Manuel Ortiz (July 2, 1916 – May 31, 1970) was an American

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

in the

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

division and one of the very best boxers of the 1940s, and was named to Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years. In 1996, he was inducted into the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

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Amateur career

Ortiz, who was of Mexicans, Mexican descent, started an amateur career in 193

Within a year, Ortiz won the Southern California Amateur Flyweight Title, the

Golden Gloves The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States, where they are awarded a belt and a ring. And the title of nations champion is awarded. The Golden Gloves is a term used to refer to the Nation ...

Title, and the National AAU title in Boston. He also defeated Chief Lopez, who was an Olympic runner-up, and Bobby Hagar (father of former Van Halen frontman

Sammy Hagar Samuel Roy Hagar (born October 13, 1947), also known as the Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose and subsequently launched a successful solo car ...

) twice. In their first fight, Ortiz decked Hagar 17 times. In their second match, Ortiz decked Hagar twenty times.

Professional career

Ortiz turned pro in 1938 and in 1942 won the World Bantamweight title by beating

Lou Salica Louis ("Lou") Salica (November 16, 1912 – January 30, 2002) was an American boxing, boxer, who captured the National Boxing Association World Bantamweight Title twice in his career, in 1935 and 1940. His managers were Hymie Kaplan and Will ...

. He defended the title a division record of 15 times against 11 boxers before losing to

Harold Dade Harold Dade (March 24, 1923 in Chicago, IL – July 17, 1962) was an American professional boxer in the Bantamweight division who held the World Bantamweight championship. Amateur career *Won the 1940 Chicago Golden Gloves Championship in ...

in 1947. He regained the title in a rematch later in the year, and defended the title four more times giving him the most combined title defenses of any bantamweight champion in history at 19 title defenses. After losing his undisputed championship to the undefeated Vic Toweel in 1950, he went on to fight for 5 more years never getting a chance at an unprecedented third bantamweight title reign.

Outside the Ring

*Ortiz made a very brief appearance in a gym scene in the 1947 movie

Killer McCoy ''Killer McCoy'' is a 1947 American drama film about a boxer starring Mickey Rooney. It is a remake of '' The Crowd Roars'' (1938). The picture was directed by Roy Rowland with a supporting cast featuring Brian Donlevy, Ann Blyth, James Dun ...

. *Ortiz served in the U.S. Army. *Ortiz died from cirrhosis of the liver after a long illness in 1970. *Ortiz is the very first boxer in the prominent boxing online database on

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profess ...

, having the Global ID number of simply "1".

Professional boxing record

References

External links