The Ring<\/a> through Mauricio Gonzalez. \u201cI came from a hardworking family; my dad worked in construction. We didn\u2019t have too much, but we didn’t need anything.\u201d<\/p>\nHe took up boxing at a young age and had around 70 fights, winning a handful of medals.<\/p>\n
His parents were no longer together and when his father received residency to move to the nearby Island of Puerto Rico, Gervacio, who was 14, decided to go with him.<\/p>\n
He carried on his boxing career in Puerto Rico and won a Golden Gloves tournament.<\/p>\n
While still a teenager, Gervacio, who went in the region of 60-15 in the unpaid ranks, turned professional in December 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a no fear mentality, I didn\u2019t have any nerves debuting,\u201d said Gervacio, who made $1500. \u201cI was very confident in what I had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gervacio drew two of his first four fights, but advanced his record to 15-0-2. After just 23 months as a professional, he met the WBA 122-pound champ.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Louie] Espinoza fought a guy I would spar all the time, Tommy Valoy, I put a beatdown on him,\u201d explained Gervacio, who won a 12-round unanimous decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat gave me confidence. It was my first title fight, but I had the mentality that I could win. It was unbelievably emotional, it was incredible. I can’t put it into words.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, his time at the top proved to be short and the shooting star lost his belt just three-months later to tricky Bernardo Pinango (SD 12).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave him that title,\u201d he said, still rankled by the decision. \u201cPinango had good movement, he would move around a lot. He was a very dirty fighter because he\u2019d use his elbows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gervacio quickly returned and notched four wins before getting a shot at the inaugural WBO junior featherweight title against Kenny Mitchell in April 1989. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started kind of slow and when I started to attack, I had built some confidence, but I was not able to knock him out,\u201d said Gervacio, who lost a 12-round unanimous decision.<\/p>\n
Later that year, he lost to Orlando Fernandez (KO 9) and didn\u2019t fight again for almost two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some marital issues,\u201d Gervacio said, \u201cand my jaw was broken against Orlando and [was] recovering, that’s why I took the time off.\u201d<\/p>\n
After returning in March 1992, the classy boxer-puncher reeled off 10 consecutive wins before facing fellow Dominican Hector Acero-Sanchez for the WBC 122-pound title in Atlantic City in March 1995.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very tough fight,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was tough to find him at times. I won that fight, I even knocked him down, I don\u2019t believe they counted it, but he was younger, and he was with Don King and he decided to give him the title and victory. You know how that works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gervacio stuck around for a couple more years, but was largely a steppingstone for the likes of a rising Juan Manuel Marquez (KO 8) at featherweight and Joel Casamayor (TKO 2) up at junior lightweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went into the fight overconfident, and I started giving Marquez more confidence and he started building on that,” Gervacio said of his fight with the future Hall of Famer. \u201c[Marquez] was definitely good. It was early in his career. He was 15 fights in, but definitely talented and skilled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of confidence going into that fight [with Casamayor.] I had no fear, but that cost me to do well in the fight because I went straight at him and that cost me the loss in that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Gervacio (30-7-2, 23 KOs) has had a few issues with the law. In 2002, a court in New York convicted him of distributing narcotics. He was deported in 2009. In 2011, he was arrested again in Puerto Rico for illegally entering the United States.<\/p>\n
Gervacio, now 58, is divorced and has 14 children. He lives in the Dominican Republic, but his children are in the U.S. He remains involved in boxing as a trainer and works with a couple of fighters on the Dominican national amateur team.<\/p>\n
The best Gervacio fought in 10 key categories are detailed below:<\/p>\n
BEST JAB<\/p>\n
Juan Manuel Marquez: Technically, Marquez was so sound, every time he would hit me, I would feel the jab.<\/p>\n
BEST DEFENSE<\/p>\n
Bernardo Pinango: Elusive and difficult to hit and crafty.<\/p>\n
BEST HAND SPEED<\/p>\n
Orlando Fernandez: Orlando Fernandez was a great boxer, great speed and was able to catch me and knocked me out.<\/p>\n
BEST FOOTWORK<\/p>\n
Jose Valdez: Casamayor and Marquez had their strengths; I do feel Valdez had the best footwork.<\/p>\n
SMARTEST<\/p>\n
Marquez: Probably the smartest and most intelligent fighter because he would pay attention to my movement before he\u2019d throw and he was very accurate. He didn\u2019t waste punches.<\/p>\n
STRONGEST<\/p>\n
Louie Espinoza: He\u2019d be on me, and he was definitely the strongest but my movement and everything helped me get the win.<\/p>\n
BEST CHIN<\/p>\n
Marquez: I hit him with everything, and I was not able to knock him out.<\/p>\n
BEST PUNCHER<\/p>\n
Joel Casamayor: I lost to Marquez by knockout. I was knocked down, but I was able to get up. But when Casamayor hit me, I was not able to recover at all.<\/p>\n
BEST BOXING SKILLS<\/p>\n
Marquez: I fought such great fighters. Marquez was able to use his talent and skills to have the career he did. He was starting out, but you could definitely see the talent.<\/p>\n
BEST OVERALL<\/p>\n
Marquez: He was an excellent boxer all-around. He was a person that was very thoughtful and calculated.<\/p>\n
Questions\/comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on X @AnsonWainwright<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a young age, Julio Gervacio was tipped for success and briefly held a junior featherweight title in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-240950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}