Raúl Macías

Raúl Macías Guevara (born July 28, 1934 in Mexico City) is a Cuban-Mexican former boxer and actor who currently works as a boxing trainer. Born in the same Mexico City barrio as Ruben Olivares, Macias is Cuban on his parents' side, but he has always expressed pride at being Mexican. Widely known as "Raton" Macias, or "Rat" Macias, he won a bronze medal at the 1951 Pan American Games.

On January 1, 1952, Macias debuted as a professional boxer with a first round knockout win against Memo Sanchez in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Exactly one month later and in only his second fight, Macias had his first ten round bout, and he outpointed Chucho Tello in Culiacan, a feat he would duplicate in their rematch, which was Macias' third fight.

Macias piled up a record of 8-0 with 2 knockouts and then faced Beto Couray on October 17, 1953 in Mexico City, for the Mexican Bantamweight title, lifting the national championship from Couray with a 12 round decision win. After 6 more wins, he challenged Nate Brooks on September 26, 1954 for the continental, NABF Bantamweight championship, which he took with a twelve round decision in Mexico City.

Macias was one of Televisa's first boxing stars. As television was in its infancy around the world, Macias was one of Mexico's popular fighters of the time, and many of his fights were shown live on Televisa during the 1950s.

National Boxing Association World Bantamweight champion Robert Cohen refused to defend his title against Macias, so the NBA decided to declare the title vacant and have Macias and Chamroen Songkitrat fight for the championship. It was both Macias' first world title try and fight abroad. On March 9, 1955 in San Francisco, California, Macias became NBA world Bantamweight champion by knocking Songkiktrat out in round eleven. The referee of that fight was Fred Apostoli, a former world champion boxer himself.

Next followed a series of non-title fights. On June 16 of that same year, Macias suffered his first defeat when he was knocked out in the third round by Billy Peacock in Los Angeles. This would be Macias' only knockout defeat.

Macias' popularity followed him to California, where he fought a number of times, and to Texas, specially in the city of El Paso.

Macias had five victories after losing to Peacock and before defending his NBA world Bantamweight title for the first time. He defeated Leo Espinoza, father of Philippines world boxing champion Luisito Espinoza, by a tenth round knockout on March 25, 1956 in Mexico City. After nine more non-title fight wins, of which seven were by knockout, Macias faced Dommy Ursua on June 15, 1957 in San Francisco, to defend his title for the second time. Macias was dropped in the first round, but he got up and eventually retained his championship with an eleventh round knockout of Ursua.

On November 6 of that year, he faced Alphonse Halimi at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Macias lost his belt by a 15 round split decision with scores of 144-141 for Macias and 148-141, 147-138 for Halimi. The fight's decision was controversial as many thought Macias had done enough to win it.

Macias boxed four more times before retiring form boxing in 1959 after outpointing Ernesto Parra over ten rounds in Mexico City. After three years, he made a one fight comeback, knocking out Chocolate Zambrano in the fifth round as part of a charity event on October 13, 1962 in Guadalajara.

After his boxing career was over, Macias dedicated his life to acting, appearing in a number of Mexican telenovelas, most notably 1990's "Mi Pequena Soledad" ("My Small Soledad"), alongside Veronica Castro, who would years later confess to him on one of her variety shows that she grew up as a fan of Macias.

After his participation in "Mi Pequena Soledad", Macias has almost exclusively dedicated himself to training boxers in a Mexico City gym. He compiled a professional boxing record of 41 wins and 2 losses, with 25 wins by knockout.

References

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* [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ma/raul-macias-1.html sports-reference]