Theboxing Biographies Newsletter Volume3 - No 11 25Th Dec, 2008
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1 TheBoxing Biographies Newsletter Volume3 - No 11 25th DEc, 2008 www.boxingbiographies.com If you wish to receive future newsletters ( which includes the images ) please email the message “NEWS LETTER” [email protected] The newsletter is also available as a word doc on request As always the full versions of these articles are on the website My very best wishes to all my readers and thank you for the continued support you have given which I do appreciate a great deal. Name: Willie Pastrano Career Record: click Birth Name: Wilfred Raleigh Pastrano Nationality: US American Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Born: 1935-11-27 Died: 1997-12-06 Age at Death: 62 Stance: Orthodox Height: 6′ 0″ Trainers: Angelo Dundee & Whitey Esneault Manager: Whitey Esneault Wilfred Raleigh Pastrano was born in the Vieux Carrê district of New Orleans, Louisiana, on 27 November 1935. He had a hard upbringing, under the gaze of a strict father who threatened him with the belt if he caught him backing off from a confrontation. 'I used to run from fights,' he told American writer Peter Heller in 1970. 'And papa would see it from the steps. He'd take his belt, he'd say "All right, me or him?" and I'd go beat the kid: His father worked wherever and whenever he could, in shipyards and factories, sometimes as a welder, sometimes as a carpenter. 'I remember nine dollars a week paychecks,' the youngster recalled. 'Me, my mother, my step-brother, and my father and whatever hangers-on there were...there were always floaters in the family.' Pastrano was an overweight child but, like millions of youngsters at the time, he wanted to be a sports star like baseball's Babe Ruth. However, he was so embarrassed by his size that he joined a gym to lose weight. Even then, the other boys would 2 laugh and taunt him: 'Hey, big fat Willie Spaghetti, this is a fighter's gym, not a wrestler's gym.' Encouraged to stick with it by boyhood friend Ralph Dupas (who went on to hold the world light-middleweight title), Pastrano borrowed a key and took to working out alone, or with Dupas, late at night. Within 18 months the puppy fat had gone and he had taken his first steps as an amateur boxer. The spaghetti boy's destiny was set. WILLIE GETS THE TASTE Originally, Pastrano had no intention of becoming a pro, associating the paid side of the sport with punch-drunk fighters, but in no time at all he was in love with the art. The bug had bitten deep and he won 13 of his 16 amateur bouts. 'I got the taste of it,' he said. 'The taste of the applause, the taste of being in condition the last round while the other guy is getting tired, and knowing you're looking good and doing a beautiful job.' He was still only 15 when he forgot his early worries about the professional ranks. He lied about his age and won a four-round decision over a local bantamweight, Domingo Rivera, in New Orleans, in 1951. After four fights, all wins as a featherweight, his manager was fined and Pastrano was banned until he turned 16. In the summer of 1952, he and Dupas – who had actually turned pro as a 14-year-old – were on holiday in Miami, where the age limit was 18, when they lied about their ages again and had some more fights. Pastrano fought six times, Dupas five. before they returned home. He returned to Miami the following two summers and linked up with Angelo Dundee. who remembered him as a charismatic, glamorous youngster. He had black, wavy hair, a smile like Errol Flynn and a personality to match. The young Pastrano had put on weight fairly quickly. When he drew a four-rounder with Alvin Pellegrini, in his sixth pro fight. in April 1952, he was 141 ¾ 1b, a light-welter by today's standards. Three months later, when he stopped Buzz Brown in two rounds on his Miami debut, he was 147 ½ 1b, a fully blown welterweight. 3 GETTING AN EDUCATION By early 1953, Pastrano was beating experienced pros like Emerson Butcher, from Rock Island, Illinois, and New Hampshire welterweight Chic Boucher, a fighter who had mixed in world championship-class. Then a points defeat by Johnny Cesario, in May 1953, started a run of bad luck which lasted to the end of the year, during which he won only once in five fights. Nevertheless, losing decisions to men like Del Flanagan, a good welter from Minnesota, and Italian light-middleweight Italo Scortichini, provided him with a vital education. He won seven fights in a row in 1954, beginning with a 10-round main event at the New Orleans Coliseum, in which he shrugged off a few months of ring rust before unanimously outpointing Jimmy Martinez. It was a solid performance, which underlined his potential. Martinez had been knocked out in his two previous fights with Ellsworth `Spider' Webb, but before that had won 48 of 56 outings. He also narrowly outpointed tough middleweight Jackie La Bua, who was a promising 21-year-old at the time, in September 1954. At first it was called a draw, but the discovery of an error on referee Jimmy Peerless's card meant Pastrano was given a split verdict. He ended the year with another impressive win over Bobby Dykes, a seasoned campaigner who would later work as one of Pastrano's cornermen. Pastrano was now firmly established, but out of the ring he was Dundee's biggest headache. The youngster hated roadwork, loved women, and once or twice he even laced the milk that Dundee gave him with whisky. BUILDING A REPUTATION The biggest name on his record in 1955 was that of former world light-heavyweight champion Joey Maxim, whom he outpointed in a 10-rounder in New Orleans. By then, the 33-year-old Maxim was sliding, but he had still managed to outbox rising star Floyd Patterson the previous year, and only Carl 'Bobo' Olson had beaten him since his most recent world title fight. Utah heavyweight Rex Layne had been one of the glamour boys of the division in the early 1950s, but defeats by Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles had thwarted his world title ambitions. However, like Maxim, he was still a good name to have on your record and Pastrano, scaling 1851b, outboxed him in a 10-rounder, in New Orleans, in December 1955. A month after his 20th birthday, Ring magazine rated Pastrano as the number two challenger to the light-heavy champion Archie Moore. 4 The victory over Layne persuaded Pastrano that his future lay in the heavyweight division. When the unbeaten champion Rocky Marciano announced his retirement, in April 1956, his title was up for grabs. But by then Pastrano had demonstrated his habit of blowing hot and cold. In January he had scraped a draw with a late rally against Chuck Spieser, a light- heavyweight from Michigan whom he had outpointed six months earlier. And then, in April, Pastrano gave a masterclass in ring artistry as he outscored Johnny Arthur of South Africa by a landslide margin over 10 rounds. Pastrano was paid $4,000, but he had slipped from fifth to seventh in the rankings, and was out in the wilderness as far as world titles were concerned. Pastrano set his record straight by trouncing Spieser in May 1956. The fight drew 9,200 fans to the Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, and was televised nationally. Strangely, it was a split decision, but Spieser accepted defeat sportingly. 'I've never seen Willie in such superb form,' he said. 'I wouldn't hesitate to say that he can whip a lot of the bigger boys in the division.' However, in November 1956, 21-year-old Floyd Patterson knocked out veteran Archie Moore to set a new record for the youngest heavyweight title holder. And his manager, Cus D'Amato, spent the next two and a half years steering him clear of the major contenders. HEAVYWEIGHT DECISIONS Pastrano's long unbeaten run ended in June 1957 when Roy Harris, a teacher from the small town of Cut And Shoot. Texas. outpointed him over 10 rounds in Houston. It was one of the biggest fights in Texan history with a then state record gate of $46.962. In an enormous upset, Harris outpunched a disappointing opponent and finished strongly to have Pastrano hanging on to last the course. Pastrano was gracious in defeat, saying: 'He's got a style all his own. like nobody I've ever fought. 1 couldn't seem to get to him.' Privately, he put the defeat down to something more personal. 'I did everything wrong that night: he said. 'And for the first time since my marriage 1 forgot to tie my wedding ring to the laces of my left boot.' But his words could not mask the fact that he was now even further away from a shot at Patterson. Harris did get his opportunity, in August 1958, but Patterson stopped him in the 12th round. It was during a trip to Louisville, Kentucky, that Pastrano came closest to the heavyweight world title, even if he didn't know it at the time. Pastrano and Dundee were approached by a bright-eyed teenager named Cassius Marcellus Clay who asked to spend time with them in their hotel. Bored with hanging around, they agreed, and Cassius and his brother Rudolph chatted to them for a couple of hours.