Rubén Olivares Carried His Knockout Power Into Two
Rubén “El Púas” Olivares won the world bantamweight championship by knocking out Lionel Rose in 1969. The Mexican puncher later added separate WBA and WBC featherweight championships to his record.
The bantamweight championship rivalry
Olivares scored knockouts in his first twenty-two professional fights. By the time he defeated Rose, his record stood at fifty-one wins and one draw, with forty-nine knockout victories.
Chucho Castillo took the championship from him through a cut-induced fourteenth-round stoppage. Olivares regained the title in their third meeting, continuing a rivalry that shaped his bantamweight championship years.
Featherweight titles and recognition
Olivares won the vacant WBA featherweight title with a seventh-round knockout of Zensuke Utagawa in 1974. Alexis Argüello stopped him in the thirteenth round of his first defense.
In 1975, Olivares knocked out Bobby Chacon to win the WBC featherweight crown, then lost it to David Kotey by decision. The International Boxing Hall of Fame inducted him in 1991 and lists his career record as eighty-eight wins, thirteen defeats and three draws, with seventy-eight knockout victories.
Born on January 14, 1947, Olivares built his attack around a powerful left hook. His featherweight championship victories showed that the punch remained dangerous above bantamweight, although neither of those later reigns survived its first title defense.
