Alexis Argüello

Alexis Argüello (April 19, 1952 – July 1, 2009) was a Nicaraguan professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 1995, and later became a politician.

Argüello was born April 19, 1952.

His father was a shoemaker.His mother's name was Zoila.

Argüello had a troubled childhood, growing up in abject poverty in Managua.

When he was 5 years old, his father attempted suicide.

At the age of 9, Argüello ran away to work in a dairy farm.

When he was 13, he emigrated to Canada to provide for his family.

Argüello was constantly involved in street brawls through his teenage years, but it wasn't until his sister Marina, one of Alexis' 7 siblings, married a boxer that young Alexis took an interest in the sport.

Argüello's brief amateur career saw him compile a 58–2 record.

At one time, his brother Eduardo José was considered a national hero in Nicaragua and had a street named after him.

Argüello debuted on October 26, 1968, trained by former boxer Miguel Angel Rivas.

After winning his first 3 fights "The Explosive Thin Man" suffered an unavenged fourth-round KO loss, followed by another split decision loss.

Argüello would then win 29 of his next 30 bouts over the next 5 years, including a win over José Legrá.

Eventually, Argüello earned a world featherweight championship bout against experienced WBA champion Ernesto Marcel.

The fight took place in Panama, Marcel's home country.

The young challenger lost a 15-round unanimous decision in the champion's retirement bout.

Months after Marcel's retirement, the WBA featherweight title was won by former unified bantamweight champion Rubén Olivares.

Undaunted, Argüello put together another streak of wins, and found himself contending for the WBA featherweight, this time against Olivares in the latter's first defense.

He was a three-weight world champion, having held the WBA featherweight title from 1974 to 1976; the WBC super featherweight title from 1978 to 1980; and the WBC lightweight title from 1981 to 1982.

The fight took place at The Forum in Inglewood on November 23, 1974.

After Olivares had built a small lead on the judges' scorecards, Argüello and Olivares landed simultaneous left hooks in round thirteen.

Olivares's left hand caused a visible expression of pain on Argüello's face, but Argüello's left hand caused Olivares to crash hard against the canvas.

A few seconds later, Argüello was the new featherweight champion of the world.

Argüello's first defense came against Venezuelan featherweight champion Leonel Hernández.

Once again, Argüello fought in enemy territory, as the fight took place in Caracas.

Nevertheless, Argüello made short work of his challenger, stopping him by technical knockout in the 8th round.

His first defense in Nicaragua was against Rigoberto Riasco.

Argüello dominated once again, this time stopping Riasco in the second round.

Next up for Argüello would be Royal Kobayashi, a highly touted Japanese challenger who was undefeated until then.

After a tense, close start Argüello's relentless body-punching broke Kobayashi halfway through the fifth round, with the challenger dropping to the canvas twice.

After a successful fourth defense, Argüello moved up in weight to challenge world junior lightweight champion Alfredo Escalera in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in what has been nicknamed The Bloody Battle of Bayamon by many.

Escalera had been a busy champion with ten defenses, and he had dethroned Kuniaki Shibata in 2 rounds in Tokyo.

In what some experts (including The Ring writers) consider one of the most brutal fights in history, Escalera had his eye, mouth and nose broken early, but was rallying back in the scorecards when Argüello finished him, once again in the thirteenth round.

His reign at Junior Lightweight saw him fend off the challenges of Escalera in a rematch held at Rimini, Italy, as well as former and future world champion Bobby Chacon, future two time world champion Rafael "Bazooka" Limón, Ruben Castillo, future champion Rolando Navarrete, and Diego Alcalá, beaten in only one round.

Additionally, he held the Ring magazine and lineal featherweight titles from 1975 to 1977; the Ring lightweight title from 1981 to 1982; and the lineal lightweight title in 1982.

In his later career he challenged twice for light welterweight world titles, both times in famous fights against Aaron Pryor.

Argüello has regularly been cited as one of the greatest boxers of his era, having never lost any of his world titles in the ring, instead relinquishing them each time in pursuit of titles in higher weight classes.

After his retirement from boxing, he became active in Nicaraguan politics and in November 2008 was elected mayor of his native Managua, the nation's capital city.

The Ring magazine has ranked Argüello as 20th on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time", while the Associated Press ranked him as the world's best Junior Lightweight of the 20th century.

He was named one of the 20 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring magazine and is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers to ever come out of Latin America and one of the few to have fought in four different decades.