You most likely recognize his face, if not his name, as it has been front & center in this iconic photograph that has for the last eleven years been used on the Wikipedia article for the sport of boxing (appearing sometimes as the entry's main photo beside the opening paragraph, and sometimes moved below to sections further down the punch - currently accompanying the "Punches" sub-heading under the heading "Technique") - which is from his 2005 victory over tough journeyman Rafael Ortiz, aired live on ESPN2 FNF. This content is protected It was an entertaining and hard-fought win, and that was par for the course for Domínguez, from his pro debut at the age of sixteen. After several years of struggling to separate himself from the domestic lightweight prospect-contender pack, he stepped up big for the first time and was promptly smacked down in a blitzkrieg one-minute KO1 by Zahir Raheem. Then, curiously, he managed to hold a young prime & surging Brandon Rios, then 16-0 (11), to a split decision. After that he sprung a pair of upsets against unbeaten Rafael "Chocho" Guzmán and perennial fringe contender Guadalupe Rosales, before his next defeat. Then a nine-month stretch going 5-0 (4) against very solid domestic opposition before another big step up and yet another one-sided loss to Humberto "Zorrita" Soto. Within that same calendar year he was challenging - and getting shut out by - Miguel "Titere" Vázquez. A couple of decent bounceback wins, a little momentum built up, and he was tossed in with unbeaten Filipino puncher Mercito Gesta, and got dropped and lost a wide decision. Just me or is anybody else noticing the pattern? Who the hell was managing Domínguez and what on earth were they smoking?? He did bag a nice final scalp pretty late in his career, with his last win coming against yet another Filipino puncher with an impressive record, Manny Pacquiao lookalike Al Sabaupan (whose only prior defeat came at the hands of very heavy-handed Marvin Quintero). This came just a day shy of a year from his final appearance in the ring, when he suffered his second consecutive loss by KO after being fed to massive punchers Abner López (who is set to face Pedro Campa later this very month in a mouthwatering brawl) and Jose Zepeda (also coincidentally in action the week before López, headlining on beIN Sports Español versus Michael "The Artist" Pérez, itself a very attractive match-up). Domínguez passed away this past February. Now, before you freak out and start parroting Howard Cosell in the aftermath of Holmes vs. Cobb - no, the pair of KO losses had naught to do with Domínguez's passing. Comfortingly, in a strange way, this is one instance where the untimely passing of a young man (young by "outside the world of boxing" standards: Pelón was just 31, a week away from celebrating his thirty-second birthday) actually didn't have any correlation, let alone directly caused by, adverse effects from his prizefighting career. Domínguez had cancer of the colon, diagnosed very shortly after his loss to López. True as ever to form, he fought it tooth & nail for as long as he could. Three years. Many of you may not have ever known of him (again, outside the nagging familiarity borne of having been randomly picked by a Wikipedia editor, probably in large part due to his being a relatively obscure "rank and file" boxer that wasn't a household name) but he was somebody that was always worth the watch if you were a regular viewer of the sport roughly a decade ago. He was also a member of the boxing fraternity, among its most rugged and persistent (though he was only human, in the Raheem fight he could have gotten up but took a long knee. Sometimes you have ups and downs in life, in both success and character. This guy, salt of the earth, was the embodiment of that idea...) and deserves to be remembered, or at the very least given the memorial ten bell salute that is usually reserved only for the ring's major celebrities. This content is protected (sorry, there are only wrestler based ones uploaded that I can find, but it serves the purpose)
Look at this loco guerrero, taking it to a clearly far more skilled Little Fox, making damn sure even in certain defeat that Soto would know he'd been in a fight. This content is protected
Does anybody know how Ricardo got his nickname? He was never bald. (even, ironically, during the battle with cancer; the chemo used for the rectal type only uncommonly results in hair loss)
