Horacio Accavallo became world champion 55 years ago

Roquiño, champion of life

By Carlos Irusta

MEMORIES take me back to when I was a boy and  I use to read about the triumphs of Horacio Accavallo in Italy, in the magazine “K.O. World.”

That was between 1958 and 1959. He fought 10 fights and only lost to Salvatore Burruni but in the rematch, as in the first fight, the same.

One day, my father, Don Carlos, who was already a coach at Luna Park, told me  “Accavallo returned to the gym yesterday.” Really? Well, I want to meet him!”

In those days, Juan Carlos Pradeiro was with him. His original trainer, “El abuelito” Riccardi, passed him to Juan Aldrovandi, who was traveling at the time.

In four months of 1961, he became Argentine champion against Carlos Rodríguez on July 1 and South American against Uruguayan Jupiter Mansilla, on October 7. Accavallo beat them with skill, intelligence, icy coolness  but also with fire when necessary. Southpaw, calculating, and a very skilled counter-puncher, he started to attract big crowds to the Luna.

STREET SMART, he had all the knowledge from Villa Diamante, where he was born… Ciruja, circus fakir, great soccer player, rogue for business, he knew how to do marketing when the word was not even known.

Those were the times of a Juan Carlos “Tito” Lectoure, brand new match-maker of the Luna, who with a little more than 20 years, was full of ambitions and dreams. “I wanted to have my world champion, and I did it with Accavallo,” he said.

Until the great moment of “Roquiño” arrived, as he was known. He went to Tokyo and on March 1, 1966 he became champion by defeating Katsuyoshi Takayama.

He was so popular that he even made a commercial where a little Japanese man said “Takayama liar”; he got married on television – something unprecedented – at Bodegas Peñaflor, his sponsor. He acted with the famous comedian Pepe Biondi and his highly rated television show.

And above all, he defended his crown as a warrior. Bathed in blood, he beat Efrén “Alacrán” Torres, a solid Mexican fighter.

He fought 83 fights. He won 75 (34 by KO), lost 2 (one in Italy, one in Japan) and drew 6. He starred two Tremendous battles with Hiroyuki Ebihara, but more tremendous with the scales. He couldn’t make the weight. So one day he gave up boxing, when he already had a fight scheduled.

“But Horacio, lets do one more and then get out,” Lectoure told him.

-No, Tito, because if I lose I will be a former champion and I want to be champion forever.

And so it was,  what Horacio is, and will always be, champion. And not only champion, champion of life …

 

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