Jose Louis Chegui TORRES

José Torres fought in the 1956 Olympics while he was serving in the Army. His only amateur titles had come in Army and Inter-Service championships, several of which he had won. But he was a fine boxer and it was ill fortune that he was in the same class in the Olympics as the Hungarian, László Papp. Papp defeated Torres in the finals for his third consecutive Olympic boxing title. While in the Army Torres fought for two more years as an amateur and managed to win the 1958 AAU championship. He then turned professional. He had a good career as a pro, climaxed when he won the light-heavyweight world title in 1965 by KO'ing Willie Pastrano in nine rounds. Torres defended the title four times before losing a 15-round decision to Dick Tiger in December 1966. His professional career record was 41-3-1 with 29 knockouts, and included wins over Tom McNeeley, Don Fullmer, and Bobo Olson. After retiring from boxing, Torres co-authored one of the best biographies of Muhammad Ali. He was later chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission and president of the World Boxing Organization from 1993-95. He was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.