Alexis Arguello, 3-Time Boxing Champion And Nicaraguan Hero, 57, Washington Post
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070104097.html
Alexis Arguello, 57
3-Time Boxing Champion and Nicaraguan Hero
By Matt Schudel, Washington Post Staff Writer
Alexis Arguello, a three-time world champion boxer and national hero of
Nicaragua, who was elected mayor of the capital city of Managua last year,
was found dead July 1 [2009] at his home in Managua. He was 57 and,
according to press accounts, had shot himself in the chest.
Mr. Arguello won his first world championship in 1974 as a featherweight and
later won titles in the super featherweight and lightweight classes, making
him the sixth fighter in history to capture titles in three weight
divisions. His boxing brilliance made him a celebrity in his native country,
but his success was repeatedly undercut by the convoluted political fortunes
of his homeland.
In the ring, Mr. Arguello was a peerless tactician who was ranked by Ring
magazine as the finest junior lightweight (also called super featherweight)
in history. At his peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many boxing
observers called Mr. Arguello the finest boxer in the world.
He was 5-foot-10, weighed 130 pounds at the peak of his powers, and quickly
won the nickname El Flaco Explosivo, or the Explosive Thin Man. He had
devastating punching power in both hands and calmly took the measure of his
opponents before pouncing with a methodical, almost elegant fury.
In a professional career that began when he was 16, he won 82 fights (65 by
knockout) and lost only eight. He won 19 consecutive championship fights in
eight years, including eight victories over former and future world
champions.
Several of his fights entered boxing lore as among the most epic of their
time, none more so than his bout against Aaron Pryor on Nov. 12, 1982. Mr.
Arguello, the reigning lightweight champion at 135 pounds, was attempting to
capture an unprecedented fourth title against Pryor, the undefeated junior
welterweight champion at 140 pounds.
Pryor dominated the early part of the fight, held at Miami's Orange Bowl.
Mr. Arguello picked up strength as the fight wore on and nearly knocked
Pryor out in the 11th and 13th rounds.
At the beginning of the 14th round, Pryor found renewed energy, pinned Mr.
Arguello against the ropes and administered a savage beating. Referee
Stanley Christodoulou stopped the fight after Pryor hit Mr. Arguello with 23
unanswered punches.
Mr. Arguello slumped to the canvas and was unconscious for four minutes. He
left the ring in tears and was rushed to a hospital, where he was treated
for a severe concussion, a broken nose and cuts.
After the fight, it was revealed that Pryor's trainer, Panama Lewis, gave
Pryor liquid from a special bottle that escaped the view of boxing
officials. Lewis was later suspended for cheating in other fights.
In 1983, Pryor and Mr. Arguello had a rematch, but Pryor dominated from the
beginning, knocking Mr. Arguello down three times before the referee stopped
the bout in the 10th round.
In later years, their battles over, Pryor and Mr. Arguello became close
friends.
"There are 24 rounds between us that I can never forget," Mr. Arguello told
the Philadelphia Daily News last year. "From the first round of the first
fight, when the bell rang, we gave 100 percent of ourselves."
When asked if he believed Pryor had cheated, Mr. Arguello said: "I did my
best. The other guy did better. That's simple enough to understand."
Alexis Arguello was born April 19, 1952, and grew up on the streets of
Managua. He quit school, spent a year working in Canada and began boxing in
earnest at 14.
"When I was poor, there was no way I could go to the university to be an
engineer," he said in 1981. "What was I supposed to do -- be a bum? I had to
box to help my family."
He won the World Boxing Council featherweight (126 pounds) championship in
1974 and four years later claimed the 130-pound super featherweight title
over Puerto Rico's Alfredo Escalera in a fight known as the Bloody Battle of
Bayamon. In 1981, Mr. Arguello won another epic bout with a 14th-round
knockout over U.S. boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
In 1979, Mr. Arguello's 19-year-old brother was killed while serving with
Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua. Nonetheless, when the Sandinistas ousted
dictator Anastasio Somoza, Mr. Arguello's cars and other properties were
seized, and one of his houses became the Soviet Embassy.
He settled in Miami, where he rebuilt his career and fortune, only to run
afoul of the Internal Revenue Service in the 1980s.
After the second Pryor fight in 1983, Mr. Arguello retired from boxing
except for four halfhearted comeback attempts that stretched until 1995.
Last year, he carried Nicaragua's national flag in the opening ceremony of
the Beijing Olympics.
In time, Mr. Arguello regained the good graces of Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega and in 2004 was elected vice mayor of Managua as a member of
the Sandinista Party. He was elected mayor in November 2008 but soon came
under fire because of allegations of corruption and favoritism.
His marriages to Sylvia Urbina and Patricia Barreto ended in divorce.
Survivors include his third wife, Loretta Martinez, and four children.
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