FROCH WANTS BIG JOE-DOWN
ALEXIS ARGUELLO, ‘The Explosive Thin Man’, is arguably the greatest super featherweight of all time.
Imagine my excitement when I got to share a bill with him in my second pro fight.
Arguello was attempting to become one of the few to win a title in a third division when he challenged Jim Watt for the WBC lightweight title at Wembley Pool Arena in June 1981.
I had to rush out of the dressing room to ringside still in my boots so I didn’t miss him.
I had sparred with Jim Watt, he was a tremendous boxer and brave with it, but he was well beaten over 15 punishing rounds.
Afterwards Jim said famously: “I have a car business and if I had to do an estimate on my face, I would probably write it off.”
From humble beginnings in Nicaragua, Arguello fought out of Miami after being exiled by the brutal Sandinista regime.
Tall for the lighter divisions, he stood 5ft 10in. There was no weight on his legs, but he had a great pair of shoulders.
He threw long, hooking shots
CARL FROCH wants to come out of retirement to face Joe Calzaghe in a battle-of-Britain showdown.
The former super-middleweight champion, now 42, has not boxed for almost six years.
But he insists he wants 48-year-old Welshman Calzaghe to get his gloves back on to settle the debate over who was the better.
“I’ve always said I’ll come out of off a straight jab and ramrod right hand.
After losing his first crack at the WBA featherweight crown in February 1974 against Ernesto Marcel, he floored the great Ruben Olivares nine months later to win it.
It was a spectacular fight and brutal finish. Olivares rocked Arguello in the 12th and thought he had him. Arguello held on to batter a spent Olivares in the retirement for the right dance partner,” Froch said
“Obviously I’m not gonna jump in there with a current world champion who’s been active, but someone like Joe Calzaghe...”
Froch, who has always bristled at pundits who said Calzaghe was the superior fighter, added: “He ain’t gonna wanna come out (of retirement) because he knows he’d get absolutely flattened.” 13th. He went on to knock out great champions like Alfredo Escalera, Bobby Chacon, Rafael ‘Bazooka’ Limon, Rolando Navarrete and Ray Mancini, who would all win titles afterwards.
He then took on ‘The Hawk’ Aaron Pryor for the WBA super lightweight title in November 1982 at the Orange Bowl in Miami attempting to become the first to win titles in four divisions.
There were 60,000 fans to
witness what would be voted Ring magazine’s fight of the decade.
Arguello lost the first half of the fight, but was coming on strong and by rounds 12 and 13 had the upper hand.
Pryor’s trainer, the disgraced ‘Panama’ Lewis, was heard to say: “Give me the other bottle, the one I mixed.”
Pryor was a different fighter in the 14th, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
During the 2008 documentary Assault in the Ring, former Lewis fighter Luis Resto revealed how Lewis would routinely doctor water bottles with illegal substances to give fighters a boost.
There is no doubt in my mind Pryor was chemically enhanced. Arguello was never the same again and retired in 1986 after losing a second time to Pryor.
There was a brief comeback in the mid 90s before he went into politics. His life would end tragically. Nine months after becoming mayor of Managua in 2008, Arguello shot himself through the heart.