Wilfredo Vasquez

Wilfredo Vázquez is a professional boxer who was born on August 2, 1960 in Rio Piedras in San Juan Puerto Rico. He won three titles in different weight divisions, Bantamweight, Super Bantamweight and Featherweight.

His father, Juan Vázquez wanted to have a boxer son, and Wilfredo realized his father’s desire when he turned 18, two weeks after his father’s death. Wilfredo’s boxing style was influenced by WIlfredo Gomez, who was also a great Puerto Rican professional boxer.

He had a total of 17 fights as an amateur boxer including three losses.

He turned professional by January 1981 with trainer Manny Siaca and fought his first fight against William Ramos, where he lost in the fourth round. His next fight was against Felix Cortez and this time won by a knockout in the second round.

By October 1987, he became the World Boxing Council’s Bantamweight champion defeating Chan Yong Park of South Korea. He held on to the title until May 1988. The title was passed on to Khaorkor Galaxy of Thailand. Then, by March 1992, he won the World Boxing Association’s Super Bantamweight title, defeating Raul Perez of Mexico. He successfully defended the title until he fought and lost the title against Antonio Cermeno of Venezuela on May 1995.

One year after his loss to Cermeno, he became the World Boxing Associations Featherweight champion, defeating Eloy Rojas of Venezuela in the eleventh round in Las Vegas, Nevada. He defended the title against Bernardo Mendoza, Yiji Watanabe, Roque Cassiani and Genaro Rios. But by April 1998, he lost the title to Naseem Hamed, who represented England, by a knockout in the seventh round.