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Forgotten Warriors: Eddie Gazo


BoztheMadman
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Eddie Gazo was the first Nicaraguan to win a world title above 147 and until 2005 the only one, before Ricardo Mayorga won one as well. Gazo was a strong scrapper with good boxing skills who captured the WBA and lineal light middleweight titles in 1977, also being named the progress of the year fighter by The Ring that year. He was not a knockout artist but he wore his opponents down with constant attack and confused them with his awkward style. His prime was short however and after losing his world titles at the age of 28, he slowly lost his spark and retired after losing 7 of his last 8 fights, 6 of them by knockout.

 

Gazo was born as Eddie (not Eduardo) Jose Gazo Roa 12 September 1950 in San Lorenzo, Nicaragua. He made his pro debut 1 March 1969, at 18 years of age and lost on points to Omar Perez. He then beat Carlos Espinosa on points but lost to him in the next fight by TKO 7. He again won their rubbermatch by 10-round decision. He only fought twice in 1969 and 1970 but then upped his fighting frequency in 1971, having four fights and winning them all. On 18 March 1972 he won the Nicaraguan welterweight title again by decisioning Espinosa in 12 rounds. Exactly a year later he knocked out Hernan Grimaldi in 4 to win the Central Americas welter title. Most of his earlier bouts are a matter of question, their dates that is. In April 1975 he lost again due to a hand injury against Carlos Obregon in a fight in Bogota, Colombia. He retired after the fifth round. After winning the WBC FECARBOX super welter title by KO 10 against Rodrigo Delgado in Managua, he was given a fight against Miguel Angel Castellini, who had recently dethroned the WBA champion Jose Manuel Duran and was making his first defense. Curiously, the Argentinian champion had to go to Managua to defend his title in Gazo's turf. Castellini lost his heart in the late rounds after leading on points earlier and Gazo started to take over and sent the champion off balance with a left-right in round 11. Gazo displayed his awkward style which seemed to confuse Castellini. The fight was described as very boring but Gazo snatched the last 5 rounds to win on points and so became the first Nicaraguan world champion in the middle divisions. It was 5 March 1977 at the Estadio Nacional de Beisbol.

 

3 months later, on 7 June, Gazo made his first defense at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, against the home favorite and former undisputed champion Koichi Wajima. Wajima at 34 was however faded by this time after losing by a late knockout to Jose Duran earlier and having several hard wars before that. Gazo dominated throughout most of the first 10 rounds and then sent Wajima down in the 11th, after which the Japanese corner threw in the towel. Gazo again returned to Nippon Budokan in September to defend against another Japanese, Kenji Shibata and this time the fight was much closer and lasted the distance, Gazo retaining his title for the second time with close scores. In his third defense he again went to East Asia, this time Inchon in South Korea, to fight Jae-Keum Lin. It was another dull and slow bout, Gazo using his hit and run tactics that brought him the victory against Castellini. The challenger only hurt him in round 6 with a body shot but the champion prevented the Korean from landing many of his free-swinging uppercuts by clinching. In the end, two judges had Gazo ahead while the home judge scored it for Lin. After the fight, Gazo stated:"He was very strong and I felt his power in round 6. I knew I would have to get inside and stay close to use my hard body attack. I won and that's all that matters. "

 

That would be the last time he left the ring as champion, because he lost his next defense to another Japanese, Masashi Kudo, by a close split decision in Akita City, Japan. This time the establishment was not on his side as Kudo was a hyped prospect, undefeated at 19-0. Kudo would later lose his title to Ayub Kalule. It was 1978 and Gazo had enjoyed 17 months as world champion. Now it was downhill time for his career and after taking a year off boxing, he returned and won 5 easy fights at home, before challenging Thomas Hearns, the undefeated welterweight destroyer from Detroit, 3 May 1980 in Cobo Hall, Detroit. He was easily destroyed in 2 minutes and 41 seconds. On 20 September he had a rematch against Castellini, this time in Buenos Aires and was knocked out in 9 rounds by Castellini, who retired after that revenge. He was also stopped by Bert Lee in 6 rounds and Fulgencio Obelmejias in 2 before fighting John "The Beast" Mugabi 8 October 1983 in Atlantic City. Mugabi was 18-0, all by knockout. Gazo was a late replacement and at 5'7 two inches shorter than Mugabi, as well as almost 10 years older. He weighed in at 162, 8 pounds over the limit, while Mugabi weighed 156. For the first 3 rounds, Gazo did surprisingly well and gave Mugabi problems with his style, landing some good punches. In the fourth however, Mugabi's power prevailed and Gazo stumbled and fell after getting hit late in the round with some hard shots. It turned out he had injured his ankle and so the fight ended. In his last fight on St. Patrick's day 1984, he fought in San Juan against Julian Jackson, who was then an up and coming prospect. Jackson made short work of him and stopped him early in the second round.

 

That was the end of it for Eddie Gazo. He was almost 34 now and retired with a record of 42 wins, with 23 ko's, 12 losses and 2 draws. Eddie Gazo was a fine fighter in his prime and he always fought the best guys available. He fought some guys that had a significant height and reach advantage and who hit very hard, like Hearns, Obelmejias, Castellini and Mugabi. That shows he had no fear.

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