Jose Torres is a former boxing World champion and Olympic medalist from Puerto Rico. Born May 3, 1936, in Ponce, Puerto Rico he would begin his amateur boxing career in the U.S. Army.

There he would win multiple championships at the Army and inter-service ranks. His performance would result in him representing Puerto Rico at the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne. In light middleweight finals, he lost to Hungary’s Laszlo Papp.

Torres continued his amateur career in New York City. He would win the National AAU Middleweight Championship as well as the Golden Gloves 160lbs Open Championship that year. Later in 1958, he made the jump to professional ranks with a first round knockout in his debut.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Jose Torres had a stellar career during in the professional ranks. While he didn’t exactly roll through most of his competition, he burst out of the gate with 13 wins in New York City. He experienced his first two loses in Puerto Rico but won the World Light Heavyweight Titles in early 1965. Torres would lose the titles to Dick Tiger in late 1966 and experienced a rematch loss in May 1967.

He would finish his career with two wins in the spring of 1968 and summer of 1969 for a 41-3-1 record, 29 of which were knockouts.

POST BOXING

After boxing, Jose Torres served as Commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission between 1984 and 1988. Two years later he was the President of the WBO from 1990 to 1995. He was also a writer in New York City and wrote two boxing biographies on Heavyweight Champions Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.

Jose Torres would be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. He passed away on January 19, 2009.

SOURCE
–http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Jose_Torres
–http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/modern/torres.html