Horacio Acavallo in his key battle with Takayama.
We are at that time, more than half a century ago. Argentine sport had already enjoyed several feats and some idols. But only one had achieved the greatest glory in boxing, Pascualito Pérez with the world flyweight title in 1954. Between the patience, courage and will of Horacio Accavallo, and the sagacity and audacity of Tito Lectoure – who did his first weapons as a boxing entrepreneur- he got “Roquiño” (as he was nicknamed) his World Cup chance. And he took advantage of it, dedicating himself to that unforgettable night of March 1, 1966, beating Japanese Katsuyoshi Takayama by points after 15 rounds. He was in Tokyo, on the same scene as Pascualito’s victory.
For Cross it three defenses would arrive before deciding to retreat. He had also become a true idol – perhaps not in the dimension of Bonavena or in the one that Locche would have two years later – but in a notable representative of our sport.
A crowd came to receive him in Ezeiza, and there were also thousands who went out on the avenues to greet the passage of the caravan, from Ezeiza to the Luna Park, a ritual that would be repeated with Locche and Monzón. A week after his consecration, Accavallo was received by President Arturo Illia at Casa Rosada: “I did my job, Mr. President, I brought the crown of the world”.
Accavallo also symbolized the life of many boxers, those who had gone through all the hardships until they found a way out. The son of immigrants – his father Roque was Italian, his mother Balbina Spanish – “they taught me that life is a struggle, that when you gain weight you have to take care of it. They could neither read nor write, but then one of the greatest satisfactions of my life was building a house for them in the Parque Patricios ”.
Horacio Accavallo was born on 14 October 1934 in Villa Diamante, in one of the most abandoned areas of Lanús. He always said that he spent his childhood between work (“bottle holder” or directly “surgeon”, a version of that time of the current cartoneros), football (he came to try in the racing bass) and school, very little, he must have left it in the primary.
He told Horacio Convertini in Diario Popular: “I knew what poverty was, hunger, empty hands. That’s why I’ve tried to make my way through life, always walking straight and learning from mistakes. So it was that trying to be someone, I worked in a circus from 9 to 17 years. He did it all. I was a trapeze artist at a time when safety nets were not used, if you made a mistake you would end up on the ground. He was also a fakir. I covered all the specialties, I worked from Friday to Sunday and with what they paid me I survived ”.
The other days he came with his cart, from Villa Diamante to San Telmo, went out to buy or collect bottles. The big step? “When I bought a cart, pulled by a horse.”
Despite being passionate about football – he played dad’s championships in Caraza, Villa Fiorito or Diamante – boxing came almost by accident. “On Sundays, at the circus, we did a matinee show. When it rained or there was little public they asked people who dared to fight me, it was a number more. So we fought until I said enough. There I understood that I had the conditions for boxing and as soon as a club was opened in Villa Diamante I joined ”Juan Aldrovandi and Héctor Vaccari were his masters, who offered him their technical foundations. Accavallo saw, in perspective, the possibility of joining the Olympic team at the Melbourne Games (1956). But in some confusion and ignorance, shortly before he was declared a professional. He couldn’t go. And then yes, he has decided to definitely tackle boxing on a rented field.
He also had the audacity to go solo to Europe, suffering hardships in Spain and Italy, but putting together a solid campaign with his dangerous left. There he lost only one match – in Cagliari, with the “owner” of the flyweight category Salvatore Burroni, whom he then beat in revenge – and he has accumulated considerable experience, as well as establishing himself in the world ranking.
“He was a smart boxer, a great timekeeper who, without being a great boxer, had itchy hands. He was a selfless professional who had a hard time framing the weight of the flies. And without having an elegant figure, even lacking an angel, he entered people’s hearts due to his great condition ”, defined Tito Lectoure.
Upon his return, he won the Argentine title in what he remembered as “the wildest battle of my life, even worse than the one I later had with Alacrán Torres”. It was June 1, 1961 against a crowded Luna Park, where he beat another native of Lanús, Carlos Rodríguez. That night Accavallo finished with 9 stitches on his left eyebrow.
Estimator of Luis Federico Thompson among Argentine boxers and Cassius Clay among foreigners, Racing fans, Accavallo made his way to the title, after beating the main flyweights of his time, such as the aforementioned Salvatore Burruni or the Mexican Jesús Hernández.
He defended it three times and after the last one, in 1967, he decided to retire. “Tito”, he told Lectoure, “it’s really hard for me to give weight, I suffer too much, I don’t want more.” The promoter asked for a last effort, but Accavallo was adamant: “Do you know what’s going on? If I lose, I will stop being champion. But if I retire now, I will be world champion forever. “
Lectoure said they already had a contract to defend the crown against Brazilian Severino, with a $ 100,000 purse, a fortune. But Accavallo came from a long inactivity and was realistic: “Tito, yesterday I made gloves with a guy who never touched me and I beat him as he wanted. Now he hit me and that means my reflexes aren’t the same anymore. I’m retiring from boxing. “
He had totaled 75 wins (34 by KO), 8 draws and only 2 losses. One of them with Burruni in Cagliari (very controversial) and the other with a technical knockout with the Japanese Kiyoshi Tanabe, in 1967 in Tokyo, without giving away the title: it was due to an injury to the left eyebrow arch.
Married to Ana María, they had four children: Analía, Silvana, Horacio and Gustavo. He devoted himself to commercial activities, including a furniture store, a coffee shop on the Costanera and a sporting goods chain. He has never forgotten his origins and in 2001, with the outbreak of the crisis and the proliferation of cartoneros, he accompanied them to the Legislature. He was at a multisectoral conference on recycling and recyclers, where he asked to be called “honorary president of bottle racks”. He then remembered when he went with his cart to the Quema and promised to “make all the effort, look for the return so that the surgeons can earn a handcuff”.
“Roquiño” had reflected earlier: “I am semi-illiterate, but I have learned a lot. This country gives you revenge if you learn and work. Winning and being famous is cool, but you need to know that boxing ends and life goes on. After the fame and the ovation, starting over can be terrible.
It has also suffered in recent decades: assaults on its activities – including one with hostage-taking – and above all the death of his daughter Silvana, overwhelmed by a truck on the corner between Caseros and Catamarca. It was 1998, the girl was 25 years old … An infinite sadness that would continue much later in her family, when Accavallo fell victim to Alzheimer’s.
Source: Clarin
