Punchers from the Past: Gaspar Ortega

Name: GASPAR (EL INDIO) ORTEGA

Born: 31 October 1935 Mexicali, Mexico

Died: 13 December 2021 Naples Florida

Career 1953-1965

Record: 176 fights+, 131 wins (69 by KO/TKO), lost 39 (2 by KO/TKO), 6 draws

+ Ortega has been quoted as saying he started boxing professionally in 1950 at the age of 15 and had 21 consecutive wins which do not appear on his early record in the Ring Record Book and Encyclopaedia. That would give him 197 fights and 152 wins. However, the Ring Record Book has him winning the Mexican Golden Gloves in 1962 and both the Record Book and Boxing Records Archive have him winning his first 21 fights which seems too much of a coincidence so I will go with 176 and 131

Division: Welterweight

Stance: Orthodox

Titles: None

Major Contests

Scored wins over: Isaac Logart (twice), Tony DeMarco (twice), Kid Gavilan**, Mickey Crawford, Rudell Stitch, Benny Paret **(twice),Stan Harrington (twice), Armando Muniz, Johnny Gonsalves, Charley “Tombstone” Smith (twice), Domenico Tiberia,

Lost to: Isaac Logart (twice), Tony DeMarco, Kid Gavilan**, Ralph Dupas**,Don Jordan**(twice), Denny Moyer **, Rudell Stitch, Florentino Fernandez (twice), Emile Griffith **(twice), Luis Federico Thompson, Carmen Basilio **, Charley Scott, Francois Pavilla, Charley “Tombstone” Smith. Bob Fosmire, Nino Benvenuti **, Stan Harrington (twice), Sandro Mazzinghi**, Brian Curvis *,Manuel Gonzalez, Charley Shipes.

Drew with: Mickey Crawford, Alvario Gutierrez, ,

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

* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title

Ortega’s Story

Born in Mexicali, Ortega’s father was of Spanish descent and his mother was a Zapotec Indian. Ortega spent his formative years in Tijuana where it is said that the home he shared with his parents and 11 siblings had no electricity and a dirt floor. Gaspar started boxing as a flyweight and won the Mexican Golden Gloves title in 1962 before having his first professional fight on 1 January 1953. He had 20 fights that year winning them all, a level of activity that would typify his career. He was fighting ten round fights just a couple of months after his eighteenth birthday. His unbeaten run ended with a loss to David Cervantes in June 1954 and just two months later he found himself fighting in Madison Square Garden (MSG) over four rounds as a super lightweight. He returned to Mexico beating and then losing to Cervantes and spent his time bouncing around fighting in Mexico and the USA. He had his first main event at MSG in March 1956 losing on points to Isaac Logart. Defeats were no more than a bump in the road for Ortega. He beat Logart in a return and was 2-1 against former welterweight champion Tony DeMarco. He was becoming a favourite with the MSG management , TV and fans as his open exciting style made him a good draw card. In July 1957 he lost on points to Kid Gavilan then beat Gavilan in October in a world title eliminator but in December lost to Logart in another title eliminator. Over 1958, 1959 and 60 he fought ranked fighter after ranked fighter facing Ralph Dupas, Mickey Crawford, Don Jordan, Denny Moyer, Rudell Stitch, Benny Kid Paret. Florentino Fernandez, Stan Harrington, Emile Griffith, Armando Muniz, Johnny Gonsalves and Luis Federico Thompson. In 1961 Ortega had 16 fights. In February he scored a unanimous decision over the by now reigning world welterweight champion Benny Paret in a non-title fight. In June 1961 he had his only shot at a world title. Emile Griffith had won a split decision over Ortega in 1960 and had beaten Paret for the title in April 1961. In their return for the welterweight crown Ortega climbed off the floor twice in the seventh round but was stopped in the twelfth. His first inside the distance defeat in 81 fights. In August he was back at work and racked up thirteen more fights in six months going 12-1 and ending the year with four fights in twenty-four days in four different venues. That was eclipsed  by 22 fights in 1962. He had four fights in May, five in June, four in August. All 22 fights were scheduled for ten rounds in places such as MSG, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, New England, Hawaii, California and a bunch of towns in Mexico. Some of the opposition was good class such as Charley “Tombstone” Smith who he was 2-2 in their four fights and Stan Harrington. Slow down? No way! Ortega had 23 fights in 1963 and a career high 29 fights in 1964 so 73 fights in three years. His one concession to his schedule in 1963 and 64 is that he did most of his fighting in towns in Mexico but he faced Nino Benvenuti, Sandro Mazzinghi and Domenico Tiberia in Rome Francois Pavilla in Paris, Harrington twice again in Hawaii, Gabe Terronez and Gene Bryant. He fought an incredible eleven times in May 64 alone with as little as two to three days between fights. The 169 fights in 12 years caught up with Ortega and after a draw in January 1965 he then suffered six consecutive losses all in different venues. The competition included Brian Curvis in England, Manuel Gonzlez in Texas, Ted Whitfield in Boston and finally on 25 September 1965 Charlie Shipes in California.

An amazing career. He fought in MSG 15 times having a 6-8-1 record there which shows that win or lose  he was a popular fighter loved by the MSG management and the TV chiefs. He was happy to fight in big arenas and small towns. He had no “home town” of his own in the USA but had no qualms about tackling world ranked fighters in their home towns. His style was a war of attrition. He would storm forward targeting the body with curving hooks from both using his aggression as his defence. He could jab he could box but both of those were part of a rarely used Plan B. His fight with Benny Paret on 25 February 1961 saw ten round of brutal to-to-toe slugging (you can see it on You Tube) which Ortega won on a unanimous decision. Two fights later the ill-fated Paret outpointed Emile Griffith to win the welterweight title. He regularly wore an Indian headdress into the ring or a sombrero to show his mixed parentage. With his ridiculous schedule and 39 losses he might be dismissed as just a “super journeyman” but no journeyman would have beaten the fighters Ortega beat or have been as high as No 2 in the Ring Magazine ratings in 1956 and still in the top 10 in the early 1960’s and he crammed all of that in before his thirtieth birthday.!

In his 176 fights Ortega was only beaten inside the distance twice (by Emile Griffith and Sandro Mazzinghi) and fought 1,292 rounds yet despite all of those wars he showed very little wear and tear. Hall of Fame trainer Gil Clancy was quoted as saying ”What amazes me is how his nose is as straight as it ever was, considering the number of punches he took,” After retirement Ortega settled in Connecticut and worked as a counsellor with troubled youths at a social agency in New Haven and in the evenings as a volunteer boxing instructor at the Beat the Street Community Centre. In 1959 he was diagnosed with throat cancer but made a full recovery. Ortega passed away at the age 86 on Dec. 13 2021 in Naples, Florida, where he had had gone to live with a daughter following the death of his wife Iraida. Gaspar and Iraida, a native New Yorker, were married for 64 years.