The thing about Kid Gavilan that made him an extremely scary opponent, first of all, he had a chin made of nuclear pasta, you weren't going to knock him out, he was going to be standing in front of you at the final bell, still punching. Second of all, he wasn't a hard puncher, but when he did throw they often came like machine gun fire. The damage could accumulate quickly, some of his opponents' faces looked pretty bad after encounters with him.
The bolo punch used by Kid Gavilan was a signature, deceptive blow that combined a wide, circular arm swing (resembling a half-hook and half-uppercut) with psychological distraction. He windmilled his arm in loose, hypnotic circles to confuse opponents before snapping the punch upward into the solar plexus or chin. Gavilan explained that the fluid, sweeping motion came from his youth in Cuba spent cutting sugarcane with a machete (bolo), which naturally trained those muscles for the circular upward snap. While Filipino boxer Ceferino Garcia is credited with introducing the punch to boxing, Kid Gavilan popularized it globally during his reign as the world welterweight champion in the 1950s. This is a sequence of photos showing how he unloaded the bolo punch.
You know, it's fascinating. Growing up on a Cuban sugar plantation, Kid Gavilan regularly chewed raw sugar cane. Boxing historians and old-school trainers theorize that this continuous lifelong habit built a dense neck and jaw structure that made his chin virtually uncrackable. I don't know if I agree with that theory but it's fascinating nonetheless. You can see how thick his neck is in these photos.
He was dropped twice in 143 fights and more than 1,300 rounds, once by Ike Williams and once by Carmen Basilio. That's it. In my opinion, there's not a welterweight in history that knocks out the great Kid Gavilan. Here's a pretty interesting thread for you.
Up next we'll go with "The Brockton Blockbuster", Rocky Marciano. Everyone knows who he is, the only world heavyweight champion in history to retire unbeaten, 49-0. But there's a reason he was never beaten, and the reason is because he was a damn machine. Despite being undersized for his division with a short reach, he dominated through unmatched conditioning, relentless pressure, and devastating punching power. It also didn't hurt matters that he was tougher than a solid brass padlock. If you really want to see the kind of fighter Rocky Marciano was, watch him go after Ezzard Charles in the last round of their first fight, the absolute hell-bent relentlessness was scary. There was nothing cute about his style, one way or another, he was going to brutalize you into submission, it's that simple. I'm going to start off with one of my personal favorite Marciano cards, the 2013 Panini Golden Age - Delong Gum - Rocky Marciano. I love this card because growing up, Rocky wanted to be a baseball player. He played extensively as an amateur catcher, but after serving in World War II, a failed tryout with a Chicago Cubs farm team ended his baseball ambitions and led him to boxing. It's a good thing because we got to see what this man was made of. When you're cut open, soaked in blood, swollen, exhausted, lying on the canvas, and think you can't possibly take anymore, can you summon something deep down inside that makes you get up and keep fighting? Boxing has a way of peeling a person open and showing what they're truly made of down to the core and boxing showed us that Rocky Marciano was made of material not of this Earth.
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The thing about Kid Gavilan that made him an extremely scary opponent, first of all, he had a chin made of nuclear pasta, you weren't going to knock him out, he was going to be standing in front of you at the final bell, still punching. Second of all, he wasn't a hard puncher, but when he did throw they often came like machine gun fire. The damage could accumulate quickly, some of his opponents' faces looked pretty bad after encounters with him.
The bolo punch used by Kid Gavilan was a signature, deceptive blow that combined a wide, circular arm swing (resembling a half-hook and half-uppercut) with psychological distraction. He windmilled his arm in loose, hypnotic circles to confuse opponents before snapping the punch upward into the solar plexus or chin. Gavilan explained that the fluid, sweeping motion came from his youth in Cuba spent cutting sugarcane with a machete (bolo), which naturally trained those muscles for the circular upward snap. While Filipino boxer Ceferino Garcia is credited with introducing the punch to boxing, Kid Gavilan popularized it globally during his reign as the world welterweight champion in the 1950s. This is a sequence of photos showing how he unloaded the bolo punch.
You know, it's fascinating. Growing up on a Cuban sugar plantation, Kid Gavilan regularly chewed raw sugar cane. Boxing historians and old-school trainers theorize that this continuous lifelong habit built a dense neck and jaw structure that made his chin virtually uncrackable. I don't know if I agree with that theory but it's fascinating nonetheless. You can see how thick his neck is in these photos.
He was dropped twice in 143 fights and more than 1,300 rounds, once by Ike Williams and once by Carmen Basilio. That's it. In my opinion, there's not a welterweight in history that knocks out the great Kid Gavilan. Here's a pretty interesting thread for you.
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/kid-gavilan-vs-thomas-hearns.93049/
Awesome caricature of Kid Gavilan.
This is one of my favorite photos of Kid Gavilan, squared up, knees bent, straight on. Epic shot.
Up next we'll go with "The Brockton Blockbuster", Rocky Marciano. Everyone knows who he is, the only world heavyweight champion in history to retire unbeaten, 49-0. But there's a reason he was never beaten, and the reason is because he was a damn machine. Despite being undersized for his division with a short reach, he dominated through unmatched conditioning, relentless pressure, and devastating punching power. It also didn't hurt matters that he was tougher than a solid brass padlock. If you really want to see the kind of fighter Rocky Marciano was, watch him go after Ezzard Charles in the last round of their first fight, the absolute hell-bent relentlessness was scary. There was nothing cute about his style, one way or another, he was going to brutalize you into submission, it's that simple. I'm going to start off with one of my personal favorite Marciano cards, the 2013 Panini Golden Age - Delong Gum - Rocky Marciano. I love this card because growing up, Rocky wanted to be a baseball player. He played extensively as an amateur catcher, but after serving in World War II, a failed tryout with a Chicago Cubs farm team ended his baseball ambitions and led him to boxing. It's a good thing because we got to see what this man was made of. When you're cut open, soaked in blood, swollen, exhausted, lying on the canvas, and think you can't possibly take anymore, can you summon something deep down inside that makes you get up and keep fighting? Boxing has a way of peeling a person open and showing what they're truly made of down to the core and boxing showed us that Rocky Marciano was made of material not of this Earth.
1957-58 S.A.D.A Firenze - Girandola Di Successi - Rocky Marciano. They flipped the image of Marciano around on the card so we'll oblige.
1977 Sportscaster - Finnish printing - Rocky Marciano.
1967 Panini - Campioni Dello Sport - Rocky Marciano.