"Prince" Eloy Pérez

Remember him?

After losing to a massively weight-cutting Adrien Broner just over four years ago (then failing a post-fight drug test for cocaine - and consequently getting dumped by Golden Boy Promotions) he simply vanished from the scene.

That's a shame, because Eloy wasn't a bad little fighter. And I do mean little. Supposedly his rehydrated fight night weight and Broner's were just 2lbs apart, but I don't buy those numbers for a second. Broner easily rehydrated 20lbs just by looking at them in the ring together - as was his MO down at super feather.

Getting beaten up by a functional super welterweight (also happening to have an enormous advantage in height and reach; again Broner is listed as just ½″ taller but there is no way on earth that is true) is nothing to stick your head in the sand over, but it appears that's just what happened. Dejected by either the humiliation of the defeat (his first, professionally) or by having GBP dump him, Pérez has never again set foot in a prize ring. He was scheduled to return on the Guerrero vs. Aydin card, but those plans were quietly scuppered after his coke bust.

It can't have been a case of having made enough money to retire on. This was an HBO BAD co-feature, not even a main event, and Broner was still in the early days of his network-manufactured push to stardom. Pérez only pocketed 100k for his troubles, hardly a fitting sum to ride off into the sunset. And we know from HBO's build-up and from Roy Jones saying that he cried during the fighters' meetings that Pérez and his family are dirt-poor (something Broner actually made fun of, calling them "losers" :-() so it wasn't like he couldn't have still used the income from continuing to box.

He wasn't a big puncher, as evidenced by his mere 7 knockouts in 27 bouts. He was, however, a tidy boxer and had enough zip in his dukes to get most opponents' respect - and he did score a lot of knockdowns, just without torque enough to usually get the finish...and the Jiménez blowout proved he wasn't completely feather-fisted.

Before losing - while under the deleterious effects of nose candy, no less - to a much larger weight-cutting bully in Broner, he managed a respectable degree of success on the way up, besting durable journeymen like Juan Carlos Martinez, TV-friendly and toughly-matched Dominic Salcido (who vacillated between lightweight and super feather - and between various outrageous hairstyles), Alejandro Rodriguez (when he only had one loss, before he became a trial horse, though he did still have an upset of 11-0 Danny Evangelista and draw with Roberto Marroquin ahead of him), David Rodela (still a handful in those days, and like Rodriguez then with just one loss, before racking up many as the years went on), as well as fringe contenders Daniel Jiménez (who dealt Vicente Escobedo his first loss) and Gilberto Sánchez León, and then-unbeaten Dannie Williams (later to have a FOTY candidate brawl with Hank Lundy). He also shut out Speedy Gonzalez, in the same year that Gonzalez took Ronny Rios to school & got robbed of, at the very least, a draw. (http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=347190)

He didn't even do that badly with Broner, in the early going. He acquitted himself well in the first round and half of the 2nd before the size discrepancy began taking its toll.

Yet another career in tatters in the wake of Broner's refusal to play fair and fight men his own size the first ⅔ of his own career, pulling tactics reminiscent of Chavez Jr. (maybe worse in some cases, proportionately, with the amount he ballooned up in a day following the weigh-ins) - along with Vicente Escobedo and Vicente Martín Rodríguez. All three of them were in the mix as capable B+ super featherweights before getting trounced by the welterweight Problem in 130lbs clothing. :verysad

We may have missed out during that era on several excellent fights because of that punk feasting on smaller men to pad his record. If only Ponce De Leon had gotten the nod over him, maybe he would have been humbled into moving up in weight earlier and some of these guys could have actually fulfilled their potential.

 

Yep. Chente Escobedo - previously a top rated contender whose only defeats prior to Broner were competitive points affairs with Guerrero, Katsidis, and Jiménez - fought twice more after Broner, the year after, knocked out both times.

Vicente Martín Rodríguez struggled his next time out with Sergio Escobar (who constantly flirts with a .500 record and keeps alternating on either side of the line) in a 6-rounder...enough for a rematch to be ordered, in which Escobar (at that point 22-19-2!) actually knocked him out!! atsch

 

Reportedly their re-hydrated unofficial weights on fight night were claimed as Pérez 143lb/Broner 145lbs, but there is just no way. I mean look at them in the ring together.

...and Broner just ½″ taller? Uh-uh. :bart

 

...although given the way they're going at it during the lead-up to Broner vs. Theophane, he might yet just end up being #50. :-(

 

Pérez, Rodríguez, Litzau and Escobedo - the four super featherweight Broner victims after the DPDL gift (and before debuting at lightweight versus DeMarco) - all thrown into a tourney, without ever having been ruined by facing a weight-cutting Broner.

Who takes it? :think

 

So not a fan of princes Hamed, Cuadras, or Badi Ajamu? :think

 

How about Jackie "Princesa Azteca" Nava?

 

I was sad to stumble over a recent arrest report for an Eloy Pérez that was popped in CA for drugs, but the DOB was two years off so not the same guy.

Anybody know how Eloy is doing in retirement? Making ends meet?

 

Young 9-0-2 (1) Eloy putting in work, knocking out freakishly tall 5-2 (1) southpaw Ron Boyd:

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