RingSide Report

World News, Social Issues, Politics, Entertainment and Sports

Ringside Report Looks Back at Domingo D’Elia




By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

This time around the material for my fighter of times past is pretty thin on the ground – no matter – we shall not let that get in the way of a pretty good story!

Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, at a time when that country was being run by a dictatorship, growing away from the threats of violence and being dragged into the street politics of your birth is as admirable as creating a career that saw you fight 33 times with 25 wins.

It is also perhaps a journey towards a single landmark fight that tells its own tale as the modern era can be guilty of building people up with limited evidence outside of their native land that they can make it within the world market. It is also right that those who have beaten everyone worthy of sharing a ring at home should be given the opportunity away from that home.
And so, it could be argued was the career of one Domingo D’Elia, 25-5-3, 12 KO’s.

His signature fight, the one which is quoted more than most was this 13th November 1980 contest in Chicago against James “Quick” Tillis.

The road to the fight shows just how beating people who may not be as good as you but may be quite limited can be used to build a bit of a fearsome reputation. Many argued then and do so now that he should never have been anywhere near Tillis, but he earned the right.

It was an inauspicious start as he fought his first ten fights in his home country, mainly in his hometown. Eight wins, a draw and a loss on points in his tenth contest was not suggesting a future world champion. Coupled with the caliber of opponents– eight of which had losing records – it was clear he was being built up slowly at a time when getting a world title opportunity took some serious numbers of fights under his belt. It was notable that when he fought Pablo Noe Castellino on the 28th February 1976, in his 10th fight and who was the one with the best record in his fledgling resume, he lost. It was a little way from his debut in 1973 when he fought his first professional fight against Ramon La Rosa and allegedly knocked him out in the 7th round. Opponents appear to have been quite thin on the ground as he fought La Rosa again in his next fight – it was the next fight for both of them!

Things then settled down, although he continued to fight in Resistencia, his hometown, with 1976 giving way to 1977 and five victories in a row. Once again, he fought one guy twice, meaning that of his first fifteen contests he had twelve opponents.

Fifteen in – time for a belt.

The most obvious would be the belt of his country. And so it was that he found himself, for the first but by far not for the last, time fighting for the Argentina (FAB) title on the 11th of November 1977. Once more at his hometown he faced Raul Gorosito, winning the belt on points over the 12 rounds.

D’Elia was then to defend the belt no fewer than five times, all the way to the 7th of March 1980 when he recorded his second draw in defense of it. He added on the 12th of May 1978, the South American title when he beat Luis Faustino Pires on points. He retained it in the rematch in November of the same year, knocking Pires out in the 7th round.

The problem as you review his record is that in the following 13 fights, leading up to Tillis, he was continuing to fight people more than once, with questionable records and he was never truly tested.

Not tested properly until he went in the ring with Tillis in a fight that would have catapulted him onto the world stage. It was his 29th fight and he had won 25 of them. It was Tillis’s 19th and he had won all of his previous 18 against better and more solid opposition. Nobody was surprised when Tillis stopped him in the 4th.

The bubble was burst and despite being back out on three more occasions, D’Elia was unable to win back his Argentinian title, never mind make any waves.

Perhaps the salutary lesson would be to give people the chance when they deserve it and work on the progress and development of a fighter before that opportunity arises. Mind you, in such a brutal business, it is easy to see how people get chewed up and used to prove the fitness and abilities of others! Tillis went on to fight the best and perhaps his time in the ring with D’Elia served him well enough to show that he deserved bigger and best opposition. Sharing the ring with such a tremendous fighter would have been for D’Elia, a privilege in itself!

[si-contact-form form=’2′]