Miguel Canto

Miguel Angel Canto Solis (born January 30, 1948) is a Mexican former world boxing champion who held the WBC and Lineal flyweight titles.

Boxing life

Unlike many Mexican boxers, Canto was not a "slam-bang" type of boxer ("Slam-Bang" boxers are boxers whose fights are usually action-packed; Mexican boxers are usually stereotyped as "slam-bangers"). He used boxing techniques and knowledge instead of trying to score knockouts in most of his fights. Proof of this is that he only won fifteen fights by knockout, out of more than seventy professional bouts. He was a defensive expert, somewhat in the style of Willie Pep.

Canto began his professional boxing career on February 5, 1969. He became one of those rare cases in boxing, like Alexis Argüello, Henry Armstrong, Bernard Hopkins, Victor Luvi Callejas and Wilfredo Vazquez, where a boxer loses his first fight and goes on to become a world champion. He lost that day to Raul Hernandez, in Canto's hometown of Mérida, by a knockout in round three.

First win

His first win came against Pedro Martinez, on May 5, 1969, by a four round decision, also at Mérida. Canto lost his next fight, but a streak of seven undefeated fights (he went 5-0-2, with 2 knockouts during that streak), led him to fight Vicente Pool on May 27, 1970, for the Yucatán state Flyweight title. Canto won his first professional belt when he outpointed Pool over twelve rounds. In his first defense, he retained the crown, with a twelve round decision over Jose Luis Cetina. After losing his next bout, a ten round, non title bout against Tarcisio Gomez, on a decision, he went on to win 21 bouts in a row, including his first bout outside Mérida (a two round knockout of Pedro Martinez in Cansahcab, Mexico), and a win over Constantino Garcia on January 22, 1972, by twelve round decision, to claim the Mexican Flyweight title. On January 31, 1973, he fought to a ten round draw (tie) against perennial contender Ignacio Espinal.

After winning his next four fights, including a rematch victory over Tarcisio Gomez, he was given his first world title try, when he fought Betulio González in Maracaibo, Venezuela, for the WBA world Flyweight title. In what was also his first fight abroad, he was outpointed by the equally legendary Gonzalez, considered by many to be Venezuela's greatest fighter of all time, on August 4, 1973.

WBC World Flyweight Champion Reign

Canto won six more fights, including two Mexican title defenses, and on January 8, 1975, he faced WBC world Flyweight champion Shoji Oguma in Sendai. Canto defeated Oguma by a fifteen round decision to claim the WBC and vacant lineal flyweight titles. His dream of becoming a world champion finally realized, Canto was a busy champion, mixing several non-title bouts with his title defenses. In his next fight, he beat Espinal in a rematch by a ten round decision. In his first title defense, he avenged his loss to Betulio Gonzalez by a fifteen round decision. On August 23 of that year, he defeated OPBF champion Jiro Takada by 11th round TKO. Following that win, Canto faced Espinal for a third time and retained his title once again by a fifteen round decision. On May 15, 1976, he scored a win over former champion Susumu Hanagata. Canto eventually became a traveling world champion.

For his fifth title defense, he returned to Venezuela and defeated Gonzalez for the second time in their trilogy by a fifteen round decision. One month later, he retained the crown against Orlando Javierto, once again by fifteen round decision, in Los Angeles, California.

On April 24, 1977, he returned to Venezuela for a third time, retaining the title against Reyes Arnal by a fifteen round decision in Caracas. Two months later, he beat Kimio Furesawa by a fifteen round decision in Tokyo.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Then, he and Martin Vargas fought the first of their two bouts: on September 17, 1977, Canto outpointed Vargas in his hometown of Mérida.

It was Canto's turn to travel to Vargas' hometown of Santiago, Chile, for their rematch, held on November 30 of the same year. Canto once again retained the titles with a fifteen round decision.

In 1978, Canto retained his title three times, including two rematches with Shoji Oguma, both of them held in Japan, and another fifteen round points win over Facomrom Vibonchai, in a fight held at Houston, Texas.

By this time, Canto's name had become a household name all over Latin America, thanks in part to Ring En Español, which gave Canto's fights much coverage.

On February 10, 1979, he retained his titles for a division record fourteenth time against a future world champion, Antonio Avelar, by a fifteen round decision.

On March 18, his reign came to an end, when he lost a fifteen round decision to Chan Hee Park in South Korea. On September 9 of that same year, he tried to recover his titles from Park in a rematch, but, after fifteen rounds, the fight ended in a draw.

Canto's career took a downward spiral after that fight. He won his following three fights, including wins against Olympic Bronze medalist Orlando Maldonado of Puerto Rico and former champion Sung-Jun Kim. In his 70th career fight, he lost to future world champion Gabriel Bernal. Canto avenged his loss to Bernal in his next fight, but lost the remaining three fights of his career by knockout.

After his final loss to Rodolfo Ortega on July 24, 1982, Canto retired from boxing for good. He had a record of 61 wins, 9 losses and 4 draws (ties), with 15 knockout wins.

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
74	Template:No2Loss	61–9–4	Rodolfo Ortega	TKO	9 (10)	1982-07-24	Template:Small
73	Template:No2Loss	61–8–4	Alfredo Hernandez	TKO	7 (10)	1981-10-31	Template:Small
72	Template:No2Loss	61–7–4	Candido Tellez	KO	4 (10)	1981-08-29	Template:Small
71	Template:Yes2Win	61–6–4	Gabriel Bernal	UD	10	1981-06-06	Template:Small
70	Template:No2Loss	60–6–4	Gabriel Bernal	UD	10	1981-03-29	Template:Small
69	Template:Yes2Win	60–5–4	Kim Sung-jun	UD	10	1981-02-22	Template:Small
68	Template:Yes2Win	59–5–4	Orlando Maldonado	DQ	6 (10)	1980-10-18	Template:Small
67	Template:Yes2Win	58–5–4	Alfredo Hernandez	UD	10	1980-08-16	Template:Small
66	Template:DrawDraw	57–5–4	Park Chan-hee	MD	15	1979-09-09	Template:Small	Template:Small
65	Template:No2Loss	57–5–3	Park Chan-hee	UD	15	1979-03-18	Template:Small	Template:Small
64	Template:Yes2Win	57–4–3	Antonio Avelar	UD	15	1979-02-10	Template:Small	Template:Small
63	Template:Yes2Win	56–4–3	Facomron Vibonchai	SD	15	1978-11-20	Template:Small	Template:Small
62	Template:Yes2Win	55–4–3	Shoji Oguma	UD	15	1978-04-18	Template:Small	Template:Small
61	Template:Yes2Win	54–4–3	Shoji Oguma	SD	15	1978-01-04	Template:Small	Template:Small
60	Template:Yes2Win	53–4–3	Martín Vargas	UD	15	1977-11-30	Template:Small	Template:Small
59	Template:Yes2Win	52–4–3	Martín Vargas	UD	15	1977-09-17	Template:Small	Template:Small
58	Template:Yes2Win	51–4–3	Kimio Furesawa	UD	15	1977-06-15	Template:Small	Template:Small
57	Template:Yes2Win	50–4–3	Luis Reyes Arnal	SD	15	1977-04-24	Template:Small	Template:Small
56	Template:Yes2Win	49–4–3	Orlando Javierto	UD	15	1976-11-19	Template:Small	Template:Small
55	Template:Yes2Win	48–4–3	Betulio González	SD	15	1976-10-03	Template:Small	Template:Small
54	Template:Yes2Win	47–4–3	Susumu Hanagata	UD	15	1976-05-15	Template:Small	Template:Small
53	Template:Yes2Win	46–4–3	Francisco Marquez	UD	10	1976-03-13	Template:Small
52	Template:Yes2Win	45–4–3	Ignacio Espinal	UD	15	1975-12-13	Template:Small	Template:Small
51	Template:Yes2Win	44–4–3	Jiro Takada	TKO	11 (15)	1975-08-23	Template:Small	Template:Small
50	Template:Yes2Win	43–4–3	Lupe Madera	TKO	9 (10)	1975-07-18	Template:Small
49	Template:Yes2Win	42–4–3	Betulio González	SD	15	1975-05-24	Template:Small	Template:Small
48	Template:Yes2Win	41–4–3	Ignacio Espinal	SD	10	1975-03-08	Template:Small
47	Template:Yes2Win	40–4–3	Shoji Oguma	MD	15	1975-01-08	Template:Small	Template:Small
46	Template:Yes2Win	39–4–3	Ricardo Delgado	UD	10	1974-10-25	Template:Small
45	Template:Yes2Win	38–4–3	Alberto Morales	UD	10	1974-08-17	Template:Small
44	Template:Yes2Win	37–4–3	Pablito Jimenez	SD	10	1974-06-08	Template:Small
43	Template:Yes2Win	36–4–3	Manuel Montiel	UD	12	1974-04-27	Template:Small	Template:Small
42	Template:Yes2Win	35–4–3	Tony Moreno	TKO	5 (10)	1974-02-13	Template:Small
41	Template:Yes2Win	34–4–3	Lupe Hernandez	UD	12	1973-11-17	Template:Small	Template:Small
40	Template:No2Loss	33–4–3	Betulio González	MD	15	1973-08-04	Template:Small	Template:Small
39	Template:Yes2Win	33–3–3	Chamaco Rodriguez	KO	5 (10)	1973-06-29	Template:Small
38	Template:Yes2Win	32–3–3	Luis Enrique Garcia	TKO	7 (10)	1973-05-10	Template:Small
37	Template:Yes2Win	31–3–3	Rudy Billones	UD	10	1973-05-02	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	30–3–3	Tarcisio Gomez	KO	2 (12)	1973-03-24	Template:Small	Template:Small
35	Template:DrawDraw	29–3–3	Ignacio Espinal	MD	10	1973-01-31	Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	29–3–2	Alberto Morales	UD	12	1972-11-18	Template:Small	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	28–3–2	Jose Antonio Corral	TKO	3 (10)	1972-09-27	Template:Small
32	Template:Yes2Win	27–3–2	Jose Luis Valencia	UD	10	1972-07-26	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	26–3–2	Ricardo Delgado	UD	12	1972-05-20	Template:Small	Template:Small
30	Template:Yes2Win	25–3–2	Armando Villa	TKO	4 (10)	1972-04-05	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	24–3–2	Jose Vargas	UD	10	1972-03-15	Template:Small
28	Template:Yes2Win	23–3–2	Rocky Garcia	UD	12	1972-01-22	Template:Small	Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	22–3–2	Luis Carlos Urrunaga	UD	10	1971-12-01	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	21–3–2	Alberto Morales	UD	10	1971-10-20	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	20–3–2	Roberto Alvarez	UD	10	1971-09-01	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	19–3–2	Domingo Ledezma	UD	10	1971-07-28	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	18–3–2	Pedro Lopez	KO	3 (8)	1971-07-14	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	17–3–2	Mario Garcia	KO	10 (10)	1971-06-02	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	16–3–2	Gavilan Martinez	UD	10	1971-05-14	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	15–3–2	Jose Luis Cetina	UD	10	1971-04-29	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	14–3–2	Tigre Bracamonte	UD	8	1971-04-04	Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	13–3–2	Marcus Gomez	TKO	6 (6)	1971-03-17	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	12–3–2	Francisco Montalvo	KO	6 (8)	1971-02-14	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	11–3–2	Pedro Martinez	KO	2 (10)	1971-01-21	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	10–3–2	Jose Medrano	UD	10	1970-12-09	Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	9–3–2	Arturo Velazquez	UD	10	1970-11-11	Template:Small
13	Template:No2Loss	8–3–2	Tarcisio Gomez	MD	10	1970-10-14	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	8–2–2	Jose Luis Cetina	UD	12	1970-06-24	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	7–2–2	Vicente Pool	UD	12	1970-05-27	Template:Small
10	Template:DrawDraw	6–2–2	Juan Torres	MD	10	1970-04-29	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	6–2–1	Alex Basilio	KO	8 (10)	1970-04-08	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	5–2–1	Baby Albornoz	TKO	9 (10)	1970-03-21	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	4–2–1	Vicente Pool	UD	10	1970-03-04	Template:Small
6	Template:DrawDraw	3–2–1	Joe Calvario	MD	10	1970-02-04	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	3–2	Rudy Granados	UD	10	1970-01-21	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	2–2	Vicente Pool	UD	8	1969-12-06	Template:Small
3	Template:No2Loss	1–2	Pedro Carillo	TKO	4 (6)	1969-08-13	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	1–1	Pedro Martinez	UD	4	1969-05-05	Template:Small
1	Template:No2Loss	0–1	Raul Hernandez	TKO	3 (4)	1969-02-05	Template:Small

Honours

• He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Canto was voted as the #1 flyweight (along with Pancho Villa) of the 20th century by the Associated Press in 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Lineal championship
• List of Mexican boxing world champions
• List of world flyweight boxing champions

External links

• Template:Boxrec
• Miguel Canto - CBZ Profile