Jose Legra, two-time WBC featherweight champion, dies at 83

Jose Legra, the two-time WBC featherweight champion known for his stylistic similarities to Muhammad Ali, died today at age 83. The Cuban-born fighter had been living in a Madrid nursing home battling dementia, The Ring confirmed this morning.

Legra finished his professional career with a record of 129-11-4, 49 KOs, across a span that saw him forced to leave his homeland after Fidel Castro outlawed professional boxing in 1962. He turned pro at 17 in Cuba before relocating first to Mexico and then to Spain, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Legra's two championship runs

The Baracoa native won the European featherweight belt in 1967 with a third-round stoppage of Yves Desmarets, then captured his first WBC title the following summer by halting Howard Winstone in five rounds in Wales. He lost that belt in his initial defense to Johnny Famechon by 15-round decision in January 1969 — a verdict widely considered controversial. Three years later, in December 1972, Legra reclaimed the WBC strap with a 10th-round knockout of Clemente Sanchez in Mexico, only to surrender it again in his first defense to Eder Jofre on a 15-round majority decision in May 1973.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told The Ring that Legra's death "closes one of the greatest chapters in the history of boxing," noting the fighter's place alongside fellow Cuban exiles Jose Napoles, Ultiminio Ramos, and Kid Gavilan. "The Cuban legend chapter is now closed for eternity," Sulaiman said. "May he rest in peace."

Legra, who carried the nickname "Pocket Cassius Clay" for his quick hands and lateral movement, ended his career in 1973 with a first-round stoppage loss to rising lightweight Alexis Arguello. In retirement, he ran a shoe business in Alicante and dealt in property on the Canary Islands while also working in television during the 1990s. He is survived by two nieces.

Source: ringmagazine.com