Pascual Pérez

Pascual Pérez was an Argentine boxer who won gold at the 1948 London Olympics, and later became the first Argentinian to win a world boxing title. Pérez won 18 amateur tournaments from 1944-50, including Latin American titles in 1946, 1947, and 1950. He attempted to compete at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics but was not chosen for the Argentinian Olympic team so he turned professional.

Débuting in December 1952 with a TKO victory over José Ciorino, Pérez would win his first 23 professional fights before drawing against Yoshio Shirai in July 1954. In November of that year, he again faced Shirai and defeated him by unanimous decision to claim the world flyweight title.

Pérez would go on to defend that title nine times, although during that span he had another 18 non-title fights, winning them all. He was finally defeated for the first time by Sadao Yaoita in a non-title bout on 16 January 1959, but then avenged that defeat, winning by a 13th round TKO against Yaoita in November 1959.

Pérez finally relinguished his world flyweight crown on 16 April 1960 when he lost a split decision to Pone Kingpetch in Bangkok, Thailand, Kingpetch’s home country. In September 1960 Pérez and Kingpetch fought again in Los Angeles, with Kingpetch again winning, that time by an 8th round TKO.

Oddly, Pérez never again fought for a title, but after his two losses to Kingpetch he won his next 30 fights before losing a split decision to Leo Zulueta in April 1963. His career spiraled downhill after that, as Pérez lost four of his final six bouts, ending his career after being defeated in March 1964 by Eugenio Hurtado. Pérez would retire with a professional record of 84 wins (57 by KO), 7 losses, and 1 draw.

Pascual Pérez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He is considered one of the greatest flyweight fighters of all-time and boxrec.com has rated him as the #1 flyweight of all-time.