Rodrigo Valdez (February 22, 1946 – March 15, 2017) was a Colombian professional boxer who competed from 1963 to 1980. He was a two time middleweight champion, having held the WBC title from 1974 to 1976 and the undisputed WBA, WBC, and The Ring titles from 1977 to 1978. His rivalry with Carlos Monzón has long been considered among the most legendary boxing rivalries. Valdez was trained by hall of famer coach Gil Clancy. Many people consider him, Antonio Cervantes and Miguel "Happy" Lora to be the three greatest boxers ever to come from that country. He is 29th on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. Valdez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame batch 2025.http://www.ibhof.com/

Professional boxing career Born in Bolívar, Colombia, Rodrigo Valdez began his professional boxing career with a win over Orlando Pineda in a four-round decision on October 25, 1963, at Cartagena. He won his next eight bouts, but on October 2, 1965, he lost his undefeated record, beaten by knockout in six by Rudy Escobar.

After that defeat, he went on another undefeated streak of fifteen fights, of which he won thirteen and tied two. However, on his first fight abroad, February 16, 1969, in Ecuador, he lost a ten-round decision to Daniel Guanin. After one more fight in Cartagena, he moved to the United States. Trying to gain more recognition, he campaigned, from 1969 to 1970, in the states of New York, Nevada and California, winning seven fights and losing two. Then, he returned to South America for four more fights in his homeland, winning all.

Hepatitis In his next match, held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, with Bobby Cassidy on August 9, 1971, Valdez won by knockout in round six, because the fight doctor deemed Cassidy not fit to continue from a cut around his eye which had been ruled as produced by a Valdez punch. At the time, nobody knew that Cassidy had hepatitis A. As a consequence of this, Valdez also became affected by the disease. Given a quarantine, he refused to quit boxing periodically and continued training during his time of illness. Separated from most of the world, he was fit enough to win two more fights within three months of his initial diagnosis of hepatitis.

Valdez had nineteen wins in a row when he met Philadelphia legend Bennie Briscoe for the NABF middleweight title, in Nouméa, New Caledonia, on September 1, 1973, beating Briscoe in a 12-round decision to capture the regional championship and becoming a world-ranked middleweight contender. After this win, Valdez claimed for a world title shot at Monzon.

World title He won two more fights, and the WBC made him its number one contender at Monzon's title. But Monzon did not feel like fighting the Colombian at that moment, so the WBC stripped Monzon of the world title (Monzon retained the WBA title) and made Valdez and Briscoe rematch, this time with the WBC world middleweight title on the line. On May 25, 1974, at Monte Carlo, Valdez became a world champion for the first time, by knocking Briscoe out in seven rounds. Valdez subsequently retained his title against Rudy Valdez, Gratien Tonna, and Max Cohen, until Monzon finally agreed to meet him.

One week before the long-awaited match-up, on June 19, 1976, Valdez's brother was murdered during a barroom fight in Colombia. Already in Monte Carlo for the fight, Valdez wanted to pull out of it to join his family in mourning. But he was contractually bound to fight Monzon, so he had to stay in Europe, and on June 26, Valdez, who to many observers seemed rather uninterested, lost in the unification bout to Monzon in a 15-round unanimous decision. Valdez won two more fights after returning to Colombia.

The WBA and WBC, recognizing that Valdez probably wasn't in the best of moods to fight during his first confrontation with Monzon, ordered a second fight between the rivals, and so they fought again, on July 30, 1977, once again at Monte Carlo. This time around, Valdez knocked down Monzon in the second round, becoming the only man to send the Argentine to the floor in Monzon's long career. Valdez was leading after seven rounds, but Monzon mounted a late rally that allowed him to keep the title by a close decision.

Monzon's retirement Monzon announced his retirement from boxing afterwards, and so Valdez and Briscoe were matched once again, on November 5, 1977, for the vacant undisputed world middleweight championship, in Campione d'Italia, which belonged back then not to Italy, but actually to Switzerland. Valdez recovered the world middleweight championship, with a 15-round decision over Briscoe. This time around, however, he would lose his title on his first defense, on April 22, 1978, by points in 15 rounds to another Argentine, Hugo Corro, in San Remo, Italy.

On November 11 of that same year, they had a rematch, at Buenos Aires' Luna Park Stadium, and Corro repeated his 15-round victory to retain the world title.

Retirement Valdez fought only twice more, winning both fights by knockout. After beating Gilberto Amonte on November 28, 1980, in the first round, he retired from boxing for good.

Valdez had a record of 63 wins, eight losses and two draws as a professional boxer, with 42 wins by knockout.

Death According to Colombian sources, Valdez died of a massive heart attack on March 14, 2017. Cartagena mayor Manuel Duque confirmed the two time former world champion's death, calling him "one of the greatest Colombian sportsmen of all time".

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes73WinGilberto AlmonteTKO1 (10), Nov 28, 198072Win62–8–2Charles HaywardTKO7 (10), May 14, 198071Loss61–8–2Hugo CorroUD15Nov 11, 197870Win61–7–2Mayfield PenningtonTKO7 (10), Sep 30, 197869Loss60–7–2Hugo CorroUD15Apr 22, 197868Win60–6–2Bennie BriscoeUD15Nov 5, 197767Loss59–6–2Carlos MonzónUD15Jul 30, 197766Win59–5–2Oreste LebronTKO5 (10)Mar 19, 197765Win58–5–2Ramon BerasKO7 (10)Oct 24, 197664Loss57–5–2Carlos MonzónUD15Jun 26, 197663Win57–4–2Nessim Max CohenTKO4 (15), Mar 28, 197662Win56–4–2Rudy RoblesUD15Aug 16, 197561Win55–4–2Ramón MendezTKO8 (15)May 31, 197560Win54–4–2Gratien TonnaKO11 (15)Nov 30, 197459Win53–4–2Vinnie CurtoUD10Oct 25, 197458Win52–4–2Cubby JacksonTKO2 (12)Sep 6, 197457Win51–4–2Bennie BriscoeTKO7 (15), May 25, 197456Win50–4–2Ernie BurnsKO2 (10)Mar 16, 197455Win49–4–2Joey DurelleKO2 (10)Dec 14, 197354Win48–4–2Bennie BriscoeUD12Sep 1, 197353Win47–4–2Antonio AguilarPTS10Jul 19, 197352Win46–4–2Leon WashingtonKO7 (10)May 30, 197351Win45–4–2Kim BookerTKO5 (10), Apr 16, 197350Win44–4–2José RodríguezTKO5 (10)Mar 5, 197349Win43–4–2Carlos MarksPTS10Dec 18, 197248Win42–4–2Lloyd DuncanUD10Sep 29, 197247Win41–4–2Roy EdmondsKO2 (10), Aug 28, 197246Win40–4–2Juan Evangelista CórdobaKO6 (?)Aug 10, 197245Win39–4–2Milton MendezKO2 (?)Apr 2, 197244Win38–4–2Thurman Doc HollidayTKO4 (10), Nov 25, 197143Win37–4–2Perry AbneyTKO1 (10), Oct 19, 197142Win36–4–2Bobby CassidyTKO7 (10), Aug 9, 197141Win35–4–2Edmundo LeiteTKO4 (10)Jun 28, 197140Win34–4–2Marcos TordoyaTKO4 (10)May 14, 197139Win33–4–2Arturo LangKO5 (10), Mar 26, 197138Win32–4–2Juan JimenezKO2 (10)Jan 24, 197137Win31–4–2Juan Evangelista CórdobaTKO9 (10)Jul 31, 197036Loss30–4–2Ralph PalladinSD10May 11, 197035Win30–3–2Cassius GreeneUD10May 1, 197034Loss29–3–2Pete ToroMD10Mar 2, 197033Win29–2–2Dave OropezaKO1 (10), Feb 14, 197032Win28–2–2Denny StilettoTKO1 (10)Dec 10, 196931Win27–2–2Raul RodríguezTKO9 (10)Oct 17, 196930Win26–2–2David MelendezTKO5 (10), Sep 17, 196929Win25–2–2Mike DeFeoTKO1 (10), Sep 3, 196928Win24–2–2Peter CobblahUD10Aug 6, 196927Win23–2–2Linfer ContrerasKO2 (?)Jun 4, 196926Loss22–2–2Daniel GuaninPTS10Feb 16, 196925Win22–1–2Humberto TrottmanPTS10Aug 6, 196824Win21–1–2Cartagenita KidKO7 (?)Apr 15, 196823Draw20–1–2German GastelbondoPTS10Jan 21, 196822Win20–1–1Richard MoralesKO2 (?)Dec 3, 196721Win19–1–1Humberto TrottmanPTS10Oct 1, 196720Win18–1–1Alfonso FrancoKO12 (12)Aug 20, 196719Win17–1–1Baby MendezKO3 (?)Aug 12, 196718Win16–1–1Kid RevolledoPTS10Jun 10, 196717Draw15–1–1Mario RossitoPTS10Apr 2, 196716Win15–1Eugenio EspinozaUD10Mar 5, 196715Win14–1Julio NovellaTKO2 (10)Jan 22, 196714Win13–1Alfonso FrancoKO7 (12)Nov 4, 196613Win12–1Elias LianPTS10Jul 29, 196612Win11–1Luis Ascary LuceroKO2 (10)Jun 24, 196611Win10–1Sixto UlloaPTS10Apr 29, 196610Win9–1Rafael LunaUD10Mar 13, 19669Loss8–1Juan EscobarTKO6 (10), Oct 2, 19658Win8–0Elias HidalgoKO6 (?)Jul 9, 19657Win7–0Manuel Jack HernandezPTS10Sep 12, 19646Win6–0Fernando AlvarezTKO8 (10)May 15, 19645Win5–0Alejandro ParraPTS8Feb 28, 19644Win4–0Humberto HurtadoPTS6Feb 6, 19643Win3–0Alejandro ParraKO5 (?)Jan 15, 19642Win2–0Eliecer de AvilaKO4 (?)Nov 6, 19631Win1–0Orlando PinedaPTS4Oct 25, 1963

Titles in boxing Major world titles WBA middleweight champion (160 lbs) WBC middleweight champion (160 lbs) (2×)

The Ring magazine titles The Ring middleweight champion (160 lbs)

Regional/International titles NABF middleweight champion (160 lbs)

Undisputed titles Undisputed middleweight champion

See also Afro-Colombians WBC Legends of Boxing Museum List of world middleweight boxing champions

References

External links

Rodrigo Valdez - CBZ Profile