Willie Pastrano
Willie Pastrano (November 27 1935—December 6 1997) was a lightheavyweight boxer who held the world crown from 1963 until 1965. Pastrano began his career at the age of 16. He fought many heavyweights and outpointed heavyweight contenders Rex Layne, Brian London and Tom McNeeley.
The talented Pastrano won the lightheavyweight championship when he outpointed the great Harold Johnson on a close 15 round decision. He successfully defended his crown by stopping Gregorio Peralta of Argentina on a TKO, and by coming back from a certain defeat on points to KO English challenger Terry Downes in 11 rounds in Manchester, England. Pastrano lost his crown when he was TKOed by Jose Torres in 10 rounds. In the Torres fight, Pastrano was knocked down for the only time in his career by a powerful left hook to the kidney. Pastrano retired after that match and never fought again.
Managed by the legendary Angelo Dundee, Pastrano was a smooth, quick boxer with a great left hand. He was a stablemate of Cassius Clay and often sparred with the future champion early in Clay's career. His talent was dissipated by his aversion to training and a fondness for partying and carousing. Nevertheless, he defeated most of the lightheavyweight challengers of his generation. He also outpointed former lightheavyweight champion Joey Maxim, and boxed a draw with the legendary Archie Moore. He retired with a record of 63 wins (14 by KO), 13 losses and 8 draws.
His life after boxing was marred by drug addiction. The most of his greatest records weren't only in the boxing ring,I can only reflect how he was as a champion of the people as well as his family,he was trully passive agressive all the time,He would only earn the respect of all who new how intelligent he could really be,being his son it just seemed that dad was a great guy.If you judge a man by his wallet, He was always making sure it was full as he shaped and was shaped by a magnificent pool of talent,Remember that all atheletes of physical compitition at 1955 thru the early sixties were boxers,football was still on it's way!, The Courage of the competition was plentiful and talented,every contender was physically strong to even get to any level in that particular era,the hours,days and years of dedication That went into his conditioning was tremendous.To this day I finally understood what Disipline and responsibility that must of weighed on his shoulders! And he never went in a fight to loose,after many years of research and memory he loved his families,his manager,his trainers even if the conditioning was overwhelming he truly never quit! Evenmore was his spirit to all he boxed and all who paid to se him and all that helped to find his calling,he truly gave back to all facets of his life,there is a reason he was the last bonified world champion to hold a world title from new orleans by way of the legendary 5th st gym , but for now I think that part is what only I get to cherish for now,I just can't give away any old ending because to me you just can't put Some things into words , you can only experience and appreciatte all the boxers of there peers, By Nick Pastrano. canstart box}} |- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align:center;"
|style="width:30%;" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
| style="width: 40%; text-align: center;" rowspan="1"| World Light Heavyweight Champion
1 Jun 1963–30 Mar 1965
| style="width: 30%; text-align: center;" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
|- |}