Kid Galivan

Gerardo Gonzalez, who would later be known as Kid Galivan, was born on January 6, 1926, in Camaguey Cuba. He began his professional boxing career in 1943, fighting only in Cuba for the first three years of his career. During this time, he gave himself the name "Galivan", which means hawk in spanish.
During his time in Cuba, he developed the "bolo punch". For those who don't know, the bolo punch looks something like a combination between a softball pitch and an uppercut. (See picture below of Galivan putting his bolo punch to use).

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The bolo punch has been famously used by fighters like Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.

However, Galivan did alot more than just invent a new punch.  When he came to fight in America in 1946, he challenged Sugar Ray Robinson.  He lost the bout on decision, but it did not stop the young Cuban. Five years later, he won the vacated welterweight title in a fight against Johnny Bratton.

From there Galivan took the division by storm, defending his title against famous fighers such as Carmen Basilio and many others.  Galivan is quoted as saying, "I lick all welterweights. I mush'em like spaghetti mush."

 

Kid decided that it was too easy in the welterweight division and decided to move up to the middleweight division, challenging Bobo Olson for his title. Kid lost the fight, and in the next fight he lost his welterweight title to Johnny Saxton in an extremely controversial decision (20 out of the 22 ringisde reporters thought Kid won).  From there his skills declined, and he lost 17 of his next 30 fights. He retired on September 11, 1958.

During his prime, Kid Galivan was known as a flashy, fast, spray-puncher.  He was not a knockout artist, having only 28 KO's in 143 fights.  He was one of the best fighters of his time, completely outclassing the others of his division.  Galivan was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, and his recod stood at 143 bouts, 107 wins, 30 losses, 6 draws, and 28 KO's.

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