José Isidro "Pipino" Cuevas González (born December 27, 1957) is a Mexican former
professional boxer who competed from 1971 to 1989. He held the
WBA 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 ...
title from 1976 to 1980.
Cuevas was inducted into both the
International Boxing Hall of Fame, and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.
Professional career
Cuevas turned professional at age 14; he won only seven of his first twelve bouts but eventually put together an eight bout winning streak before losing to Andy Price. On 17 July 1976, he received a shot at the
WBA welterweight title against champion
Ángel Espada. Cuevas pulled off an upset victory by knocking Espada to the canvas three times in the second round. At age 18, he was the youngest welterweight champion in history. In his first defense, he traveled to Japan and defeated hometown fighter Shoji Tsujimoto by knockout.
One of the greatest wins of his career was against Argentinian Miguel Angel Campanino, who boasted an impressive record (84-4-4), including a thirty-two fight winning streak. Once again, Pipino disposed of his challenger before the end of the second round.
On 8 June 1977, he faced veteran
Clyde Gray of Canada who had only been stopped twice in his entire career which included fifty-eight wins. Yet again, Cuevas pulled off another second round knock out. A few months later, Cuevas returned to the ring for a rematch against Espada. This time Cuevas defeated Espada in the eleventh round after he sustained a broken jaw. On 4 March 1978, he disposed of Harold Weston in the ninth round after Weston also sustained a broken jaw like Cuevas' previous challenger. Cuevas then defeated former champion
Billy Backus in one round. On 9 September 1978, he defeated hometown favorite
Pete Ranzany (40-2-1) in
Sacramento, California
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...
via a second-round knockout. He defeated Scott Clark (28-1-0) in another second-round knockout. Cuevas next title defense went the distance in a unanimous decision win against the durable Randy Shields (33-5-1). On 8 December 1979, he faced Espada for a third time, stopping him in the tenth round. Cuevas then defeated
South African national champion Harold Volbrecht by fifth-round knockout.
Cuevas finally lost his title in 1980 to the undefeated and up-and-coming hometown hero
Thomas Hearns in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
. The much taller and lankier Hearns was able to use his reach to his advantage as he kept Cuevas at a distance and knocked him out in the second round. Cuevas' talent began to decline after that loss; the most notable opponent he faced was
Roberto Durán, who stopped him in the fourth round in the spring of 1983. He also lost to former world title challenger Jun Sok-Hwang and future or former world champions
Jorge Vaca and
Lupe Aquino before finally retiring in 1989.
Pipino Cuevas fought during a period when an unusual number of accomplished welterweights were active:
Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1977 and 1997, winning quintuple c ...
,
Wilfred Benítez,
Carlos Palomino,
Thomas Hearns, and
Roberto Durán, although his reign had nearly come to an end as Leonard, Benítez, Hearns, and Durán emerged as welterweight champions. Cuevas successfully defended his welterweight title eleven times against ten different boxers over a four-year span. During his reign as champion, Cuevas fought the best opposition available to him. In total, the opponents he faced throughout his career had a combined record of 505-70-29.
HBO: Boxing: Features: Best Of: THE BEST WELTERWEIGHT PUNCHERS EVER
/ref> In 2003, '' The Ring'' listed Cuevas as number thirty-one on their list of the 100 greatest punchers of all time. In 2002, Cuevas became a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Retirement
Cuevas is the owner of a restaurant and a security company in Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
. At one point of his career, he was also the owner of a famous sports and luxury car collection, and he was one of the first boxers to sport a golden tooth. Most people probably know him for his nickname ''Pipino'', which is far more used to refer to him than ''Jose'' by fight commentators and magazine writers.
He ran into trouble with the law in 2001 when he was accused of racketeering in Mexico, in connection with a Mexican mayor. But he was declared innocent in 2002.
His record as a boxer was of 35 wins and 15 losses, with 31 wins by knockout.
Professional boxing record
See also
*List of Mexican boxing world champions
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* List of world welterweight boxing champions
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuevas, Jose
1957 births
Living people
Mexican male boxers
Boxers from the State of Mexico
Welterweight boxers
World welterweight boxing champions
World Boxing Association champions
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
20th-century Mexican sportsmen