Victor Galindez

Galindez was a fine champion..he started his reign by savagely clubbing Len Hutchins and stopping him in 13 in Buenos Aires (I believe), and then chamging his style...he became a "sit and wait" kind of counterpuncher..rarely leading..and fighting off the ropes effectively..he could go 15 rounds with ease and would score with those looping, arcing left hook counters in close when he had lured his prey in while he was on the ropes. His style was somewhat contained, and he was patient..and tended, as his record shows, to winning 15 round decisions..sometimes by the clsest of margins, as aginst Yaqui Lopez both times. He could revert back to his caveman style of clubbing, as he had to do in that 1st fight with Ritchie Kates, where he came back in the 15th round for a desperation ko win after being cut (by a butt) and being behind in points, but usually his style was strategic and unspectacular. I thought he was somewhat jaded and burnt out when he lost to Mike Rossman, but that shouldn't discredit Rossman at all, who fought very well that 1st time vs Victor. His last burst of glory was in regaining the title from Rossman. I think he was somewhat inspired by his great contemporary and countryman Carlos Monzon in maintaining the glory for Argentina while he was reigning as champion..and should have seen the handwriting on the wall, so to speak when his skills were declining after those two cliff hangers vs Lopez and just retired as champion as Monzon did.

 

Outstanding fighter but as mentioned he seemed burnt out by the end and I trace that back to the war with Kates. Even though he had good fights after that, he seemed to really be laboring to beat even underwhelming opponents.

 

Richie believes he won one of those fights with Galindez and he will still tell anyone who will listen all about it! I sat next to Richie's wife watching amateur fights once, in Pennsylvania. (Richie's Vineland, New Jersey fighters were competing that night, and my wife and I provided part of the transportation getting the fighters to the fights.) Richie's wife is a very nice woman, a pleasure to talk with!

 

One of my 3 fav. fighters ever/ I have a lot of articles and stories on him from the Argentinian mags "Grafica" and "Gole" from the 70's as his career wound out. I have 14 of his fights and while he was no puncher, he was exciting when he decided to get going. He was a superstar in Argentina and supremely confident. I have a great pictuer of him standing next to Eddie Gregory at the weigh in and he is just sneering at Gregory , as if to say he knew he had no chance. A fighter that would drop the last of his blood to win. Well worth looking into.

 

I gave Kates the first 3 rounds against Galindez in the first fight. The cut Victor suffered in the 3rd or 4th round is what really turned the tide in his favor. Rather than sticking to his patient counter-punching ways, he did a 180 degree flip and became a warring brawler, which totally threw the typically smooth, conservative Kates off his game, leading to a lot of knockdowns in Galindez's favor, all the way up until the stoppage at the end. Excellent fight, but it was Galindez all the way past a certain point.

The rematch was the better fight in my opinion, if only because it was more evenly matched. Again, Kates proved himself the superior technician early on before Galindez started to turn up the pressure and overwhelm him at times with his superior physicality. Still, a much closer fight on the cards from what I recall. I might give that one another watch sometime soon.

 

The 1970's...the golden Age of the Lt heavies:

Foster, Galindez,Conteh, Eddie Mustafa, Ahumada, Kates, Hutchins, Rossman, M Quarry, Kendall, Fourie, M. Johnson, Saad M., Y. Lopez, J. Burnett, etc.

And now you know why Monzon didn't move up.

 

Rossman got jobbed in his rematch with Galindez.

Galindez, as the challenger, would not come out of the dressing room to fight Rossman due to some issue over the referee or officials.

The fight was postponed but the WBA forced Rossman to fight Galindez anyway.
Rossman had lost his fighting edge by then....probably saw something wrong in the situation....and lost the fight to Galindez.

 

Guys who fought and sparred with Galindez claim he could punch really hard. Galindez wasn't a Bob Foster type of Foster, but he could still pack power nonetheless. Marvin Johnson claimed Galindez could break a jaw or ribs with a single punch. Sparring partner Jerry Celestine said similar things.

There's a lot of Galindez material on YouTube right now. He was a short (5'10") heavily muscled guy who liked to brawl or counterpunch. Basically, Galindez would hold back, rattling his fists but not attempting much. He'd let the other man lead, then he'd counterpunch with heavy hooks to the head or jaw. Whenever possible, Galindez would open up with furious combos of hooks and uppercuts. On the inside, Galindez would really rough guys up in the clinches. Another favored Galindez tactic was to lay back on the ropes, draw his opponent in, then throw powerful counterpunches.

Most of all, Galindez had superb durability and stamina. He could take a heavy shot, engage in wars, and storm back during the final five rounds to win. Galindez tended to beat his opponents down over the stretch.

 

At his best, he was an underrated fine defensive fighter as well.

 

This he was..and a world class counterpuncher.

 

I didn't see the second Galindez-Lopez match. Was it really a robbery against Lopez? That's what the magazines reported. But lots of fans claim otherwise, that the decision in favor of Galindez was reasonable. What do you guys say?

 

It was very, very close...and debateable, to put it mildly.

 

Easily one of my favourite light heavies

 

Well it's not one of those few fights where it's likely almost everyone will agree on.

Controversial and close, but i'd need to watch and score it again to give a proper answer.