The history of the sport of boxing in Puerto Rico is a varied and extensive one. Boxing is a major sport in the Caribbean country, and the sport has produced many champions for the island, both in the amateur and professional ranks, and among men and women fighters.
Prestigious boxing publication Ring Magazine has considered Puerto Rico as, pound per pound, the best boxing nation in the world.https://www.ringtv.com/121255-puerto-rico-the-pound-for-pound-king-of-boxing/#:~:text=At%20the%20moment%2C%20for%20example%2C%20Puerto%20Rico%20has,smallest%20ratio%20of%20any%20country%20in%20the%20world.
As of 2023 13 Puerto Ricans were inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, all of them men. Of these, 11 were former boxers, with one being a former referee and one a writer. In December 2023, Ivan Calderon became the 14th Puerto Rican to be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame; he was inducted in June 2024.
Boxing in Puerto Rico is overseen by the Puerto Rican Boxing Commission, whose president in 2021 was Jorge Colón Colón.
Throughout the history of boxing, Puerto Rico has been locked in a rivalry with Mexico, which intensified beginning in the 1970s. Both nations have two of the most important boxing schools, whose boxers have starred in numerous non-heavyweight title fights.
Beginning of boxing in Puerto Rico Like other sports, such as baseball and basketball, boxing was first introduced to Puerto Rico by the U.S. Military at places such as Camp Las Casas (now Residencial Las Casas) in San Juan. Nero Chen, who died from tuberculosis in 1924, was the first Puerto Rican to register as a professional boxer. He traveled to New York City for fights.
Broadcasts of Jack Dempsey fights to the island by radio brought interest in boxing to Puerto Rican sports fans. Boxing in Puerto Rico was first legalized by governor Horace Mann Towner in 1927. Governor Mann Towner, an American, signed into law in May of that year a proposal that had been first carried by Puerto Rican legislator, don Lorenzo Coballes Gandía, who suggested to him that the sport be legalized in the island. Subsequently, the "Primera Comisíon Atletica de Boxeo" ("First Boxing Athletic Commission") was formed to oversee rules and regulations of the sport in the island, and the "Estadio Universal" ("Universal Stadium") opened in San Juan as the first venue to offer regular boxing shows, with the first fight there being between the then future Venezuelan national Bantamweight champion, Enrique Chaffardet, and an opponent named Al Clemens. That contest was declared a draw or tie by the scoring judges. Soon after, stadiums were also built around the island, many of which had regular boxing shows to attract spectators.
Sixto Escobar era Sixto Escobar was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. He debuted as a professional on Thursday, July 17, 1930, at the Victory Garden Stadium in San Juan, knocking out Luis Emilio Perez in two rounds as part of a show headlined by a bout between José Quelin Angulo and Octavio Almonte (a fight which Angulo won by second-round knockout).
Escobar began getting international attention and moved to Venezuela, where he lost to Chaffardet in an attempt to lift that country's national Bantamweight title.
On June 26, 1934, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Escobar beat Mexican boxer Rodolfo Casanova to win the vacant world Bantamweight title, recognized by the Montreal Athletic Commission, thus becoming the first boxer from Puerto Rico to achieve recognition as a world champion and, unbeknown-sly at the time, ushering in the Mexico - Puerto Rico boxing rivalry. Escobar beat Tony Marino by thirteenth-round knockout at the Dyckman Oval in Manhattan, New York, to gain universal recognition as a unified Bantamweight world champion.
Escobar went on to become a national hero in Puerto Rico and lost and recovered the Bantamweight title twice afterwards.
Cocoa Kid Concurrently with Escobar's world titles run, Herbert "Cocoa Kid" Hardwick, a Black Puerto Rican from Mayaguez, became the "Colored Welterweight Champion" when he knocked out Young Peter Jackson in round two of a fight held at Heinemann Park in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, July 26, 1936, in a fight refereed by the legendary former Heavyweight contender and also International Boxing Hall of Fame member, Harry Wills. Hardwick defended the title successfully against Holman Williams on June 11, 1937, at the Coliseum Arena in New Orleans by winning a 15-rounds unanimous decision. He defended the title successfully once more before losing it to Charley Burley, losing a fifteen-rounds unanimous decision to Burley on Monday, August 22, 1938, at the Hickey Park in Millvale, Pennsylvania. Cocoa Kid, Burley and Williams were each members of a group of Black boxers who were dubbed as the Murderer's Row, who were known both for their ability as well as for their inability to secure fights for world titles held by other boxers not in that group. Hardwick, Burley and Williams were all later elected to the IBHOF.
Despite the considerable talent of the title's holders, in modern times, the Colored Welterweight Championship is generally not considered as a world title by most boxing fans and historians alike.
Pedro Montanez Pedro Montanez, from the central Puerto Rico city of Cayey, was another outstanding Black Puerto Rican boxer of the time. Unlike Hardwick, however, he was not a member of boxing's murderer's row, and he was allowed to compete for regular world titles. Montanez debuted on Sunday, February 1, 1931, at the Victory Garden in San Juan by beating the undefeated Antonio Melendez by six-rounds decision as part of a program headlined by a young Escobar himself.
Montanez's victory over Felix Perez on Wednesday, March 7, 1934, at the Salón Nuevo Mundo in Barcelona, Spain, a seventh-round knockout win, set off a streak of 50 consecutive fights in which he did not lose; he went 49–0–1 during that streak, the lone tie being against Saverio Turiello of Italy over ten rounds at Milan's Teatro Puccini on Monday, April 15, 1935. Among others, during that streak, he beat Bobby Pacho, Aldo Spoldi, Frankie Klick, Enrico Venturi, Lou Ambers, Wesley Ramey and Freddie Cochrane.
That undefeated streak came to an end when Montanez challenged Ambers for the world Lightweight title as part of a program that included three other world title fights (Marcel Thil vs. Fred Apostoli, Sixto Escobar vs. Harry Jeffra and Barney Ross vs. Ceferino Garcia) on Thursday, September 23, 1937, at the Polo Grounds in New York City. In a close match, Ambers was able to edge the Puerto Rican by a fifteen-rounds majority decision to retain the world championship. The New York Times agreed with the decision, but in Puerto Rico at least, Montanez was called an "uncrowned champion".
Montanez went on about keeping his status as a contender and hoping to become Puerto Rico's second world boxing champion; he then embarked on another undefeated streak after the title-fight loss to Ambers, this time reaching 22 bouts without a loss, with only one tie among the wins he got during that sequence. He defeated, among others, Jimmy Garrison, International Boxing Hall of Fame member and former world Junior Welterweight champion Jack Kid Berg (a fifth-round knockout win for Montanez on Friday, March 10, 1939, at the New York Hippodrome) and Young Peter Jackson at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, April 25 of the same year.
That latter streak also came to an end, but this time it was in a controversial way: boxing against Davey Day on Thursday, May 23, 1939, at the Madison Square Garden in New York, Montanez was even on the scorecards when the fight was stopped in round eight in favor of Day, therefore Montanez took an eighth-round technical knockout defeat. The stoppage was due to a cut Montanez suffered on one of his eyes. The New York Times claimed that Day was "clearly beaten" and that the crowd "jeer(ed) thunderously". But the Chicago Tribune disagreed with that stance, publishing that "Day's victory was a popular one" and that most ringsiders felt the fight was tied before the stoppage, and the Hartford Courant expressed their opinion that the fight was tied when it ended.
Montanez nevertheless kept his march towards a second world title fight. He won three more fights, then faced the immortal, International Boxing Hall of Fame member, three-division world champion Henry Armstrong for Armstrong's world Welterweight title on Wednesday, January 24, 1940, at the Madison Square Garden in New York, at a show promoted by Mike Jacobs. Armstrong had won 103 of 122 previous fights, and that night, proved to be the best of the two future International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees, knocking out the Puerto Rican star in round nine to retain the belt. Montanez had one more contest and then he retired with 90 wins, 9 losses and 4 ties to his ledger, becoming a popular figure in Puerto Rico and specially in Cayey, where his nickname, "El Torito" ("The Bull") was adopted by the town as the city's secondary demonym and several sports teams are now named after him.
1960s and 1970s Carlos Ortiz from Ponce, Puerto Rico, moved to New York City at an early age and later established himself as a professional boxing prospect in the Junior Welterweight division. He became Puerto Rico's second world champion by knocking out Kenny Lane in two rounds to win the vacant Junior Welterweight world title on June 12, 1959, at New York. He defended that title twice, but after losing it to someone he had beaten previously in a title defense, Duilio Loi in a rematch, and failing to recapture it in a third fight with Loi, Ortiz moved down to the Lightweight division and won that title by beating Joe Brown on points on April 21, 1962, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Being that the era of major boxing title fights in Las Vegas was just beginning, Brown-Ortiz was one of the first major fights to take place at the Southwest American desert's city. Ortiz lasted as Lightweight champion until 1968; including losing the title and regaining it against Panamanian Ismael Laguna. Ortiz, like Escobar before him, inspired a large number of Puerto Rican youngsters to take up boxing as a sport.
José Torres followed Ortiz as the third Puerto Rican to win a world title, when he knocked out Willie Pastrano in nine rounds on Tuesday, March 30, 1965, at the Madison Square Garden in New York city to win the undisputed world Light-Heavyweight championship. In doing so, he also became both the first Hispanic world Light-Heavyweight champion and the first Afro-Puerto Rican to win a world boxing championship.