Punchers from the Past: DOUGLAS VAILLANT

Name: DOUGLAS (Doug) VAILLANT

Born: 20 March 1938 Santiago, Cuba

Died:  14 June 1985 Miami

Career: 1957 to 1964

Record: 45 fights, 32 wins (16 by KO/TKO), 9 losses (1 by KO/TKO), 4 draws.

Division:  Lightweight and Light Welterweight

Stance: Orthodox

Titles:  Cuban lightweight champion

Major Contests

Scored wins over: Alfredo Urbina, Angel Robinson Garcia(twice), Vicente Rivas*, Chico Morales, JD Ellis, Lenny Matthews, Mauro Vazquez, Aissa Hashas, Fernando Nollet, Dave Charnley *, Lou Molina (twice),

Lost against: Chico Rollins, Kenny Lane*, Carlos Ortiz  (twice),**,Carlos Henandez (twice)**, Bunny Grant*, Sandro Lopopolo **

Drew with: Carlos Hernandez **, Lenny Matthews, Angel Robinson Garcia,

**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title

* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title

Doug Vaillant’s Story

Vaillant first entered a gym in Santiago in 1953 at the age of 15 and was an outstanding amateur winning the Cuban Golden Gloves title and the 1957 International Diamond Belt competition in Seattle. Vaillant had his first professional fight in Havana on 14 September 1957 under the management of Bernard Barker. Barker would later gain notoriety as one of the Watergate burglars. In his first fight he fought a draw in a four round super bantamweight bout against Pastor Marrero. It was a clash of prospects and Marrero would go on to win 16 of his next 17 fights. Great things were expected from Vaillant after his success in the amateurs and by the end of 1958 he had scored 14 wins including 11 by KO/TKO. His last win in that run was a split decision against then unknown Mexican Alfredo Urbina  who would go on to beat  champions such as Joe Brown, Chango Carmona, and Eddie Perkins and draw with Sugar Ramos. In 1959 Vaillant seemed to be on his way to the top with a win over Angel Robinso Garcia, and, in only his eighteenth fight ,a victory over Jimmy Grow in the main support of the Florentino Fernandez fight against Stefan Redl in Madison Square Garden(MSG). Instead of kicking on from there Vaillant lost his unbeaten record with a defeat against seven-fight novice Chico Rollins in MSG. His last two fight in 1959, both against Venezuelans in Caracas, saw him draw with Carlos Hernandez, who was destined to be Venezuela’s first world champion, and Vicente Rivas future WBA/WBC super lightweight title challenger who had beaten Flash Elorde and Angel Robinson Garcia earlier in the year.

He had a mixed year in 1960 going 5-1-2. e drew and won ionn fights against woirld rated Len Matthews, He drew with nthen beat wotld rated vLen Matthews, drew with Angel Robinson Garcia and lost to perennial chgallenger Kenny Lanbe. He started 1961 with a couiple odf wins then lost a very close unanimous decision against He scored three wins including beating Rolando Morales for the Cuban lightweight title then drew with and beat rated Len Matthews and drew with Angel Robinson Garcia but lost to perennial challenger Kenny Lane. He outpointed Angel Robinson Garcia in a Cuban title defence in February 1961 and then left Cuba for good when Castro banned professional boxing. He won 3 of his other 4 other fights in 1961 including a ninth round kayo of 32-5-1 Mauro Vazquez in Mexico City and an eighth round kayo of 27-2 Aissa Hashas in Paris but in some ways his best result was a very close unanimous decision loss against Carlos Ortiz with two judges scoring it 96-94.

Vaillant was living the high life and despite being trained by Angelo Dundee losing his focus. He had two good wins in 1962 beating Fernand Nollet in Paris and flooring Briton’s Dave Charnley in London dropping Charnley twice on the way to a points victory. However his other three fights in the year saw him lose twice on points against Carlos Hernandez on points in Caracas and to Bunny Grant in Jamaica. They were all top level opponents but despite those defeats  Vaillant’s competitive effort in losing to Carlos Ortiz in 1961 saw him picked as the opponent for Ortiz’s first fight as a professional in his native Puerto Rico. Ortiz had won the WBA title in April 1962 bringing an end to Joe Brown’s long reign as lightweight champion and when the WBC was formed in February 1963 they also recognised Ortiz as their champion so both titles were on the line when Vaillant challenged Ortiz in April 1963.  In a one-sided affair Vaillant was floored five times and stopped in the thirteenth round. Vaillant actually ended 1963 well twice scoring wins over highly touted Californian Lou Molina. Despite those wins he was putting his partying life style before his training and that was catching up on him and his career was almost over. He was outpointed in Italy by future WBA/WBC super-light champion Sandro Lopopolo in December 1963. Vaillant had only two more fights struggling to stop 9-10-1 Joe Murchison in May 1964 and then losing in Trinidad to local novice Johnny DePezia. For a while Vaillant worked for the city of Miami as a boxing instructor including working with a young future cruiserweight champion Carlos De Leon. He was arrested in 1967 for dealing drugs although not a  user. He had serious money problems with the US tax authorities pursuing him for unpaid back taxes and he drifted out of the news until 14 June 1985 when he was discovered hanged in his “miserable” Miami apartment having committed suicide. He was buried in an unmarked grave but Miami boxing great Hank Kaplan and a group of Cuban fans raised money for a mausoleum to house Cuban boxers who were buried in unmarked graves and Mike Tyson was a generous donor to the cause.