Antonio Cervantes

Antonio Cervantes Reyes (born December 23, 1945) is a Colombian boxing trainer and former professional boxer who competed from 1961 to 1983. He held the WBA and The Ring light welterweight title twice between 1972 and 1980.

In 2002, Cervantes was chosen for the Ring Magazine's list of 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Boxrec also ranked him the 50th greatest pound for pound boxer of all time.<ref>Boxrec all time p4p rankings</ref>

Personal life

Cervantes, who is Afro-Colombian, was born in Palenque, also known as the first site of a slave rebellion in the Americas. Cervantes used to sell contraband cigarettes and shine shoes as a child to survive.

Professional boxing career

He met boxing trainer Carmelo Prada, who helped shape his style. Cervantes only had three amateur bouts, winning two and losing one. On January 31, 1964, Cervantes entered the boxing ring as a professional for the first time, beating Juan Martínez by decision in six rounds. His first 32 bouts as a professional were in Colombia, and he won 27, lost 4 and drew one of them. Realizing his pupil needed publicity outside Colombia, Prada then moved with Cervantes to Venezuela, where, on November 25, 1968, he knocked out Orlando Ruiz in the first round for his first fight abroad. He followed that win with a ten rounds decision over Nestor Rojas in the very short time of only three days later.

On December 23 of that year, he suffered his first knockout defeat when Cruz Marcano, a fringe contender of the time, beat him in four rounds in Caracas.

He won five and lost two in 1969, splitting his fights between Colombia and Venezuela, and losing a ten-round decision to Antonio Gómez, former world champion.

He won two more in 1970, then he and Prada moved, this time to Los Angeles. In California, he began by beating Jose Rodriguez by a knockout in the first round in San Jose, and on December 17, he beat Rodolfo Gato González, a very famous Mexican boxer of the time, by knockout in round eight. After this and a 1971 win over Argentine Enrique Jana, Cervantes was ranked as a light welterweight by the WBA. On December 11 of that year, he had his first world title try, against Nicolino Locche, in Buenos Aires. Cervantes lost a 15-round decision that time, however.

Winning the light welterweight title

After winning three fights in 1972, Cervantes, who had by then returned to Colombia, had another world title try: Alfonso Frazer, who had dethroned Locche of the world title, gave Cervantes a chance on October 28 at Panama City. Cervantes knocked Frazer out in round ten and became the world light welterweight champion for the first time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cervantes immediately became a national hero in Colombia, and many enterprises made him their spokesman in the coffee producing country, most notably Sanyo, whose name the popular champion advertised on his clothing and fight trunks.

Cervantes made nine defenses, including a TKO in round ten against Locche in their rematch after his corner stopped the fight due to a cut over his left eye, a knockout in five of Frazer, also in a rematch, a 15-round split decision win over Josue Marquez in Puerto Rico (in the first world title bout ever held at Roberto Clemente Coliseum; most of the nine thousand in attendance scored the fight for Cervantes<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) and a 15-round decision against future world Lightweight champion Esteban De Jesús. But on March 6, 1976, at San Juan, he lost a 15-round decision and the world title to 17-year-old Puerto Rican Wilfred Benítez, who with that became boxing's youngest champion ever.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cervantes won five more fights in a row, including a win over Saoul Mamby, before fighting for the world title again. After Benitez had left the light welterweight belt vacant, Cervantes regained it on June 25, 1977, with a five-round knockout over Carlos Maria Gimenez, again in Venezuela. His second reign as world champion took him to such places as Thailand, Botswana and South Korea, among others. He retained the title six times, beating the likes of Adrian Marrero and Miguel Montilla (twice). By this time, there was much talk about a superfight with world Lightweight champion Roberto Durán, who was coming up in weight. Duran decided to challenge Sugar Ray Leonard instead, however, and Cervantes vs. Duran never materialized.

On August 2, 1980, Cervantes dropped his next title challenger, Aaron Pryor, to the canvas in the first round. Pryor recovered, however, and beat Cervantes by a knockout in round four. This turned out to be Cervantes' last world title fight. He fought two times more for the FECARBOX WBC title, winning both fights shortly before retiring in 1980.

However, Cervantes came out of retirement due to financial problems and went on boxing until 1983, winning four fights and dropping his last one, a ten-round decision loss to Danny Sanchez on December 9, 1983, at Miami.

Retirement

In retirement, his life was almost as public as it was during his boxing career: In 1985, for example, he and a female passenger in one of the boats Cervantes owned, suffered a water accident, and the passenger almost drowned, but Cervantes was able to save her life. A movie has been made about a fictional boxer called Milton Ollivera (who comes from Colombia) who goes through a majority of the things Cervantes went through throughout his life.

Cervantes was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2000, he was declared by the Colombian Boxing Federation and National Association of Professional Boxing as Colombia's Fighter of the Century. For that award, the WBA issued him a special, commemorative belt.

Cervantes' nickname, Kid Pambelé, became almost as famous as Cervantes himself: as a matter of a fact, many fans called him only Pambelé or Pambe (the name of a song by Carlos Vives about him).

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
80	Template:No2Loss	Template:Nowrap	Danny Sanchez	UD	10	9 Dec 1983	Template:Small
79	Template:Yes2Win	67–11–1	Sergio Alvarez	TKO	11 (12)	30 Jul 1983	Template:Small	Template:Small
78	Template:Yes2Win	66–11–1	Amancio Castro	PTS	12	26 Mar 1983	Template:Small	Template:Small
77	Template:Yes2Win	65–11–1	Jerome Artis	PTS	10	2 Apr 1982	Template:Small
76	Template:Yes2Win	64–11–1	Lennox Blackmoore	KO	9 (10)	4 Dec 1981	Template:Small
75	Template:No2Loss	63–11–1	Aaron Pryor	KO	4 (15)	2 Aug 1980	Template:Small	Template:Small
74	Template:Yes2Win	63–10–1	Miguel Montilla	TKO	7 (15)	29 Mar 1980	Template:Small	Template:Small
73	Template:Yes2Win	62–10–1	Kwang Min Kim	SD	15	25 Aug 1979	Template:Small	Template:Small
72	Template:Yes2Win	61–10–1	Miguel Montilla	UD	15	18 Jan 1979	Template:Small	Template:Small
71	Template:Yes2Win	60–10–1	Norman Sekgapane	TKO	9 (15)	26 Aug 1978	Template:Small	Template:Small
70	Template:Yes2Win	59–10–1	Tongta Kiatvayupakdi	KO	6 (15)	28 Apr 1978	Template:Small	Template:Small
69	Template:Yes2Win	58–10–1	Johnny Copeland	KO	3 (10)	18 Mar 1978	Template:Small
68	Template:Yes2Win	57–10–1	Adriano Marrero	UD	15	5 Nov 1977	Template:Small	Template:Small
67	Template:Yes2Win	56–10–1	Carlos Maria Gimenez	RTD	5 (15)	25 Jun 1977	Template:Small	Template:Small
66	Template:Yes2Win	55–10–1	Adriano Marrero	UD	10	19 Mar 1977	Template:Small
65	Template:Yes2Win	54–10–1	Saoul Mamby	UD	10	13 Nov 1976	Template:Small
64	Template:Yes2Win	53–10–1	Ariel Maciel	KO	2 (10)	16 Oct 1976	Template:Small
63	Template:Yes2Win	52–10–1	Beau Jaynes	KO	1 (10)	17 Jul 1976	Template:Small
62	Template:Yes2Win	51–10–1	Javier Ayala	KO	1 (10)	23 May 1976	Template:Small
61	Template:No2Loss	50–10–1	Wilfred Benítez	SD	15	6 Mar 1976	Template:Small	Template:Small
60	Template:Yes2Win	50–9–1	Hector Thompson	RTD	7 (15)	15 Nov 1975	Template:Small	Template:Small
59	Template:Yes2Win	49–9–1	Battlehawk Kazama	TKO	6 (10)	20 Sep 1975	Template:Small
58	Template:Yes2Win	48–9–1	Esteban De Jesus	UD	15	17 May 1975	Template:Small	Template:Small
57	Template:Yes2Win	47–9–1	Ray Chavez Guerrero	KO	2 (10)	15 Mar 1975	Template:Small
56	Template:Yes2Win	46–9–1	Shinichi Kadota	KO	8 (15)	26 Oct 1974	Template:Small	Template:Small
55	Template:Yes2Win	45–9–1	Victor Ortiz	KO	2 (15)	27 Jul 1974	Template:Small	Template:Small
54	Template:Yes2Win	44–9–1	Pedro Adigue	KO	4 (10)	8 Jun 1974	Template:Small
53	Template:Yes2Win	43–9–1	Chang-Kil Lee	KO	6 (15)	2 Mar 1974	Template:Small	Template:Small
52	Template:Yes2Win	42–9–1	Lion Furuyama	UD	15	5 Dec 1973	Template:Small	Template:Small
51	Template:Yes2Win	41–9–1	Carlos Maria Gimenez	TKO	5 (15)	8 Sep 1973	Template:Small	Template:Small
50	Template:Yes2Win	40–9–1	Reinaldo Mercado	TKO	5 (10)	20 Jul 1973	Template:Small
49	Template:Yes2Win	39–9–1	Alfonso Frazer	TKO	5 (15)	19 May 1973	Template:Small	Template:Small
48	Template:Yes2Win	38–9–1	Benny Huertas	KO	1 (10)	28 Apr 1973	Template:Small
47	Template:Yes2Win	37–9–1	Nicolino Locche	RTD	10 (15)	17 Mar 1973	Template:Small	Template:Small
46	Template:Yes2Win	36–9–1	Josue Marquez	SD	15	15 Feb 1973	Template:Small	Template:Small
45	Template:Yes2Win	35–9–1	Alfonso Frazer	KO	10 (15)	28 Oct 1972	Template:Small	Template:Small
44	Template:Yes2Win	34–9–1	Lupe Ramirez	PTS	10	19 Aug 1972	Template:Small
43	Template:Yes2Win	33–9–1	Frank Medina	KO	8 (10)	26 Apr 1972	Template:Small
42	Template:Yes2Win	32–9–1	Jose Escudero	KO	1 (10)	10 Mar 1972	Template:Small
41	Template:No2Loss	31–9–1	Nicolino Locche	UD	15	11 Dec 1971	Template:Small	Template:Small
40	Template:Yes2Win	31–8–1	Julio Vera	UD	10	18 Oct 1971	Template:Small
39	Template:Yes2Win	30–8–1	Gerardo Ferrat	UD	10	10 Jul 1971	Template:Small
38	Template:Yes2Win	29–8–1	Lupe Ramirez	UD	10	28 May 1971	Template:Small
37	Template:Yes2Win	28–8–1	Enrique Jana	TKO	8 (10)	18 Feb 1971	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	27–8–1	Rodolfo Gonzalez	TKO	8 (10)	17 Dec 1970	Template:Small
35	Template:Yes2Win	26–8–1	Jorge Rodriguez	KO	8 (10)	6 Nov 1970	Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	25–8–1	Diego Tovar	KO	1 (10)	23 Mar 1970	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	24–8–1	Pedro Chirinos	PTS	10	20 Feb 1970	Template:Small
32	Template:No2Loss	23–8–1	Antonio Gómez	PTS	10	10 Nov 1969	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	23–7–1	Orlando Rivas	KO	2 (10)	15 Aug 1969	Template:Small
30	Template:No2Loss	22–7–1	Francisco Bolivar	PTS	10	21 Jul 1969	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	22–6–1	Milton Mendez	PTS	10	4 Jun 1969	Template:Small
28	Template:Yes2Win	21–6–1	Frank Leroy	KO	2 (10)	15 Apr 1969	Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	20–6–1	Jesus Gonzalez	TKO	2 (10)	9 Feb 1969	Template:Small
26	Template:No2Loss	19–6–1	Cruz Marcano	KO	4 (10)	20 Dec 1968	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	19–5–1	Orlando Ruiz	KO	1(10)	25 Nov 1968	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	18–5–1	Jose Godoy	PTS	8	31 Aug 1968	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	17–5–1	Heliodoro Pitalua	PTS	10	21 Jan 1968	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	16–5–1	Rafa Rojas	KO	5 (10)	5 Aug 1967	Template:Small
21	Template:No2Loss	15–5–1	Nestor Rojas	PTS	8	19 Jun 1967	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	15–4–1	Reynaldo Lopez	PTS	10	3 Jun 1967	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	14–4–1	Heliodoro Pitalua	PTS	10	20 May 1967	Template:Small
18	Template:No2Loss	13–4–1	Heliodoro Pitalua	PTS	8	2 Apr 1967	Template:Small
17	Template:No2Loss	13–3–1	Victor Cano	PTS	8	3 Feb 1967	Template:Small
16	Template:No2Loss	13–2–1	Cipriano Zuluaga	PTS	10	6 Nov 1966	Template:Small
15	Template:No2Loss	13–1–1	Cipriano Zuluaga	PTS	10	23 Sep 1966	Template:Small
14	Template:DrawDraw	13–0–1	Reynaldo Lopez	PTS	8	29 Jul 1966	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	13–0	Jose Zuniga	PTS	6	24 Jun 1966	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	12–0	Jose Godoy	PTS	6	24 May 1966	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	11–0	Jesus Cardenas	KO	7 (8)	10 May 1966	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	10–0	Jose Godoy	PTS	6	29 Apr 1966	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	9–0	Antonio Yi	PTS	6	19 Mar 1966	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	8–0	Rafael Donodo	KO	2 (6)	19 Jan 1966	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	7–0	Antonio Yi	PTS	6	2 Oct 1965	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	6–0	Felix Salgado	PTS	4	20 Jun 1964	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	5–0	Oscar Gonzalez	PTS	8	5 May 1964	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Rodolfo Marquez	KO	3 (6)	21 Apr 1964	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	Rodolfo Marquez	PTS	6	20 Mar 1964	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Rodolfo Marquez	PTS	4	28 Feb 1964	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Juan Martinez	PTS	6	31 Jan 1964	Template:Small

See also

• List of world light-welterweight boxing champions

External links

• Template:Boxrec
• Antonio Cervantes - CBZ Profile
• International Boxing Hall of Fame Bio

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