The legendary boxer José Legrá, “the puma of Baracoa,” has passed away in Madrid at the age of 83, leaving memorable fights and extraordinary charm in memory. In his human record, he was the protagonist of the best sports anecdote one can remember: his first audience with the dictator Francisco Franco at El Pardo, where he was received, as was customary, after winning the world featherweight title in Cardiff against the local idol Howard Winstone.
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Against all odds, Pepe Legrá won by K.O. in the fifth round against the Welshman, who resisted as much as he could. The fight, in July 1968, took place before 15,000 enthusiastic spectators and the hostile atmosphere typical of the time. The Hispano-Cuban said the memorable phrase to journalist Manolo Alcántara on the eve: “if God helps me, I’ll kill him.” And almost, almost. For the second time in history, Spain had a world champion, just the year Massiel won Eurovision and millions of European tourists arrived.
All of Legrá’s friends advised him to ask Franco for a tobacco shop or a gas station, state concession businesses that guaranteed lifelong and regular income. Chance and his heart of gold made it otherwise. Legrá, a shoeshiner in Baracoa, Oriente province, left Cuba in 1963, at twenty years old, when Fidel Castro banned professional boxing. The head of the Cuban federation, Jorge García Bango, helped him get a passport.
On the eve of the audience at El Pardo, he called Pepe Legrá to ask for a hand: his brother Rafael had been sentenced in Spain to 18 years in prison for counterfeiting dollars. On the way to El Pardo, Legrá said to himself: “What the hell with a tobacco shop!” And he explained the case to Franco… He never had a tobacco shop but his friend’s brother was released the following week. That’s how generous and loyal José Legrá was and is.
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Legrá was what experts called “a fine stylist,” with exceptional footwork, the grace of the greats – in the manner of Muhammad Ali – and a way of being in the world alien to his bosses to the point that he boasted of having been friends with Francisco Franco and Fidel Castro. A great boxing fan, Fidel received him twice in Havana and the first thing he said was “You should see how the Galician loves you!” The Galician was Franco…
The puma of Baracoa stepped into the ring 147 times, with a record of 132 wins, 4 draws, and 11 losses, some as notorious as the one suffered at the Albert Hall in London against the Australian Famechon, “a robbery!” which still stung because the judges, not his rival, determined the defeat. “He spent the fight running!” He regained the world title in 1971, no less than in Mexico.
Pepe Legrá was aware that his innate ease, exquisite technique, and footwork made him frequent gyms less than he should have, which limited his career but saved him from blows and allowed him to exercise his seducer facet (he liked women very much). The last time I saw him was at a lunch at the Casimiro restaurant in Barcelona – now closed – back in 2005. He ordered a steak with potatoes and an orange juice, like in his times in the ring, the stage of his happy memories. He called me to congratulate Barça on a Champions and to tell me he was very well, in shape. We lost track of each other but I know that a great professional, José María García, made sure all these years that the Puma of Baracoa lacked nothing. Rest in peace, world featherweight champion.
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