Jose Cuevas

Cuevas won the WBA welterweight title from Angel Espada via KO in 1976 and made 10 successful defenses against Billy Backus, Pete Ranzany, Harold Volbrecht, Clyde Gray, and Scott Clark, along with two rematches with Espada. Cuevas finally lost his title in 1980 to the up-and-coming hometown hero Thomas Hearns in Detroit. Hearns convincingly KO'd him in the second round. After that, perhaps the only really notable opponent he had was Roberto Duran, who stopped him in the fourth round in the spring of 1983. He also lost to former world title challenger Jun Sok-Hwang and future or former world champions Jorge Vaca and Lupe Aquino before finally retiring in 1989.

Cuevas is the owner of a restaurant and a security company in Mexico City. At one point of his career, he was also the owner of a famous sports and luxury car collection, and he was one of the first boxers to model a golden tooth. Most people probably know him for his nickname Pipino, which is far more used to refer to him than Jose by fight commentators and magazine writers.

He ran into trouble with the law in 2001 when he was accused of racketeering in Mexico, in connection with a Mexican mayor. But he was declared innocent in 2002.

Also in 2002, Cuevas became a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

His record as a boxer was of 35 wins and 15 losses, with 31 wins by knockout.

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