"The Lion of Monterrey"
By kiki
Danny Garcia reminds me of Lauro Salas. Like Salas, the 1950s "Lion of Monterrey," Garcia has minimal boxing skills, and like Salas, he was still able to become a world champion nonetheless. So last night, as I watched Garcia dismember Khan, I thought, 'I've seen Garcia fight in another life.' Then it came to me, "Lauro Salas."
Lauro Salas fought all the top featherweights and lightweights of the early 1950s, winning some and losing some. He then got into a bar fight with Art Aragon when the Golden Boy called him a "fucking Mexican." But of course, there are many different versions of that bar fight about who won and who lost, but that's a story for another day.
After the bar fight, played in the local press to epic proportions, both fighters were signed by matchmaker Babe McCoy for a ten-round battle at the Olympic Auditorium. Salas lost a close decision. But Salas gave such a good account of himself that when the Olympic matchmaker was looking for an opponent for lightweight champ Jimmy Carter, they gave Salas the opportunity. Again Salas outdid himself; he gave Carter all he could handle in losing a close fifteen-round decision. A rematch was in order; Carter and Salas fought the rematch, and this time Salas was given a close decision. Salas was to lose the title back to Carter six months later. In winning the title from Carter, Lauro Salas became the first Mexican-born fighter to win a lineal world title. Of all the Mexican fighters of that era, Salas was one of the last ones fans thought would win a world title because he did everything in the ring opposite to conventional wisdom...But Salas' win proved that the Boxing Gods are not biased against fighters that don't follow conventional wisdom. - One local scribe described Salas' style as "he does everything wrong, yet it works for him."
I watched both of the first two Carter fights live.
No comments:
Post a Comment