Amaya's passing this past week got no notoriety. But let me tell you, he was for real. A beautiful boxer churned out of the Panamanian gyms in the Ismael Laguna mold. I saw - I believe his second match - with Hiroshi Kobayashi for the title and I had Amaya ahead by 5 points at the end. I though he did a fantastic job, but he was never going to get the verdict in Japan. By the end of his career he had beaten Sugar Ramos, Rene Barrientos, Rafiu King, Pedro Gomez, Frankie Narvaez, Ould Makloufi, Chucho Alonso and Ramiro Bolanos. Damn, that was a good ledger. RIP champ.
The Panamanian churned out some wonderful fighters including Amaya. Great quote on Boxrec following the Kobayashi second fight: "People are very nice in Japan, but they behave differently when they are ring officials." -Ramon Dosman, Amaya's trainer.
My uncle who boxed in the Army and was friends with Roberto Duran, met him in Panama. A real classy boxer. RIP Mr Amaya. I am writing an emergency article on Wikipedia for you not to be forgotten. (Emergency because he died on the 27th and at Wikipedia, for some stupid reason, if by the new month people who died remain red linked , they get taken off the recent deaths article. This being February now, he will get taken off tomorrow if i dont turn him blue link right now. I hate that rule but Im not all of Wikipedia and so, it is what it is)..
