José Torres Is the New Light-Heavyweight Champion

Mar. 30, 1965 - José Torres became the new light-heavyweight champion tonight, scoring a technical knockout after nine rounds over Willie Pastrano. In the first bout of Madison Square Garden’s first championship doubleheader, Emile Griffith retained his welterweight title with a lackluster victory over José Stable.

The fight drew a crowd of 18,112, many of them fiercely partisan Spanish Americans, and drew a record gate of $239,956. But all records on enthusiasm might have been broken when a screaming, swirling crowd whirled Torres above their heads and carried him — with flashes of the only concern he showed all night on his face — to his dressing room.

Torres had said he would knock out Pastrano somewhere between the seventh and 10th rounds. He began immediately, whacking Willie with three stunning lefts in the first round. The champion was never in the fight again, going down in the sixth. Between the ninth and 10th, Johnny LoBianco, the referee, stopped the fight.

“I had to stop it,” said LoBianco. “He had nothing left. As slippery as he is, he was just avoiding the other man. He was going on heart alone. I had to stop it.”

Later, dejected and whipped, Pastrano agreed that the fight had been bad and his performance horrible. “I guess I just don’t have it any more. I guess I’m over the hill. My legs just didn’t carry me,” he said.

Pastrano, who has always said he was in the sport for money, that anyone “who loved to fight was crazy,” said he was thinking of retiring.

Torres, who fights from the Cus D’Amato-patented “peek-a-boo” style, attributed his victory to his left hand. “I beat him with the jab, but especially the left hook,” said José. It was with hooks that Torres had dented Pastrano’s kidneys while rocking Willie’s head with two-handed attacks.

Afterward, José posed with D’Amato, who has trained him for six years. 

“I said he’d do it, didn’t I?” Cus yelled. José kissed him. 

Would José say something about Pastrano?“Yes,” he said. “He took my best punches. I was surprised. I had hoped to wear him down little by little, and I guess I did that. Pastrano was a good fighter, but I am a great champion.”

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