Tony Ayala Jr.: The Best Prospect of All Time

By Greg Smith
......As Barry Tompkins once stated before one of Ayala’s early fights, Tony Ayala Jr. was born to be a fighter. Tony Ayala Sr. raised all four of his sons to be fighters. Besides El Torito, Mike became the most accomplished of the fighting Ayala brothers, and is best known for his classic ebb and flow war against Danny “Little Red” Lopez in The Ring magazine ’s 1979 “Fight of the Year.”
El Torito started boxing at the age of 5 after watching his brothers in a Texas amateur tournament. From the age of 8, Tony never lost a fight, and won multiple amateur titles while compiling nearly 150 amateur bouts.
Perhaps more important than Ayala’s stellar amateur record was the reputation he gained in sparring with professional fighters. At the age of 14 in 1977, Ayala engaged in a famous sparring match with welterweight champion Jose “Pipino” Cuevas.
Cuevas was known for being hard on sparring partners. Indeed, a tough, quick former amateur fighter from the east coast who once trained me actually turned down the opportunity to spar with Cuevas at the Main Street Gym in Los Angeles in the late 1970s after watching Cuevas concuss and bludgeon two sparring partners in the gym. Ayala was fearless, and his sparring session in San Antonio with Cuevas is still the stuff of legends.
....... Superb boxing scribe Phil Berger did a great piece on Ayala entitled “The Odyssey of Tony Ayala Jr.: The Rage of the Fighter, The Destruction of The Man.” Berger perfectly captured the essence and action of El Torito’s infamous sparring session with Cuevas.
Berger clearly pointed out that Tony Sr. was reluctant to allow his teenage son in with a brutal punching champion like Cuevas, but Tony Jr. contended that Cuevas wouldn't be able to hurt him, and insisted on the sparring match. Berger describes Tony Sr.’s version of the action after his son talked him into arranging the match.
“Well, word got out. The gym was packed that day with spectators. And for the first two rounds, it was nip and tuck, man against boy. At the end of the second round, I asked him, ‘Torito, is he hurting you?’ He says no to me, ‘he may be a world champion, but he ain’t sh** to me.’ And he went out and kicked his butt the next round.”
Naturally, a father might embellish on his son’s accomplishments, but Berger was careful and astute to mention that Tony Sr. wasn’t the only person in the gym who saw it that way.
“San Antonio fight promoter, Tony Padilla, who has had his differences with the Ayalas, was there the afternoon Cuevas and young Tony went at it. He remembers Lupe Sanchez, Pipino’s manager, saying to Cuevas afterward, ‘Aren’t you ashamed --- a 14-year-old boy doing that to you?’ And Pipino, Padilla said, was muttering ‘Increible, increible’ – which is incredible in English.”
When Ayala turned pro at the age of 17 in 1980, he was touted as one of “Tomorrow’s Champions.” Ayala’s stablemate and sparring partner, Bobby Czyz, was perhaps the most marketed of the young prospects climbing the ranks, but Ayala was by far the most precocious and talented. Ayala had the ability to slip and counter to the head and body unlike many top contenders despite his tender age. More importantly, Ayala faced adversity early in his career, and responded like an old school champion when he was hurt and on the brink of defeat.
In Ayala’s ninth pro fight, he faced dangerous, deceptive, and unpredictable Mario Maldonado. Maldonado sported a mediocre record of 11-7-1, but possessed tremendous punching power and a style that could rattle well-rounded, battletested opponents.
In the first round, Maldonado took the fight to the 18-year-old Ayala. Ayala characteristically responded with beautifully executed counter hooks to the head and body. As the round commenced, Maldonado was surprisingly getting the better of the exchanges. After trading salvos in the center of the ring, Maldonado was able to land a combination that backed Ayala against the ropes. Under fire, Ayala attempted to retaliate, but was caught with a wicked right to the temple that froze him and had him out on his feet. Maldonado followed up, and Ayala was on the deck for the first time in his young, fledgling career.
Most importantly, Ayala was badly hurt. He took a short count, and slowly stood up on unsteady and twitching legs. Despite being in a fog, Ayala instinctively looked to his corner, and nonchalantly waved to them that he was ok and to sit down. Even near the brink of defeat and career destruction, Ayala had a fearless, defiant look on his face. His nervous system had suffered a severe shock, and it seemed like Ayala might become a first round knockout victim. The cynical reaction of many of observers was that Ayala would prove to be yet another hot prospect who failed miserably when adversity was unexpectedly manifested.
What happened shortly thereafter is the difference between a prospect and a true contender. El Torito methodically picked his spots, and turned the tide of the bout. He began to tattoo Maldonado with thudding left hooks and vicious right hands. As the first round ended, Ayala was in complete control, and Maldonado was in trouble.
During the next two rounds, Ayala punished Maldonado. Ayala’s attack was a study in controlled, professional fury. Jabs, short, compact left hooks to the body and head. Lead right hands followed by more hooks. Ayala effortlessly slipped Maldonado’s desperate shots, and attacked with increased fury.
In the third round, a hook shot Mario’s mouthpiece several rows into the crowd. Shortly thereafter, Maldonado hit the deck and gradually succumbed to the pounding. The referee stopped the bout after it became clear that Mario didn’t want to continue.
It was both a scary and revealing bout. Tony Ayala Jr. could be hurt and knocked down, but he could rise from the brink of defeat to dominate dangerous opposition. He was no longer a prospect. He definitely wasn’t a one-dimensional front runner who couldn’t handle return fire.
A contender was born.
Over the next twenty months, Ayala roared and ripped his way through tomato cans, journeyman, and legitimate contenders. To this day, I have never seen a fighter so young with as much game as Tony Ayala Jr. At age 18, he could execute a shoulder roll off an incoming right hand and counter with his own right hand as well as James Toney or Evander Holyfield. During infighting, El Torito would sometimes cross his arms in the style of Archie Moore, and then counter with a five-punch head and body combination, pivot, and land another thumping combination that would paralyze and befuddle his opponents.
Tony was uniquely relaxed and vicious in the ring. Barry Tompkins compared him to Jake LaMotta, but with better instincts. Ferdie Pacheco compared him to Roberto Duran because of the relentless ferocity of his attack. It is hard for me to articulate who Ayala reminds me of because he was actually quite original.
As the sordid story of boxing goes, Ayala never fulfilled his potential. On the verge of a title fight with WBA belt holder Davey Moore, Ayala was convicted of **** and was given a 15-35 year sentence in the New Jersey penal system.

.....When Ayala entered prison in 1983 at the age of twenty, his professional record was 22-0 with 19 KOs.


.....Prodigies often don’t last long, nor do they fit into the established norms and mores of society..
Tony Ayala Jr. was the prototype of the prodigy gone wrong. Like Mozart and Paganini, he started his profession early in life, and his skill set improved at an unnatural rate. Robbie Epps lost to Ayala on a first round knockout in 1982. He was once a sparring partner of Ayala, and a family adversary. Epps described Ayala’s bizarre and precocious development in Berger’s excellent article.
“I first saw Torito compete in San Antonio’s Municipal Auditorium in 1972. I couldn’t believe it. Nine years old he was, and he was fighting a guy with a mustache and a tattoo---a 15-year-old man. It was the first time I’d ever seen a kid that young whose punches made a thudding sound when they landed. He had that squatty body of his, but he beat the hell out of the mustached guy. Stopped him in the third round. It was amazing.”

This isn't the whole article, just the highlights......