Lauro Salas: The Lion of Monterrey

By kiki

Danny Garcia reminds me of Lauro Salas. Like Salas, the 1950s “Lion of Monterrey”, Garcia has minimal boxing skills, and like Salas he was still able to become a world champion nonetheless. Last night as I was watching Garcia dismember Khan, I was thinking ‘I seen Garcia fight in another life’. Than it came to me, “Lauro Salas”

Lauro Salas fought all the top featherweights of the early 1950s, winning some, losing some. He then got in a bar fight with Art Aragon when the Golden Boy called him a “fucking Mexican”. There’re many different versions of that bar fight, as to who won and who lost, but that’s a story for another day.

After the bar fight, which was played-up in the local press to epic portion, Aragon and Salas were sign by the Olympic Auditorium to a ten round fight. Salas lost a close decision. But Salas gave such a good account of himself that when the Olympic was looking for an opponent for lightweight champ Jimmy Carter they gave Salas the opportunity. Again Salas outdid himself; he gave Carter all he could handle in losing a close fifteen round decision. A rematch was in order, Carter and Salas fought the rematch and this time Salas was given the close decision. Salas was to lose the title back to Carter six months later'

I watched both of their Los Angeles fight live.

Lauro Salas