Carlos Ortiz
Encyclopedia
Carlos Julian Ortíz
Carlos Julián Ortiz Castillo is a retired male wrestler from Cuba, who competed in the freestyle competition during his career. He twice won a medal at the Pan American Games for his native country, and competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia in the lightweight division...
Carlos Ortiz (born September 9, 1936) is a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
who was a three time world boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
champion, twice in the lightweight division and once in the Jr. Welterweights.
Ortiz, born in Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
, started his professional career in 1955 with a first round knockout
Knockout
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...
of Harry Bell in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He moved from Puerto Rico to New York before he began boxing as a professional, he would campaign there during the first stages of his career. After 9 bouts there, he fought outside New York for the first time, moving to Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
to knock Al Duarte out in 4 rounds. His next 3 bouts were also outside New York, but he stayed within the confines of New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, as they happened, once again in Massachusetts, and in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
He returned to New York again and won 4 more bouts in a row, then made his California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
debut, beating Mickey Northrup by a decision in 10 rounds. 2 more fights in California and one in New York went by, after which he returned to California to meet Lou Filippo
Lou Filippo
Lou Filippo was a professional boxer and later boxing judge.Filippo was born on December 1, 1925 in Los Angeles, California, attended Fremont High School in South Los Angeles, and served in the Navy during World War II....
, who was subsequently inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...
as a referee. Filippo was also one of the guys who participated in five Rocky
Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
films. The first time, it was declared a no-contest after 9 rounds, but in the second, Carlos prevailed, by a knockout in 9. 5 more wins followed, and then he met Johnny Busso, who handled Carlos his first loss, on a 10 round decision. That fight was held in New York, and in an immediate rematch between Ortiz and Busso, Carlos won, also by a 10 round decision, and also in New York.
Next Carlos flew to England to meet Dave Charnley
Dave Charnley
Dave Charnley was an English lightweight boxer considered to be one of the greatest British fighters in his weight class...
, who was considered one of the top challengers of that time. Ortiz won the fight at Harringay Arena
Harringay Arena
Harringay Arena was a sporting and events venue on Green Lanes in Harringay, North London, England. Built in 1936, it lasted as a venue until 1958.-Construction:...
on a 10 round decision, after which promoters thought he was ready for a world title try.
Carlos met Kenny Lane
Kenny Lane
Kenny Lane was a famous southpaw boxer. He fought for lightweight and light welterweight titles of the world, once against Joe Brown and twice against Carlos Ortiz.-Early life:...
for the vacant world Jr. Welterweight title, in New York on the night of June 12, 1959. Lane had handled Carlos his second loss months before, winning a 10 round decision over Ortiz in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. This time, Carlos became the World
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
's Jr Welterweight champion,with a tko of Lane at the end of 2 round.Ortiz had become the first Puerto Rican world boxing champion since Sixto Escobar
Sixto Escobar
Sixto Escobar was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. Competing in the bantamweight division, he became Puerto Rico's first world champion....
more than 30 years before, and only the second Puerto Rican world boxing champion ever. Unfortunately for him, not much importance was being given to that division at the time, since that division's title had been vacant for 13 years. But Carlos defended his title twice, knocking out former world lightweight champion Battling Torres in Torres' background of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and beating Duilio Loi
Duilio Loi
Duilio Loi was an Italian boxer who held the Italian and European lightweight and welterweight titles, as well as the world junior welterweight championship. Loi fought from 1948 to 1962, and retired with a record of 115 wins , 3 losses and 8 draws...
in 15 rounds by decision at San Francisco.
His next fight was a rematch with Loi, and it took Ortiz to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to defend his crown. This time, it was Loi's turn to become a world champion, winning by a 15 round decision.
After another win, Ortiz traveled to Milan once again, and met Loi in a rubber match. This time, he lost again, by 15 round decision.
Instead of going up in weight, like most boxers
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
throughout history have done after losing the title in their original division, Ortiz went down in weight, and challenged world champion Joe Brown
Joe Brown (boxer)
Joe Brown was an accomplished boxer who won the undisputed Lightweight Championship of the World in 1956, making 11 successful defences before losing his crown in his old age to Carlos Ortiz in 1962. Brown was a classic boxer and a knockout puncher...
(also a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame). Ortiz won a 15 round decision over Brown on April 21 of 1962 in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, to win his second world title, this time in his second championship division. Ortiz defended with a 5 round knockout of Teruo Kosaka in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
before making his Puerto Rican debut, with a 13 round knockout win over Doug Valiant to retain his title on April 7, 1963 in San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
.
A knockout win in 14 rounds over another hall of famer, Gabriel Elorde
Gabriel Elorde
Gabriel "Flash" Elorde was a Filipino professional boxer. He was born and raised in the town of Bogo, Cebu....
, Flash in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
followed, and then a remach with Lane, this time Ortiz retaining his world Lightweight title with a 15 round decision in San Juan. But in 1965 he went to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
and fought yet another member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame, Ismael Laguna
Ismael Laguna
Ismael Laguna Meneses was a professional boxer. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001.Known as "El Tigre Colonense", Laguna was the Panamanian Featherweight Champion from 1962-63...
who defeated him in 15 rounds to claim Ortiz's world Lightweight title. A rematch in San Juan followed, and Ortiz regained the world Lightweight title beating Laguna by a 15 round decision also.
1966 saw Ortiz draw with world Jr Welterweight champion Nicolino Locche
Nicolino Locche
Nicolino Locche was an Argentine boxer from Tunuyán, Mendoza. He was of Italian origin, with his ancestors coming from Sardinia...
in a ten round non-title affair in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and retain his title vs Johnny Bizarro (KO in 12 in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
), Cuban Sugar Ramos
Sugar Ramos
Ultiminio Ramos is a Cuban-Mexican boxer who is better known as Sugar Ramos. Ramos fought out of Mexico where he was adopted as a national hero...
(another International Boxing Hall Of Fame Member, ko in 5 rounds in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
) and Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
Flash Elorde, also by ko in 14 at a New York rematch. The Ramos fight proved controversial, because the WBC
World Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...
's president proclaimed at first that the punch with which Ortiz had beaten Ramos with had been illegal, but he later reconsidered and gave Ortiz the title, and the knockout victory, back, with the condition that a rematch be fought in the future.
And so 1967 came, and Ortiz and Ramos met once again, this time in San Juan. Ortiz retained the title by a knockout in 4 rounds, and this time the bout went without any controversies. Then, he and Laguna fought a third time, and Ortiz retained his title by a 15 round decision in New York.
June 29, 1968, proved to be Ortiz's last day as a world champion, as he lost his world lightweight title to Dominican
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
Carlos Cruz on a 15 round decision in the Dominican Republic. There was going to be a rematch to be held in San Juan, but Cruz died in the Dominicana De Aviación
Dominicana de Aviación
Compañía Dominicana de Aviación, usually shortened to Dominicana, was an airline from the Dominican Republic, serving as flag carrier of the country.-History:...
DC-9 crash off the Dominican Republic's Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
coast when he was flying to meet Ortiz in a rematch, in the same plane crash that also killed most members of the Puerto Rican Women's National Volleyball team, as well as the rest of the passengers on the plane (see: Dominicana DC-9 air disaster
Dominicana DC-9 air disaster
The Dominicana de Aviación Santo Domingo DC-9 air disaster occurred on February 15, 1970 when a Dominicana de Aviación McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 twin-engine jet airliner crashed on takeoff from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico.The aircraft used for the Dominicana...
).
Ortiz kept on fighting, but he never got another chance at a world title. He retired after losing at the Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
by a knockout in 6 rounds to Ken Buchanan
Ken Buchanan
Ken Buchanan is a former boxing undisputed world lightweight champion. Many consider Buchanan to be the best boxer ever to come out of Scotland.- Early career :...
. It was the only time he was stopped in his career. His final record was of 61 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw, with one bout declared a no-contest and 30 knockout wins.
Ortiz is also a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...
and he always enjoys to take photos with his fans and sign autographs for them.
See also
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- List of lightweight boxing champions
- List of WBC world champions
- List of undisputed boxing champions
- List of Puerto Rican boxing world champions