Jose Angel Napoles was
born April 13, 1940 in Santiago, Cuba. He made his debut as a professional
in 1958 with a first round stoppage, and proceeded to have 20 more
bouts in his native country before resettling in Mexico in 1961 after
Cuban president Fidel Castro banned professional boxing in the embattled
island country.
Continuing his career out of Mexico City, "Mantequilla"
("Butter," a nickname that reflected his smooth boxing skills) started
piling up more wins before taking his act abroad, fighting in Venezuela
and Japan among other countries.
After a long period as a top
contender, defeating the likes of LC Morgan, Adolpho Pruitt, Carlos
"Morocho" Hernandez, Tony Perez and many others, Napoles was finally
ready to challenge for a world title in 1969, and quite a challenge
he found in front of him in the form of all-time great Curtis Cokes,
who was the Ring welterweight champ at the time.
A powerful,
two-fisted demolition expert with superb boxing skills, Cokes was
one of the most avoided men of his era, but Napoles, with more than
60 fights under his belt, was ready for him. He stopped cokes in 14
rounds and defeated him again in the rematch to start a legendary
championship run that included wins over other all-time greats such
as Emile Griffith, Ernie Lopez, Billy Backus (against whom he lost
the title in 1970 in a cuts-induced stoppage only to regain it by
knockout in the rematch six months later), Hedgemon Lewis and many
others.
He had a total of 15 wins in unified championship bouts,
a record at the time. In 1974, he made the ill-advised decision to
jump all the way to the middleweight division to challenge Carlos
Monzon for the middleweight championship, only to be stopped in six
rounds.
When Jose Napoles died in 2019, the boxing world paused
to mourn a truly great boxer, one of the all-time best welterweight
champions. Everyone in the fight game acknowledged Napoles' rare talent
and unique ability to box with both deadly efficiency and uncommon
grace.