Carlos Cruz (boxer)

Carlos Teo Rosario Cruz (November 4, 1937 – February 15, 1970) was a boxer from the Dominican Republic. Cruz was world lightweight champion from 1968 to 1969. He is the older brother of former super bantamweight world champion of boxing, Leo Cruz.

Amateur career

Cruz claimed he didn't put on his first pair of boxing gloves until his 20th birthday. He fought as an amateur from 1957 to 1959, posting a 14–3 record.

Personal

Cruz's father, Francisco Rosario Almonte was an army officer in the Dominican military. Cruz met his wife, Mildred Ortiz in the town of Río Piedras in Puerto Rico. They were married in 1961 when Ortiz was 24 years old. Cruz had two children.

Cruz's younger brother, Leo Cruz, went on to become a world champion.

Pro career

He started his career as a professional boxer with a loss, being defeated by decision in eight rounds by Juan José Jiménez, October 23 of 1959 in Santo Domingo. His first win came on December 3 of that year, also in Santo Domingo, with a ten-round decision win over Rafael Acevedo.

After one more win in Santo Domingo, he moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, he posted a record of 7 wins and 2 losses before returning to Santo Domingo in 1962. Out of the 7 wins in Puerto Rico during that era, 5 were by knockout. In his return to Santo Domingo, he posted a decision win over Acevedo in a rematch. Towards the end of 1962, he started campaigning in the United States, particularly in New York. There, he boxed 5 times before returning to San Juan for another bout. He won 4 and drew 1 of those fights, all wins by decision.

He spent the first half of 1964 touring Australia, where he won 2 fights and lost one. He lost on points to Graham Dicker in Brisbane, stopped Guizani Rezgui in Sydney and outpointed Gilberto Biondi in Melbourne. Then he returned to Latin America, his first fight after arriving from Australia being a major step up in quality of opposition for him: In Caracas, he met fellow world champion boxer Carlos Morocho Hernández. He was knocked out in four rounds by Hernandez. On to Panama City, where he lost a ten-round decision to Julio Ruiz. He finished his year by beating Marcos Morales, a boxer of Puerto Rico during this era, at Santo Domingo.

In 1965, he was undefeated. He fought in St. Croix, in Mayagüez, in Caguas and in London among other places. He won all ten of his bouts that year.

He won 8 bouts, lost 1 and drew 1 in 1966. He drew with Jaime Valladares in Quito, and lost to Frankie Narvaez in San Juan. But he also beat former world title challenger Bunny Grant. In 1967, he avenged his loss to Narvaez, and went undefeated the rest of the year, securing his position as the world's number one challenger among Lightweights.

He won three more fights to begin 1968, and then, on June 29 in Santo Domingo, he was given his first chance to challenge for a world title. He became world Lightweight champion when he defeated Carlos Ortiz by a decision in fifteen rounds.

He defended the world title with a fifteen-round decision over Mando Ramos in Los Angeles, and then, he closed the year by winning a non-title bout in Tokyo, also by decision, in ten.

There was a rematch between Cruz and Ramos, also held in Los Angeles. The second time around, Ramos became world Lightweight champion by beating Cruz with an eleventh-round knockout. Cruz went on to win his next three bouts of 1969.

On January 17 of 1970, Cruz won his last fight. He beat Benito Juarez in San Juan by a decision in ten, and then returned to Santo Domingo.

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round	Date	Location	Notes
57	Template:Yes2Win	Template:Nowrap	Benito Juarez	UD	10	Jan 17, 1970	Template:Small
56	Template:Yes2Win	41–13–2	Victor Melendez	UD	10	Oct 20, 1969	Template:Small
55	Template:Yes2Win	40–13–2	Len Kesey	TKO	4 (10)	Oct 3, 1969	Template:Small
54	Template:Yes2Win	39–13–2	Grady Ponder	PTS	10	Aug 9, 1969	Template:Small
53	Template:No2Loss	38–13–2	Mando Ramos	TKO	11 (15)	Feb 18, 1969	Template:Small	Template:Small
52	Template:Yes2Win	38–12–2	Hidemori Tsujimoto	UD	10	Dec 19, 1968	Template:Small
51	Template:Yes2Win	37–12–2	Mando Ramos	UD	15	Sep 27, 1968	Template:Small	Template:Small
50	Template:Yes2Win	36–12–2	Carlos Ortiz	SD	15	Jun 29, 1968	Template:Small	Template:Small
49	Template:Yes2Win	35–12–2	Julio Viera	UD	10	Apr 15, 1968	Template:Small
48	Template:Yes2Win	34–12–2	Johnny Bean	TKO	2 (10)	Mar 3, 1968	Template:Small
47	Template:Yes2Win	33–12–2	Chris Fernandez	KO	9 (10)	Jan 1, 1968	Template:Small
46	Template:Yes2Win	32–12–2	Kennedy Clark	UD	10	Dec 11, 1967	Template:Small
45	Template:Yes2Win	31–12–2	Grady Ponder	PTS	10	Jun 23, 1967	Template:Small
44	Template:Yes2Win	30–12–2	Frankie Narvaez	PTS	10	May 5, 1967	Template:Small
43	Template:No2Loss	29–12–2	Frankie Narvaez	SD	10	Dec 12, 1966	Template:Small
42	Template:Yes2Win	29–11–2	Fernand Simard	RTD	10	Oct 1, 1966	Template:Small
41	Template:Yes2Win	28–11–2	Vicente Milan Derado	SD	10	Aug 20, 1966	Template:Small
40	Template:Yes2Win	27–11–2	Bunny Grant	UD	10	May 7, 1966	Template:Small
39	Template:DrawDraw	26–11–2	Jaime Valladares	PTS	10	Apr 2, 1966	Template:Small
38	Template:Yes2Win	26–11–1	Vicente Milan Derado	PTS	10	Sep 4, 1965	Template:Small
37	Template:Yes2Win	25–11–1	Jose Chico Veliz	PTS	10	Aug 14, 1965	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	24–11–1	Frankie Taylor	PTS	10	Jul 6, 1965	Template:Small
35	Template:Yes2Win	23–11–1	Daniel Berrios	KO	1 (10)	Jun 18, 1965	Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	22–11–1	Alejandro Parra	TKO	4 (10)	Apr 3, 1965	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	21–11–1	Criscencio Fernandez	KO	3 (10)	Feb 19, 1965	Template:Small
32	Template:Yes2Win	20–11–1	Marcos Morales	TKO	2 (10)	Dec 12, 1964	Template:Small
31	Template:No2Loss	19–11–1	Julio Ruiz	MD	10	Sep 20, 1964	Template:Small
30	Template:No2Loss	19–10–1	Carlos Morocho Hernández	TKO	2 (10)	Jun 1, 1964	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	19–9–1	Gilberto Biondi	PTS	12	Mar 6, 1964	Template:Small
28	Template:Yes2Win	18–9–1	Guizani Rezgui	TKO	11 (12)	Mar 2, 1964	Template:Small
27	Template:No2Loss	17–9–1	Graham Dicker	PTS	12	Feb 14, 1964	Template:Small
26	Template:No2Loss	17–8–1	Vicente Milan Derado	PTS	10	Nov 1, 1963	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	17–7–1	Johnny Bean	PTS	10	Jul 6, 1963	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	16–7–1	George Foster	PTS	8	Mar 2, 1963	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	15–7–1	Roland Kellem	UD	8	Feb 5, 1963	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	14–7–1	Calvin Woodland	PTS	6	Jan 12, 1963	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	13–7–1	Candy Parilla	PTS	6	Dec 18, 1962	Template:Small
20	Template:DrawDraw	12–7–1	Freddie Jackson	PTS	6	Nov 24, 1962	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	12–7	Sammy Burgess	PTS	10	Sep 14, 1962	Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	11–7	Alejandro Gonzalez	PTS	6	Jun 1, 1962	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	10–7	Rafael Acevedo	UD	12	Feb 17, 1962	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	9–7	Jose Aneiro	TKO	8 (8)	Jan 15, 1962	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	8–7	Lionel Rivera	TKO	8 (10)	Oct 17, 1961	Template:Small
14	Template:No2Loss	7–7	Daniel Berrios	PTS	4	Aug 29, 1961	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	7–6	Gerardo Clemente	PTS	8	Aug 26, 1961	Template:Small
12	Template:No2Loss	6–6	Vernon Lynch	PTS	10	May 26, 1961	Template:Small
11	Template:No2Loss	6–5	Daniel Berrios	DQ	2 (10)	Feb 24, 1961	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	6–4	Gerardo Clemente	TKO	10 (10)	Nov 25, 1960	Template:Small
9	Template:No2Loss	5–4	Daniel Berrios	PTS	10	Sep 16, 1960	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	5–3	Lionel Rivera	PTS	10	Sep 2, 1960	Template:Small
7	Template:No2Loss	4–3	Marcos Morales	SD	10	Jul 5, 1960	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	4–2	Bob Ashford	KO	3 (6)	Jun 11, 1960	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	3–2	Estaquio Gonzalez	TKO	5 (6)	May 29, 1960	Template:Small
4	Template:No2Loss	2–2	Daniel Berrios	PTS	10	May 6, 1960	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	2–1	Jesus M Serrano	PTS	6	Mar 26, 1960	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	1–1	Rafael Acevedo	PTS	10	Dec 3, 1959	Template:Small
1	Template:No2Loss	0–1	Juan Jimenez	PTS	8	Oct 23, 1959	Template:Small

Titles in boxing

Major world titles

• WBA lightweight champion (135 lbs)
• WBC lightweight champion (135 lbs)

The Ring magazine titles

• The Ring lightweight champion (135 lbs)

Undisputed titles

• Undisputed lightweight champion

Death

On February 15, 1970, Cruz was flying back to San Juan alongside his family for a fight against Roger Zami,<ref>Crash stills title hopes</ref> when their Dominicana de Aviación DC-9 plane crashed into the waters of the Caribbean shortly after take-off, killing Cruz,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> his wife and two children, along with all other passengers and crew on board, which included the coach and eleven players of the Puerto Rico women's national volleyball team.<ref name="TWS">Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List of world lightweight boxing champions

External links

• Template:Boxrec

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