Name: IGNACIO ARA
Born: 29 April 1909 Sigues, Spain
Died: 18 May 1977 Buenos Aires
Career: 1926 to 1947
Record: 195 fights, 151 wins (65 by KO/TKO), 22 losses (none by KO/ TKO), 20 draws, 2 ND
Division: Middleweight and Light heavyweight
Stance: Orthodox
Titles: European middleweight, Spanish middleweight and light heavyweight.
Major Contests
Scored wins over: Eugene Alonzo, Tommy White . Joe Dundee**,Karl Neubauer
Lost against: Len Johnson, Ben Jeby**, Marcel Thil** (three times)
Drew with: Maurice Prunier. Joe Bloomfield, Tommy White (twice), Kid Tunero
**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title
* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title
Ignacio Ara’s story:
-Four times voted Spanish Boxer of the Year
-Had a 21-year career and fought at least once in every one of those 21 years.
-Simultaneously held both the Spanish middleweight and light heavyweight titles
-Took part in 20 Spanish title fights.
-Never lost by KO/TKO in any of his 195 recorded fights (It has been claimed that he had over 240 fights-more than any mother Spanish boxer).
-Nicknamed “The Professor “ for his skill, technique and intelligence in the ring
Ara was born in Sigues, Spain in April 1909. He moved to France as a child when his father took a job with a shoe company. With the outbreak of the First World War the family moved back to Spain. In 1925, at the age of 16, the young Ara attended a pelota club where he met Basque heavyweight Paulino Uzcudun who had beaten Max Baer and Harry Wills and lost to Primo Carnera in a challenge for the heavyweight title. Ara had done some sparring in gyms but when went to a fight night with Uzcudun and some fighters did not turn up Ara found himself in the ring for his first professional fight against Hector Ambrosoni who had a 9-23-3 record. Ara, 17, knocked Ambrosoni out in the first round and began his career without having had an amateur fight.
He fitted in 15 more fights in the next twelve months losing only against experienced Frenchman Louis Vauclard who he defeated in a return. In 1928 he extended his record to 28-3-2 and had ended the year with three fights in London. He began 1929 with five fights in the USA. His age, 19, prevented him from fighting in fights scheduled for more than six rounds but had falsified his document hoping to fight in main events. He was found out so he then moved to Cuba and built a following there before moving back to Spain. He was in Cuba again at the start of 1930 losing his first two fights that year on disqualification but then losing only one of his next twenty-nine fights. The loss was a controversial decision against future world middleweight title holder Ben Jeby in New York in July 1931. Ara was so incensed by the decision that he never fought in America again. On the plus side he had knocked out former welterweight champion Joe Dundee in one round in Havana in 1931, outpointed future middleweight title challenger Young Terry and in May 1932 knocked out Austrian Karl Neubauer in Vienne to win the vacant European middleweight title.
He lost a close decision to middleweight champion Marcel Thil in a non-title fight in Paris in December 1932. An unbeaten run of 14 fights saw him challenge Thil for the International Boxing Union (IBU) title again in Paris with Thil proving too strong and retaining the title on points.
Ara stayed busy and was unbeaten in a run of 16 fights before challenging Thil for the IBU and European titles this time in Madrid before a crowd 30,000 but losing again on points.
In 1936 Ara moved his base to Argentina and went on to fight in Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and back in Europe had a couple of fights in Portugal. In 1942 he won the Spanish middleweight title and defended it eight times before winning the light heavyweight title in 1945. He then held both titles simultaneously making eleven defences of the middleweight title. He lost the light heavyweight title in June 1946 but regained it in 1947. In his last fight he added another country to his travelogue as he lost on points to Boy Brooks for the (historic) Philippines light heavyweight title. After retiring in 1947 at the age of 38 from 1954 onwards he spent thirteen years in Argentina as a trainer and manager of various boxers and was hired by the Peruvian Boxing Federation as the trainer of their boxing team. The Spanish Boxing Federation also brought him on board to prepared their team for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. Ara had been tremendously popular when fighting in Argentina so at 59, he left for Buenos Aires. He died in Buenos Aires on May 19, 1977, as a result of an aneurysm in a cerebral artery.