apparently was quite a decent boxer (not sure if it was the same one posted earlier), but he was shot and killed in a gang related murder last year. I also would love to see that doco Surfbat, i've been waiting patiently for a coupla years now.
