Horacio Accavallo died at the age of 87.
Former world boxing champion Horacio Accavallo has died at the age of 87.
The boxer was the second Argentine to win a world title.
“Honest, humble, character, good guy, role model.” So Horacio Accavallo Jr. defined his father – and namesake – in a note from Clarín from 2019, 53 years after taking the world title.
In the same note he recalled that Nicolino Locche defined Accavallo “the best Argentine boxer in history”.
World champion from 1966 to 1968, Accavallo represents – underlined three years ago the journalist Jazmín Bazán – the athlete who became a national hero, the boy from a southern city who devoted himself to pineapple.
Horacio Accavallo was born in 1934 and survived the early years of his life by collecting garbage in a stake; He was a trapeze artist, a tightrope walker, a fakir, a shoe shine, a bottle holder and a boxer.
When he was 14, while working in a circus, he saw that he had the conditions for boxing. To entertain the public he challenged the greatest and always won. He was six feet tall and had the advantage of being left handed.
When a gym opened near his home, he went to join. He arrived with a black cigarette in his mouth. On the first day, they had him train with three people. He took the nickname “Roquiño”.
In 1958 Accavallo went to Italy for eleven months and defeated the national champion Salvatore Burruni. There was no doubt about his talent. However, it cost him a career. As he said, he was accepted into the Luna Park circuit thanks to the most precious letter of him, the affection of his followers.
In 1966 came the conquest of the world championship in the “flying” category, when he defeated the native Katsuyoshi Takayama in Japan, in a 15-round fight, by split decision. That day the houses in his neighborhood became real bunkers where neighbors flocked to listen to the radio broadcast of the fight.
An Argentine delegation of journalists visited him on Japanese soil. Emilio Laferranderie, the correspondent of The graph, better known as “El Veco,” summed up that day better than anyone else: “It’s the big day, Horacio. This peak which is reached at the age of 30 has reserved a big smile in the chest. “There’s a lot of crying underneath all of this,” he told us. [su mánager] Vaccari. So, laugh, Horacio … Laugh without stopping ”.
News in development.
LG
Source: Clarin
