National titles etc in Puerto Rico in the 1970s and 1980s...

Did you guys know that in the 1970s and 1980s there was a thriving undercard boxing scene in Puerto Rico that included national championships like in Mexico, Argentina, Australia and the USA with the USBA and NABF?

To me this is interesting because Puerto Rico being such a small island not only did they have world champions, but national champions as well! Title fights were usually for 12 rounds.

But its not only national championships: guys who were not champions of any kind fought a lot and were on the news telecasts as well as newspapers as well.

Notables of that era included Jose Roman who fought George Foreman for the world Heavyweight title and the man who outpointed him for the Puerto Rican heavyweight title, Pedro Agosto, as well as Wilfredo Vazquez Sr. who was Puerto Rican Bantamweight champion and later won 3 world titles, Antonio Rivera who was world Featherweight champion but won the Puerto Rican super Bantamweight title before that and the guy who beat Rivera for the latter title, Juan Veloz, Juan Carazo who was one second away from becoming WBC world Junior Bantamweight chmapion verus Gilberto Roman, Miguel Santana who was robbed of a rightful world title versus Greg Haugen when he was ahead on the scorecards and was announced as new world champion after a headbutt, only for the cards to be "corrected" 20 minutes later and Haugen given the victory. The IBF conducted an investigation that revealed that late betting money was placed for Haugen which affected the result, which nevertheless stood, Joe Rivera who drew with Hall of Famer Brian Mitchell in a world championship fight and dropped him in round seven and then in the rematch held him to a closely contested 12 round unanimous decision win for the South African, Juan Arroyo who was a hot prospect even featured on Ring Magazine's Spanish version and won his first 21 or so bouts , later facing Hector Camacho Sr., the hard hitting but poor lucked Alberto Mercado who was leading Rivera on the scorecards before being stopped in round seven of an IBF elimination fight and lost a split decision to Refugio Rojas in a WBC elimination contest, Wilfred Benitez's brothers, Gregory and Frankie and Juan "Panadero" Cruz who was an up and coming guy whose career was affected by the death of a rival after a 1983 fight at the Felt Forum,

We also had Ivan Montalvo, Tomas Rodriguez who was stopped by Alfredo Layne in a WBA elimination fight to decide the next challenger of Rocky Lockridge or WIlfredo Gomez (who had their fight later on that night), Luvi Callejas who was Puerto Rican Bantamweight champion and later won the WBA world title, Victor Bultron who went ten rounds with Callejas, Cocolia Perez, Olympic Bronze medalist Orlando Maldonado who also fought for a WBC world title, Felix Trinidad Sr who was Puerto Rican featherweight champion and lost to Salvador Sanchez but went all the way to the fifth with the legendary Mexican, and even three or four extracts: Venezuelan Ernesto Espana was a headliner form 1979-82 in the island and won the WBA world Lightweight title, Dominicans Cirilo Morel, Julio Gervacio and Leo Cruz were also headliners frequently there and Gervacio and Cruz won world titles, in fact the latter two lived long years in Puerto Rico while USVI boxers Julian Jackson and Dennis Jackson made Puerto Rico their home away from home, Jackson later winning multiple word championships and becoming a hall of famer and Dennis Jackson allowed to fight for, and win, the Puerto Rican national heavyweight title.

The Solis brothers were also headliners. Julian won the WBA and lineal world Bantamweight championship in 1980 and headlined undercard fights the rest of the decade while brothers Rafael and Enrique both fought for world titles, losing to hall of famers Macho Camacho Sr and Eusebio Pedroza, respectively,

WOW , what an era for Puerto Rican boxing ah?

And thats not even considering all the boxers who were already world champions when the era rolled, along and not taking Felix Trinidad Jr into consideration, Felix Jr barely missing technically being considered an 80s boxer as well since he first fought in March of 1990. And Yungo Badillo who was robbed of a world title against Tom Johnson but was also a 90s fighter.