Pedro Carrasco Remembered In Spain 25 Years After His Passing

By Gabriel F. Cordero

Former Spanish world champion Pedro Juan Carrasco García was born in Alosno, Huelva, Spain, on July 11, 1943. He was known for his elegant and stylish boxing, as well as his signature punch, the “bolo punch.”

At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Seville, Spain, and a year later to São Paulo, Brazil. There, at the age of fourteen, he began working in a packaging factory. Two years later, he started boxing and competed in the amateur championship of the Manzoni Club. He made his professional debut in Imola, Italy, on October 24, 1962, against Carlo Leggenda, whom he defeated by technical knockout in two rounds.

He was one of the best Spanish boxers in history and famous for being the third Spaniard to win a world title (along with Baltasar Belenguer Sangchili and José Legrá) when he became the World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight champion against the well-known American Mando Ramos by disqualification in the twelfth round on November 5, 1971, at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid.

Carrasco was a seven-time European (EBU) champion and made history as the only Spanish boxer included by the World Boxing Council in its ranking of the 40 best boxers of the last 40 years.

He had a total of 111 professional fights with 105 wins, three losses, and two draws. He is the Spanish boxer with the most consecutive wins, with a record of 93-0-1. The draw occurred when he had won 83 consecutive fights. Carrasco is the second Spanish boxer with the most wins—after Ignacio Ara, with a record of 151-22-20 (65 KOs).

Carrasco was known as “The Sailor with the Golden Fists” for having served in the Marines and for acting in the 1968 film of the same name.

Pedro Carrasco was a beloved figure in Spain for several decades and was married to the renowned singer Rocío Jurado. He was known as a kind and aloof person, detached from personal problems.

He died in Madrid on January 27, 2001, at the age of 57, from a heart attack and is buried in the Carrasco-García family mausoleum in Madrid’s Carabanchel Cemetery.

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