REFUSED TO GO BACK INTO RING Lost Fight He Had Won

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31198, 24 October 1966, Page 3

REFUSED TO GO BACK INTO RING Lost Fight He Had Won

(N.Z P.A -Reuter —Copyright) MEXICO CITY. The Puerto Rican, Sugar Ramos, was declared world lightweight boxing champion on Saturday after the title-holder, C. Ortiz, failed to return to the ring when the referee’s decision to stop the fight was disputed. Dr. R. G. Valasquez, president of the World Boxing Association, declared Ramos the winner after giving Ortiz 10 minutes to return to the ring. It was announced that the purses of both Ortiz and the referee, Mr Billy Conn, would be withheld. The Mexican crowd erupted into pandemonium when Mr Conn, the former world light heavy-weight champion,

stopped the fight, and proclaimed Ortiz the winner by a technical knock-out because of a bad cut over Ramos’s eye. However, when he guided Ramos to his corner, no-one seemed to know whether it was because of Ramos’s cut eye or whether Ramos was disqualified. Then trouble began. Ramos protested, his handlers protested, and the crowd showed its anger by hurling all sorts of missiles into the ring. Mr Conn shielded his face and head with his arms. The ring quickly became a swaying mass of photographers and angry fans, and police tried in vain to restore order, while the crowd maintained its shrieking, earpiercing cries. In the midst of the uproar, Ortiz discreetly left the ring. The ring was a wreck. The ropes were broken by the milling masses and some of

the lights over it collapsed. Ortiz’s manager, Mr W. Daly, suffered a cut on his head when hit by a coin. Ortiz, aged 30, was born in Puerto Rica, but lives in New York. He first won the world light-weight title from J. Brown in 1962, but lost it to I. Laguna (Panama) in April last year, and then regained the crown last November. Ramos, a 26-year-old Cuban refugee, fighting in his adopted home town, said he had not wanted to win the title in such a manner. Ortiz refused to accept the verdict by Dr. Velazquez and said that he will stand by the referee’s decision that he had won by a technical knock-out, United Press International reported. The crowd, which had threatened to riot when Mr Conn stopped the fight, cheer, ed when the reversal was announced. The ring doctor, Mr G. B. Cacho, said Ramos was not hurt badly enough for the fight to be stopped. Under Mexican rules a ref-

eree can only declare a technical knock-out with approval from the fight doctor, and Dr. Cacho would not give his approval. The fight had been unusually close. Ortiz himself had been floored in the second round by a surprisingly aggressive Ramos, cheered on by a partisan crowd. Ortiz went down to an overhand right, and obviously was in trouble, although he took only a count of two. He came back strongly, however, and in the fourth round he was beating Ramos so badly that Mr Conn wanted to stop the fight, and was calling, “Where’s the doctor, where’s the doctor.” Ramos’s eye was split open and was bleeding profusely. The fight was stopped after Imin 45sec of the fifth round. Retains Title At Manila on Saturday, the veteran world junior lightweight champion, G. Elorde, coasted to a 15-round decision for his tenth successful title defence over V. Derado (Argentina).