Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
 |
||
Astute ring observers remember Alfredo Evangelista. The Uruguay-born heavyweight who lived in Spain, fought both Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes when they were world champion.
At age 22, Evangelista fought Ali to a decision loss in May of 1977 in Landover, MD and then the following year challenged Larry Holmes in Las Vegas, losing in seven rounds.
Roberto Duran recently visited Spain and posted a photo accompanied with his old friend at a boxing gym in Barcelona. Evangelista, now 63, looks healthy and in fantastic shape for a man who fought 78 professional fights, including two against two of the greatest whoever laced ’em up. Evangelista works as a trainer today.
The bulk of Evangelista’s fighting career came after his loss to Holmes. Evangelista turned pro in 1975 and achieved a final pro record of 61-13-4 (41 KOs). After his two unsuccessful world title challenges, Evangelista boxed for another ten years until 1988 when he lost his last fight to Arthur Wright by KO 2 in Madrid.
“The Lynx of Montevideo” has some notable names on his ring record, including Leon Spinks, Pierre Coetzer, Renaldo Snipes, Anders Eklund, Adilson Rodriguez, Greg Page and Lorenzo Zanon. Tom Prater, Louis Pergaud, and Terry Daniels.
Evangelista fought in Madison Square Garden in 1977, after losing to Ali, stopping Pedro Soto. He fought all over the world, in Paris, Belgium, South America, Spain, Mallorca, Bahamas, South Africa, Denmark, Brazil, and Italy.
It was nice to see Duran bring back the memories of a forgotten heavyweight contender who boxed two all time greats, both on network television in the United States.
