Luis Manuel Rodríguez (17 June 1937 – 8 July 1996) was a Cuban

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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

. Known as "El Feo", he began his career in pre- Castro

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.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 ...

champion Benny Paret. He held the Undisputed Welterweight Championship in 1963, and challenged once for the WBA, and WBC

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

titles in 1969. After the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

, Rodríguez campaigned in the United States. Fighting out of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Rodriguez decisioned top welterweights such as Virgil Akins and Rudell Stitch.

Professional career

He was unbeaten in 36 fights before losing a

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split de ...

to Emile Griffith in a 1960 non-title fight. In 1963, Rodriguez and Griffith fought twice for the lineal welterweight title. Rodriguez defeated Griffith by a

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...

to win the title, but Griffith regained it three months later with a split decision. Their fourth and final meeting came in 1964, with Griffith retaining the

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 with a split decision. Rodriguez was trained by Angelo Dundee at the old 5th Street Gym in

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

alongside Ralph Dupas, Willie Pastrano, Florentino Fernández and Pinklon Thomas. Rodriguez was ringside and provided ancillary television commentary for the nationally televised Thursday night, 21 March 1963

Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a ballpark in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a ...

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

championship bout between reigning champ Davey Moore and Sugar Ramos, won after ten rounds by

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO) by Ramos and resulting within the hour in a comatose state for Moore, and ultimately his death on 25 March. He had just beaten Griffith (who had himself fought Benny Paret in another tragic fight) for the world Welterweight title in the same program. Moore's death was memorialized by recording artist

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

in his long-unreleased (but widely bootlegged) song, " Who Killed Davey Moore?" (the complete telecast of the fight is available on

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, as are several of Dylan's various performances of the song.) In November 1969, Rodriguez challenged Nino Benvenuti in Rome, Italy, for the

world title. In the 11th round, slightly ahead on points but tiring and badly cut, Benvenuti suddenly landed a perfect left hook that left Rodriguez on the floor for 5 minutes. Rodriguez retired in 1972Luis Rodriguez
www.ibhof.com. Retrieved on April 2, 2016. after losing to Donato Paduano in

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. He died on 8 July 1996 at South Shore Hospital in Miami Beach. He was inducted into the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...

in 1997. In 2009 ''The Ring'' magazine ranked Rodriguez as the third-greatest Cuban boxer of all time, behind Kid Gavilán and Kid Chocolate.

Eastern Airlines Flight 202

Rodriguez and his trainers were among 33 passengers on

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

flight 202 from Miami to

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, when that flight got hijacked and taken to Cuba on July 24, 1961. Rodriguez was fearful for his life since he had escaped from Cuba recently. However, Cuban authorities allowed the plane and its passengers to return to the United States without further incident. Rodriguez was on his way to a fight versus Curtis Cokes, which he eventually lost by split decision some days later, on August 3.