{"id":889658,"date":"2026-09-09T20:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/889658\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:58:24","slug":"boxing-legend-ismael-laguna-dead-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/889658\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing Legend Ismael Laguna Dead At 83"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          Ismael Laguna<br \/>\n                          Hall Of Fame Boxer Dead At 83<br \/>\n                          &#8230; &#8216;The Tiger of Col\u00f3n&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              September 9, 2026<br \/>\n                            10:34 AM PDT\n                                                                            <\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260909_32736a9c5ac24479adb4d0140e5519b9\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:31193b4b-cda7-4aa8-b83e-26570f145640\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/32736a9c5ac24479adb4d0140e5519b9_md.jpg\" alt=\"Ismael Laguna GETTY\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ismael Laguna, the legendary champ who was instrumental in boxing&#8217;s rise in Panama, died this week in a hospital in his home country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Tiger of Col\u00f3n&#8221; was 83.<\/p>\n<p>The Panamanian Sports Institute announced the tragic news, saying, &#8220;Panamanian boxing is in mourning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260909_8fba0bb674b14649984a9c1fc1d0d22e\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:31193b4b-cda7-4aa8-b83e-26570f145640\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/8fba0bb674b14649984a9c1fc1d0d22e_md.jpg\" alt=\"Ismael Laguna SUB GETTY\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Laguna had been hospitalized leading up to his death, but the cause of death is currently unclear.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He wasn&#8217;t the country&#8217;s first champion, but Laguna was largely responsible for the boom after he won the lightweight title from Carlos Ortiz in a 15-round fight on April 10, 1965.<\/p>\n<p>He lost the rematch months later &#8230; though he regained his belt in 1970.<\/p>\n<p>Laguna finished his career with a record of 65 wins, 9 losses, and 1 draw. He finished 37 of his opponents by knockout.<\/p>\n<p>Laguna &#8212; inducted into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibhof.com\/pages\/about\/inductees\/modern\/laguna.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">International Boxing Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2001 &#8212; is one of only five Panamanian fighters to receive the honor. He&#8217;s also in the World Boxing HOF.<\/p>\n<p>The boxer, born in Col\u00f3n, Panama, in 1943, got his nickname for his tenacious style &#8230; and his no-fear approach to fighting.<\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ismael Laguna Hall Of Fame Boxer Dead At 83 &#8230; &#8216;The Tiger of Col\u00f3n&#8217; Published September 9, 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,44,82,865,866],"class_list":["post-889658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tmz-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}