Torres, Jose

Jose Torres was born on May 3, 1936 in the city of Ponce .

At the age of eighteen he went to serve in the US Army, where he began to actively engage in boxing. Since Poertoricans were considered citizens of the United States since 1917, he was given the opportunity to represent the country at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne . At the Olympics he managed to reach the final of the middle weight category, but in the decisive match he lost to the famous Hungarian Laszlo Pappu , who already won the third gold at these Games. After receiving a silver Olympic medal, Torres continued to enter the ring as part of the American national team, taking part in various prestigious tournaments. So, in 1958, in the second middleweight title, he won the Golden Gloves national tournament and became the United States amateur champion.

Having achieved success at an amateur level, Torres decided to try himself among professionals, for this purpose he joined the Empire Sporting Club in New York, where he underwent training under the guidance of eminent coach Konstantin D'Amato . In May 1958, his debut professional fight took place - rival Gene Hamelton was knocked out in the first round. Over the following years, he spent many successful fights, in July 1962 he became the middleweight champion of Puerto Rico, but in May 1963 he suffered the first loss in his career - by technical knockout from Cuban Florentino Fernandez .

Champion fight with Willy Pastrano

Despite the defeat, Torres did not stop winning, rose quite high in world rankings and in the spring of 1965 got a chance to compete for the light heavyweight world champion according to the versions of the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the World Boxing Council (WBC). In the sixth round of this match, reigning champion Willy Pastrano was knocked down, and in the interval between the ninth and tenth rounds, the referee stopped the fight, counting a technical knockout. Thus, Torres became the third Puerto Rican in history who managed to get the world title, and the first Latin American who managed to earn the champion title in the light heavyweight category.

Jose Torres defended champion belts four times

Fight with Dick Tiger

During the fifth defense, held in December 1966, the title passed to the Nigerian Dick Tiger , who won a unanimous decision. Soon, a rematch took place between them, however, Tiger again looked better - two of the three judges were on his side.

Subsequently, Torres participated in two more games with little-known rivals, both times won, and then at the end of 1969 decided to end his career as a professional athlete. In total, in professional boxing, he spent 45 fights, 41 of which he won (including 29 ahead of schedule), lost 3 times, in one case a draw was recorded.

After completing his sports career, Torres worked as a sports functionary, in particular, from 1983-1988 he served as chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, and from 1990-1995 he headed the World Boxing Organization (UBO). In 1994 he became a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, in 1997 - included in the International Boxing Hall of Fame . He co-authored several books on boxing, including contributing to biographies of Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson . In addition, he was engaged in public activities, represented the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York, met with political leaders, gave lectures at universities.

He died of a heart attack on the morning of January 19, 2009 in his hometown of Ponce, where he returned a few years before his death ^[4] .

• Jose Torres - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Jose Torres - professional boxing statistics for BoxRec