A streaking comet in the late 50s-early 60s, Raymundo "Battling" Torres was an exciting prospect in the lightweight/jr. welterweight division. Rated 94th on
The Ring's "100 Greatest Punchers" list, he had a left hook that could tear your head off and a right that could do you serious harm.
He started boxing as a pro soon after his sixteenth birthday and ran up a string of twenty-four wins, seventeen by knockout, against no losses by the time he turned eighteen. All of his fights were in Mexico, often in his hometown of Reynosa, against local stiffs or an occassional American who travelled South of the Border. Among the latter were ring veterans Pat McCoy and Billy Peacock.
Raymundo caught international attention when he started knocking out some name fighters like Frankie Ryff, Johnny Busso, and Russell Tague. He also took a unanimous decicion over Paul Armstead. During this fantastic run in 1959 he was hyped by
Boxing Illustrated as a
force majeure.
Handsome and dynamic, Torres was now fighting many of his bouts in the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium and developed a fanatical following among Mexican-Americans. It was at this point that his handlers made a critical mistake. They matched him against Carlos Ortiz for the World Light Welterweight crown in February 1960.
A few days shy of his nineteenth birthday, Raymundo was in over his head against Ortiz, who was just coming into his own as a star in professional boxing. He was outclassed by Carlos for nine rounds before his was kayoed in the tenth. While he scored some powerful shots that provided the Ortiz camp with a few nervous minutes, Torres was obviously out of his league.
Rather than regrouping and polishing their diamond in the rough, the Torres "braintrust" threw him in with Cisco Andrade who knocked Raymundo out in seven. He then faced the savvy Paul Jorgensen and picked up a close ten round decision. On the basis of his performance, he was thrown in against lightweight king Joe Brown who put him away in the fourth round. All of this happened in 1960!
The following year, his handlers eased up on the throttle a bit and put Torres in with less challenging opponents. He ran up another string of early round knockouts until he was kayoed again by Andrede at the end of 1961. Sadly, some of the shine had gone off Raymundo's star. He was all of twenty years old!
In 1963, Torres, who was still a strong draw in Southern California, had one final shot at the big time. All of the pieces appered to be in place to give him a world title. He met light-hitting Roberto Cruz, who had an unimpressive record of 13-7-1, in Dodger Stadium before a highly partisan crowd for the WBA light welterweight title. Cruz knocked Torres cold at the 2:07 mark of the first round.
Torres went on to fight for another four years, and all of his bouts were in Mexico where he remained very popular. He fought three wars with Alvaro Gutierrez and held the Mexican welter title as a result. He also split two fights with journeyman L.C. Morgan. After suffereing a one round knockout loss to Rafael Gutierrez in 1967, Torres retired from the ring. He was only twenty-six, an age when most boxers a just entering their prime.
I've included a link to exerpts from his 1960 match with Ortiz which gives you a good sense of Raymundo's style. He came straight at you like a min-Chuvalo. Most of his wins were early kayos, but all of his nine losses were by stoppages--he was counted out in eight of them. In essence, if Torres tagged you, it was lights out, but if you got him first and put him down, he was gone.
There's no debating that he was a natural power puncher. Had he been taught some basic boxing skills and developed at a more prudent pace, who knows where his career would have wound up.
A note about the rating. He's not to be confused with the Battling Torres who boxed as a light middleweight during the 1980s. That was his son, who is rated in the default pool. In one of the rare oversights by the TBCB team, the orginal Battling Torres was not rated and included in the default pool.
Here's the link to the Ortiz match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzgYHML5rbo