Puncher from the Past Battling Torres

Name: Jose Raymundo (Battling) Torres

Born:  17 February 1941 San Juan de los Cerritos Mexico

Died: 10 November 1972 Reynosa, Mexico aged 31

Career: 1957 to 1972

Record: 69 fights, 59 wins (49 by KO/TKO), 9 losses (9 by KO/TKO), 1 No Decision

Division:  lightweight, Welterweight

Stance: Orthodox

Titles:  Mexican welterweight and middleweight champion

Major Contests

Scored wins over: Victor Manual Quijano(twice), Billy Peacock, Paul Armstead, Frankie Ryff, Johnny Busso, Paul Jorgensen, Ray Riojas, Joey Limas, Antonio Marcilla. Mauro Vazquez, Billy Collins, Alvaro Gutierrez(twice), David Cervantes, Ruben Arocha, LC Morgan, Manuel Avita

Lost against: Carlos Ortiz **, Cisco Andrade( twice) , Joe Brown**,Roberto Cruz **, Alvaro Gutierrez. Jorge Rosales, LC Morgan, Rafael Gutierrez

No Decision: Don Jordan

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

* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title

Battling Torres’s Story

Although born in San Juan de los Cerritos his family moved to Reynosa when Torres was two and it was there whilst carrying the bags of a friend to the gym that Torres first became interested in boxing. He started to box at 14 and had his first professional fight in Reynosa just after his 16^th birthday on 19 April 1957. The teenager had already built a following before turning professional and after just one four round fight and one eight round fight he moved up to ten rounds. With his power and charismatic personality by late 1958 at the age of 17 he was facing veterans such as 116 fight Cesar Saavedra, 56 fight Victor Manuel Quijano and 57 fight Billy Peacock and already was nicknamed “The Boy Killer” .

He had his first fight outside Mexico in May 1959 knocking out Russell Tague in three round in San Antonio. In August 1959 he faced his biggest test up to then outpointing rated Paul Armstead and scored victories over rated fighters Frankie Ryff and Johnny Busso which saw him at No 4 lightweight in the Ring Magazine ratings. Two more wins raised his record to 31-0 with 24 wins by KO/TKO.

Carlos Ortiz had won the vacant NBA and New York State Athletic versions of the light welterweight title and the 18-year-old Torres challenged Ortiz for the titles at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles on 4 February 1960. The show put on by Cal and Aileen Eaton also featured Mexican Jose Beccera defending the World bantamweight title against Alphonse Halimi. The show, reportedly the first to feature two world title fights on the same card since Mike Jacobs staged four on the same show at the Polo Grounds, New York in 1937, drew a crowd of 31,830 fans who paid a then Californian record gate of $383,000. It was a huge success for the Eatons but only 50/50 for Mexico for whilst Beccera knocked out Halimi in the ninth round Ortiz knocked out relatively inexperienced Torres in the tenth round.

Torres returned to Mexico to score a couple of minor wins and returned to Los Angeles in July to face Cisco Andrade who had been 27-0-1 at the start of his career but had fallen back into the pack. He was 3-3 in his last 6 including losses to Frankie Ryff and Mauro Vazquez who had both been beaten by Torres. Torres was a 4-1 favourite but was knocked out in the seventh round. Instead of giving Torres some rebuilding fights his management threw him into two tough matches before the end of 1960. He edged out world rated Paul Jorgensen on 4 October and just four weeks later faced world lightweight champion Joe Brown in a non-title fight and was knocked out in the fourth round.

Torres was back on the kayo trail in 1961 scoring eight consecutive knockouts and then in December was thrown in with Andrade again. He had Andrade down twice but Andrade won again on a fifth round kayo.

Torres was still a good drawcard and he had six fights in 1962. He won five including victories over useful opposition in Mauro Vazquez and Billy Collins but there was also a disgraceful No Decision against former welterweight champion Don Jordan who had lost his last eight fights. Jordan went down from a phantom punch in the first round and the bout was declared a No Decision and Jordan was permanently suspended by the Californian Commission and did not fight again.

With that short spell of rebuilding the drawing power of Torres landed him with a shot at the vacant WBA light welterweight title. Everything was set up for Torres to win the title. He was to face Filipino Roberto Cruz in Los Angeles on 21 March. Cruz was 2-2 in his last 4 fights, had been knocked out by 3-0 Shigemasa Kawakami in 1962 and was slotted into the ratings specifically to be a victim for Torres.

Cruz tore up the script knocking Torres down twice and finishing him in 2:07 of the first round but this three-title show was touched by tragedy. Luis Rodriguez won the WBA and WBC welterweight titles with a hotly disputed decision over champion Emile Griffith and Sugar Ramos beat Davey Moore to win the WBA and WBC featherweight titles with Moore dying two days later of a whiplash injury to his brainstem after his neck hit the bottom rope.

Torres was just 22 but that loss marked the end of big time boxing for him and his last fight outside Mexico. He won the Mexican welterweight title in 1964 and was still knocking out opponents but now the frailties in his defence and his chin which his punch had hidden were exposed. Additionally even at the height of his career he lived to party and was not the most disciplined of trainers. He went 12-4 in his last 16 fights with all 16 ending inside the distance. He beat reasonable level opposition such as Ramon Arocha, Alvaro Gutierrez, L C Morgan and Manuel Avitia but also lost inside the distance to both Gutierrez and Morgan and was knocked out by Jorge Rosales and Rafael Gutierrez in Mexican title fights. He was training less and fighting less. He was inactive in 1968 and 1970 but decided to give it one more try and stopped Johnny Armstrong in four round on the 28 March 1972. He had arranged to fight again in November and was preparing to drive from Reynosa to Valle Hermoso for the bout. He said goodbye to his son and set off but before he had even left Reynosa a pickup truck pulled up alongside his Ford Mustang and shots were fired killing Torres. This was the second attempt to kill Torres in the space of three years. It was a simple family feud between the family Torres and a local gangster that arose out of a small child in one family insulting a grandfather in the other and the grandfather hitting the boy which incensed the boy’s family. At the time of his death Torres was still the most famous sportsman in Reynosa and his death was immortalised in a corrido (ballad). Three men were charged with his murder and were given long jail sentences. He left behind his wife and three children. His son Raymundo was just ten when his father was murdered and he followed his father’s path into boxing turning professional in 1980. He was 15-0-1 in his first 16 fights including 14 wins by KO/TKO and went on to win the Mexican super welterweight title and WBC Fecarbox middleweight title ending up with a 31-13-1 but for Reynosa there would always be only one Battling Torres.