Adolfo Viruet (born 29 January 1952 in
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
) is a retired
Puerto Rican and NABF junior welterweight champion
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
* Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
. His brother,
Edwin Viruet, was also a professional boxer.
Turned professional on October 30, 1969, at age 18, Viruet was a contender in the
light welterweight and
welterweight
Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...
divisions during the late 1970s and early 1980s, fighting such opponents as
Roberto Durán
Roberto Durán Samaniego (born June 16, 1951) is a Panamanian former professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 2001. He held world championships in four weight classes: lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight, as w ...
,
Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professional ...
,
Donald Curry
Donald Curry (born September 7, 1961), is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1991, and in 1997. He held the WBA world welterweight title from 1983 to 1986, the undisputed world welterweight title from 1985 to 1986 a ...
,
Bruce Curry,
Pete Ranzany and
Luis Resto. He retired in 1982 with a final record of 23-6-1.
Viruet is 16-0-0 (5 KO's) as a Light-Welterweight.
Adolfo had long spurts of inactivity, with no bouts from November 1970 thru April 1972, and only 1 bout in 1974. He had no professional boxing activity because of his broken left hand. During this time he was training in his gym in NY and Hoboken NJ.
In August 1975 in Las Vegas -Adolfo 16-0-0 (5 KO's) upset (W Unan Dec 12) United States Light-Welterweight Champion and #3 WBC-ranked - Monroe Brooks, who was 25-1-3 (15 KO's) coming into their contest.
He also was the first trainer of
Arturo Gatti
Arturo Gatti (April 15, 1972 – July 11, 2009) was an Italian-Canadian professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2007. A world champion in two weight classes, Gatti held the IBF junior lightweight title from 1995 to 1998, and the WBC supe ...
.
Adolfo is currently training his godson John Olson to become a professional boxer.
Adolfo's boxing hero was non other than
Rocky Marciano
Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the onl ...
, on whom he based his boxing style and work out ethic.
References
External links
*
1952 births
Living people
Welterweight boxers
Puerto Rican male boxers
{{PuertoRico-boxing-bio-stub