Estaban De Jesus

[KittenFlaps]

Jeez, he led a pretty tumultuous life it seems. I knew that he had died of AIDS but I never would have guessed he contracted it through heavy drug use, and that he was convicted of first degree murder.

It's really a shame as he looked so promising in the ring. A champ in the ring and chump outside the ring, so it goes with a lot of fighters it seems. Still, I am going to have to try to find more footage of him fighting as I am still impressed.

Regardless, thanks for all the info! You guys know your stuff!

[Izrock]

Great pic. I've always heard about it happening, but never had the chance to actually see it. Thx for posting.

[ЯiZО]

So he was a ****sucker?

[KittenFlaps]

So he was a ****sucker?

He had a wife so it's unlikely. He contracted AIDS through drug use.

[BennyST]

Most do actually consider him one of PR's greats and also one of the best lightweights ever. He is often well within the top twenty lightweights of all time. But yes, he is often overlooked.

I guess it's a real pity that he fought in that era of lightweights as in any other era he would have been a great champion. As it was he was brilliant but having to fight Duran in two of his title shots, to go for Duran's and the second to defend his own, would have been very difficult indeed.

Nonetheless, he had some really great wins over fantastic opponents. His win over the undefeated Ray Lampkin, who was a stunning fighter even though he never got the win for a title, the great win over Duran, beating a prime Alfonso Fraser, the great JWW champion and his fantastic title win over Ishimatsu as well as other good wins like the very underrated Viruet, Garcia and Marquez.

I saw his fight with Lampkin, which was on the undercard of some other big fight which was really fantastic. Both of those guys were really great fighters. Although many people say boxing fans often think the older era of fighters were better, seeing these two guys go at it and thinking that Lampkin never even won a title, it makes you realise why. Either of these two would have been dominant title holders of one or another alphabet titles today, if not unifiers.

Lampkin was defensively really solid and De Jesus looked very strong and quick. De Jesus looked a bit better when he was waiting, boxing more and countering which he was very good at. He was what some might call a great power-boxer, or whatever that term is that some relate to Mosley. He was a big puncher that had great speed and could box very well too and basically seemed to use his boxing in order to set up all his big, fast, powerful combinations designed to break down rather than outpoint.

Lampkin was a very tricky customer though and was very good at making him miss and was a really slick fighter. De Jesus, from the other fights I've seen of him, looked much more aggressive in this one, although I've only seen about five of his other fights, but he seemed to box a lot more in them and seemed to be really gunning for the big KO in this one and that played into Lampkin's game perfectly and he was able to capitalise very well. De Jesus still won the fight and even had Lampkin hurt a couple of times from memory but it was a great fight.

I truly believe that if Lampkin, or De Jesus for that matter (even more so in fact with his exciting style), was fighting today people would consider him brilliant, especially with all the praise that fine defensive fighters seem to get today from the emergence of Mayweather, albeit a still small but rather vocal clique. He was a very good counter puncher and was very quick with his movement and punches and would have given anyone today a great deal of trouble.

[KittenFlaps]

That was a really great post Benny.

I agree. De Jesus would a serious threat to a lot of Lightweights today.

[ЯiZО]

He had a wife so it's unlikely. He contracted AIDS through drug use.

So he shared a needle with a ****sucker?

[black.ink]

So he shared a needle with a ****sucker?

Possibly, he used the same needle as his brother. His brother died first, so he had himself checked out, and found he had also contracted the disease.

[KittenFlaps]

While I imagine you're probably just making a point about your views on ****sexuality, Rizo, I found this chart (source) for you. As you can see Puerto Rico has a much smaller percentage of sexually transmitted AIDS infections and a much larger percentage of drug related transmission. It has apparently been a huge problem for the country.

[NAPO]

Dejesus rug Abuse was even when he was in his prime too. so imagine a free drug and alcohol Dejesus?

Same thing with Edwin Chapo Rosario.