Ringside Report Looks Back at Boxing Champion José Nápoles

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Mexican welterweight José Nápoles, 81-7, 54 KOs had an extraordinary career. Mind you nearly 90 professional fights at least, makes for a lengthy one. Add to that his 1114 amateur fights where it was believed he lost one, maybe none and it is a monster time in the ring. He was a fighter who exhibited such a smooth fighting style that it got him a highly original nickname – Butter (Mantequilla). Nápoles was simply one of the greatest welterweight champions of all time, a two time champion with a career stretching professionally from 1958 to 1975 and made 13 title defenses over two periods as the king of the welterweight division.

Born in Cuba, he debuted there, in 19578, on the 2nd of August when he stopped Julio Rojas in the very first round pf his pro career. Then came tragedy for his fledgling future in 1961, when Fidel Castro banned professional boxing. He needed to find a new home for his career.

He found it in Mexico, and eventually became a Mexican citizen, prior to him becoming a Mexican hero.

Like many fighters of the 60’s and 70’s his road to the world title was filled with ups and downs. That meant his unbeaten record was never to last very long but his trajectory was still to be upwards. Having settled in his newfound home and country, he began his assault on a title in earnest.

Future and former world champions, like Carlos Morocho Hernandez and Eddie Perkins shared a ring unsuccessfully with him as his fame became increasingly hard to ignore. Having debuted in the 1950’s he was to take until the latter part of the next decade before he got his first world title fight.

On April the 18th 1969 Curtis Cokes obliged him with the opportunity to become world welterweight champion and Nápoles took his crown when Cokes did not answer the call for the 14th round.

Nápoles had beaten Cokes raw, and it was little surprise given that Nápoles had won almost every round on almost every judge’s scorecard that he was unfit to continue. In Inglewood, California, he was crowned the WBC and the WBA champion and by now he was engaging with his Mexican fans by wearing a sombrero after every fight and when he won the world titles he did not disappoint!

He obliged Cokes by giving him a rematch and won again – significantly this win was in Mexico City and this time after the 10th round, Cokes was unable to answer the call to continue; the same result but quicker than the original fight.

In the same year, back in Inglewood in October, he then defended his title against Emile Griffith, winning on points. In 1970, a new decade and his first defense saw similar results – against Ernie Lopez in February, in Inglewood he stopped Lopez in the final round. And then things went awry. His latest defense was followed by a stoppage loss due to cuts, over both eyes in the 4th round, to Billy Backus in his hometown of Syracuse, New York. Nápoles was a man without a title.

He got a rematch and took his title back in a stoppage in the 8th as he sought to come back into the ring as a man with a simple mission. The fight in Inglewood, in 1971, made him a two time world champion in the welterweight division after he won due the ring doctor stopping the fight due to a cut suffered by Backus.

He retained his title against Hedgemon Lewis in December of the same year but rumors’ were circulating about his alcohol consumption and worries were expressed over his desire to keep his belt. Nápoles was in danger of becoming a man without a reputation.

He came over to the UK in 1972 and he knocked out Ralph Charles in the 7th for another successful defense. From the UK he also defended successfully in Monterrey against Adolph Pruitt stopping him in the 2nd round and then in 1973, in February he knocked out Ernie Lopez in the 7th round in Inglewood and then travelled to Grenoble, France where he beat Roger Menetrey comfortably on pints before going to Toronto, Canada when he knocked Clyde Gray down in the 5th before winning on points after 15 rounds. .

Fight fans had had their appetite whetted by Nápoles and there began a campaign to see him take on the world middleweight champion, Carlos Monzon.

The fight came to fruition in Puteaux on the 9th of February 1974. It was a weight division too much for Nápoles as he was beaten by Monzon, quitting, refusing to turn out for the 7th round. He was well beaten and pummeled.

It was back to welterweight and in that division, he was clearly King, as defenses in 1974 against Hedgemon Lewis – 9th round stoppage in Mexico City – then a 3rd round knockout of Horacio Agustin Saldano in Mexico City brought 1974 to a conclusion.

1975 began well with more successful defenses – against Armando Muniz in Acapulco in March, after which he gives up his WBA title, then rematches Muniz, in Mexico City where it goes to points but the writing was perhaps on the wall.

On the 6th of December, in Mexico City, he lost his title to the British fighter, John H Stracey. Stracey rose from the canvass in the first round to stop on cuts the legendary Nápoles in the 6th, taking his title and sending him into retirement.

According to the legendary British boxing commentator, Steve Bunce, the fight with Nápoles was no picnic for Stracey. The numbers were daunting, in 12 years, Nápoles had made 13 successful defences, Stracey had travelled 12,000 miles and 30,000 Mexicans filled the stadium and were bayong for blood. When Stracey hit the canvass in the first it all seemed over for the Brit. But he got up and he fought on. Nápoles was trained by another legend of the ring – Angelo Dundee. Bunce remembered a conversation many years later in his book, Bunce’s Big Fat Short History of British Boxing, with Dundee where the trainer complained that, “Stracey was consumed with the desire and the will to win and my guy was knocked out.”

And that was that.

Unlike many other former champions, Nápoles managed to stay retired, though rumors surfaced in the 90’s that he was so broke he was signing for pennies in karaoke bars.

His boxing record stands tall, and his achievements are all the more remarkable given that he travelled the world wherever needed to defend himself. An inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame named the 1969 fighter of the year by Ring magazine and The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame, Nápoles lost his life aged 79, after a long illness on the 16th of August 2019 in Mexico City. His legacy assured, our admiration in place and the times in which he boxed the background to a Mexican fighting legend. Upon his death, the EWBC, whose belt he wore whenever he was a world champion put out the following statement” “Typical of the man, who was the bravest, most courageous of fighters, that although he had been affected by various illnesses for some time, he bravely battled on, attending WBC events, always smiling and being greeted by his many friends and fans who admired him as a fighter and as a man. Today that struggle came to an end with his children and grandchildren at his bedside in Mexico City.”

Amen to that, amen indeed.

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