José Luis Navarro (boxer)

Born in Córdoba on 24 March 1965,^[1][2] Navarro's first passion was football, wanting to become a player for Córdoba, just like his childhood idol José Luis Navarro, who shared his name, but a traffic accident shattered his dream of becoming a footballer; instead of hindering him, this accident only made him stronger.^[4][5]

After a long career as an amateur boxer, Navarro made his professional debut on 13 January 1993 in Santander, knocking out Francisco Delgado in one round, who was undefeated in 5 fights.^[1][2][3] After knocking out a further five opponents, three Spanish and two French, he had his first real test with the veteran and tough Panamanian boxer Tony Campbell, but Navarro nevertheless subjected him to such a harsh punishment that caused him to quit at the end of the second round.^[3] He followed this up by defeating the future champion of France Patrick Charpentier, doing so in four rounds with a terrible uppercut, and was later proclaimed champion of Spain in welterweight by knocking the veteran José Molinillo in four rounds.^[2][3]

His natural category was welterweight, but Navarro decided to go up in weight for a shot at the Spanish Championship in super welterweight, where he faced Nicasio Moray, a two-time champion of Paraguay and the then South American middleweight champion, who had never been knocked out in his 3 losses, but Navarro did exactly that in the first round thanks to a perfect right hook, thus winning the title and improving his record to 12–0, all knockouts.^[2][3] He then successfully defended the title 3 times, against the Argentines José Luis Saldivia and Silvio Walter and once against the Venezuelan Alejandro Ugueto.^[2][3] At this point, he was already an idol throughout Europe and was beginning to be known worldwide.^[3]

On 17 December 1994, Navarro fought for the European welterweight championship in his hometown of Córdoba, facing the veteran British Delroy Bryan; despite suffering a cut on one of his cheekbones on the third round, he recovered and kept applying pressure on an increasingly overwhelmed Bryan, who in the 10th round, fell 3 times to the canvas with his face bloodied, so the referee stopped the fight and El Cazador was proclaimed Champion of Europe with a record of 18–0.^[2][3][6] He was thus chosen as Cordoban of the year in 1994.^[2] He successfully defended his European title against Zaragoza native José Ramon Escriche, doing so in 5 rounds, but he was then finally defeated by Valery Kayumba on 1 April 1995, in 8 rounds by TKO.^[2] He then collected a further six victories in the following years to reach an impressive tally of 25–1, but then lost his last fight against Andrey Pestryaev on 15 February 1997, where the European welterweight title was at stake.^[2]

During his career, Navarro had 27 fights, winning 25 of them and losing the other two.^[1] He used to get into the ring wearing the Córdoba CF shirt.^[2] Together with Toni Ortiz and Rafael Lozano, Navarro is one of the three best boxers in the history of Córdoba.^[4]

After he retired from boxing, Navarro held the position of sports technician at the Provincial Council of Córdoba for 14 years.^[4] Navarro is currently an administrator at Doña Mencía.^[2]

• Spanish welterweight champion
• Hispanic World Welterweight Champion
• European Welterweight Champion