This 1985 lightweight bout featured in the video below…..was a match between two super great boxers of the golden age of boxing (1964 – 1995) who won world championship titles on three different occasions throughout their careers…..as Puerto Rican ledendary boxer Edwin “Chapo” Rosario faced off against 23 – 0 future 3-time light welterweight champion. USA Fankie “The Surgeon” Randall.
Edwin “Chapo” Rosario was a world champion professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 1997. He won the lightweight championship of the world three times….as the WBC lightweight champion from 1983–84….the WBA champion from 1986–87 and again from 1989–90….then Rosario won a 4th world championship after moving up to the junior welterweight division by claiming the WBA title and holding that crown from 1991 to 1992. Rosario was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006.
Frankie Billy Randall is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1983 to 2005….as he was a three-time light welterweight world champion….while having held the WBA, WBC, and lineal titles between 1994 and 1997…..as Frankie Randall is best known for being the first boxer to defeat Julio César Chávez….whose record at the time of their 1994 fight stood at 89 wins and a draw.
Regretfully, these two super great champions are being too soon forgotten by the boxing fans and world in 2017….partly because they fought in and around the lightweight and welterweight divisions….which was “jam packed” with legendary boxers like Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, Wilfred Benetiz, Alexis Arguello, et al during the golden age of boxing….for had they fought during any other era of boxing….they both might be considered legends….but instead are being lost in the annals of boxing history.
This lightweight bout was outstanding in every regard…..as it went the distance with Chapo Rosario pulling out a 1 point split decision over Randall….and the worth of this fight was evidenced by the live fight crowd in England at the time….were seen tossing money into the ring after the fight….which is the highest form of appreciation that could be bestowed upon fighters after a hard fought match.
