Luciano Gonzalez
06/05/2021 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 06/05/2021 6:01 AM
With 16-ounce gloves, without a referee, without judges, at half machine and throwing punches with highly controlled power. It could have been a training session like the ones that usually summoned a few dozen onlookers in the gym that he had set up in a wooded area next to Deer Lake in Pennsylvania. However,
more than 10,000 people paid to see an exhibition
of Muhammad Ali in Barcelona in 1972 that had as a partner an Argentine boxing idol:
Gregorio Manuel Peralta.
These exhibitions had become a source of extra income for Ali since he had regained his professional license in August 1970, after almost three and a half years of disqualification that he had had to purge
due to his refusal to enlist in the Army to participate in the Vietnam War
, which had also cost him his World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council heavyweight champion titles.
To the dozen official bouts that he had starred in since his return, including the loss to
Joe Frazier
at
Madison Square Garden
in New York (the first in his rented career) in his first attempt to regain his crowns, he had added those presentations in different parts of the planet that required
little effort
(beyond travel)
and good tickets.
In July 1972, Ali traveled for the first time to Ireland (the land where his maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, was born) to face Al
Blue
Lewis, a rival with a modest 30-fight record who, prior to his professional debut, had remained locked in for
more. six-year-old in
Jackson State
Prison
(Michigan)
for a
robbery
homicide
and that he had sparred with the former world champion in preparation for his comeback match against Jerry Quarry in October 1970.
Muhammad Ali talks to journalist Cathal O'Shannon during an interview on his visit to Dublin.
During the nine days he stayed in Ireland (reconstructed in the documentary
When Ali Came to Ireland
, directed by Ross Whitaker), the Louisville star had an audience with Prime Minister
Jack Lynch
, met with public figures such as actor
Peter O ' Toole
, director
John Huston
and hurling player
Eddie Keher
, and starred in a memorable interview with journalist
Cathal O'Shannon
on RTÉ, the state television network in that country.
The culmination of that visit was an 11th round TKO victory over Lewis at Croke Park in Dublin in front of 25,000 spectators.
Many of them entered the stadium without paying their entry and a few invaded the ring as soon as referee Lew Eskin marked the end of the contest, so it took Ali
almost half an hour
to return to his dressing room.
That presentation, for which the American
charged $ 100,000
, also meant a possibility for businessman Luis Bamala, one of the main promoters of Spanish boxing at the time, who also managed catch and bullfighting shows and had one of his sons-in-law as a partner. , former Atlético de Madrid goalkeeper Miguel San Román.
Muhammad Ali knocked out Al Lewis at Croke Park in Dublin.
After the fight in Dublin, Bamala traveled to London to meet with Ali and with brothers Angelo and Chris Dundee (coach and promoter of the boxer), and convinced them to make an exhibition in Spain in exchange for
$ 15,000, a lower cachet than
what the former champion used to perceive. "My good friends, the Dundee brothers, have been very gracious in doing me this special favor," explained the businessman when the event was confirmed, just a week before it was held.
Initially the plan was for Ali to face
José Manuel Ibar
, known as Urtain, but the Spanish heavyweight champion had fought 15 rounds the previous month against German Jürgen Blin for the European title and was enjoying a vacation period, so he declined. make that commitment on such short notice.
So Bamala turned to Peralta.
Elegant and skillful
boxer
(although without a knockout punch), a
gentleman above and below the ring
,
Goyo
, who by then was 37 years old and more than a hundred fights rented on his resume, belonged, like Luis Ángel Firpo or Eduardo Lausse, to that particular group of Argentine fighters who, in
addition to idols
, were considered
champions without a crown
.
Gregorio Peralta fell to Willie Pastrano in 1964, when he tried to win the middleweight division titles to the WBA and the WBC.
He had had his chance to win the WBA and WBC middle heavyweight division titles in 1964, but had lost to
Willie Pastrano
(whom he had beaten a year earlier in a duel with no belts in play) in a match that the referee Pete Giarusso had stopped after the fifth round due to a wound over the left eye of the San Juan player. And he had been one step away from facing
Jimmy Ellis at the Bombonera
in 1969 for the WBA heavyweight title, but the chance had been thwarted by organizational problems.
Peralta had also been Argentine and South American champion of the completes;
He had starred in the most
convincing
fight in the history of Luna Park
in 1965, when 25,236 fans had seen him give up the national title to the young Oscar Natalio Bonavena, just 22 years old;
and had twice faced rising
George Foreman
.
And he was also a fervent Peronist who did not hide his affiliation even in years of prohibition and persecution.
Oscar Bonavena and Gregorio Peralta summoned 25,236 people to Luna Park in 1965.
In March 1962, he had been elected
councilor of Azul
, the city in which he had settled at the age of 17, by the Popular Union, the electoral tool with which the National Justicialist Movement tried to
circumvent the ban
in the province of Buenos Aires ( and that led textile leader Andrés Framini as a candidate for governor), but did not take office because
the elections were canceled
11 days after they were held,
after the fall of Arturo Frondizi
and the assumption of José María Guido as president.
“Perhaps it will not benefit me to talk about politics now, but if you plan to publish it, it is advisable that you explain it well: I was 10 years old and my mother wrote to Perón because we no longer gave any more. The answer came with a pile of packages: it
was the first time in my life that I slept on a mattress
”,
Goyo
had justified
his adherence to justicialism in an interview published in
Primera Plana
magazine
in March 1964, a few days before his fight for the title against Pastrano.
At the end of March 1970, Peralta, who often wore robes with captions such as “Viva Perón” or “Argentino y Peronista”, left for Madrid to observe the fight between Urtain and the German Peter Weiland for the European heavyweight title,
with the objective of challenging the winner
and preparing the ground to settle there.
On that trip he met the General.
Once settled in Spain, he
built a close bond with the former president
, whom he visited more than a dozen times at the Puerta de Hierro residence.
Even the justicialista leader
was the godfather of his third son
, Juan Domingo.
Perón was the godfather of Juan Domingo, the third son of Gregorio Peralta and Noemí Canevello.
Settled in the
Old Continent
, the cuyano made 11 fights in Spain and one in Germany in two years, of which he
won 11 by knockout
(including one against the much-mentioned Urtain) and only lost to Ray Anderson on June 9, 1972. in Madrid, on the same evening in which the Spanish champion fell to Jürgen Blin. That night, he wore a robe that read "Argentine, Spanish and Peronist" on the back.
In any case, the idea of returning to the country was clear in his head. “In Argentina I cannot dedicate myself to boxing, but I will return as soon as I can. General Perón will have to rule my country again.
If they don't let it, we will have to fight there to make it happen. If there are no elections, we will have to return to join the fight.
And if there are, we will return to work for Perón ”, he explained in an interview published in the newspaper
La Opinion
in early July 1972, just a few days before the exhibition with Ali, for which he was chosen despite the setback against Ray Anderson .
The show was scheduled for August 1
at the Monumental bullring in Barcelona
.
Three days earlier, the former world champion held another exhibition against Malian Ba Sounkalo at the Stade D'Honneur in Casablanca in front of 3,000 spectators.
Ali was scheduled to arrive in Barcelona on Sunday, July 30 at noon and attend a bullfight in the afternoon.
However, the plans changed: it was only at 11:45 p.m. that day he was able to land at the Barajas International Airport, on the outskirts of Madrid, with his second wife, Khalilah;
his mother, Odessa;
brothers Angelo and Chris Dundee, and a large entourage.
"(Peralta) He
is a good boxer, but it seems to me that he is no longer in his best age,
" said the American at the Madrid airport. “He
was a fighter of extraordinary quality
when he played among the middleweights.
He has a great intelligence
that allows him, even though he is no longer a child, to continue living in a category as difficult as heavy duty, ”added
Angelo Dundee
while waiting for the transfer. Finally the group arrived in Barcelona at 3.30 on Monday, less than 48 hours into the evening.
On the same day of the exhibition, a weigh-in was carried out whose purpose was much more to publicize the event than to comply with any regulatory obligation.
In the ceremony held on the terrace of the Jorba Preciados gallery, a monumental building with a classicist aesthetic built during the 1920s on Puerta del Ángel Avenue, Ali registered 99 kilos and Peralta, 90,200.
Gregorio Peralta exhibits a gown with the legend "Argentine and Peronist" in front of Juan Domingo Perón and Héctor José Cámpora.
A while before, the two protagonists had been interviewed by Armando Rubén Puente, correspondent for the magazine
Primera Plana
in Spain. The journalist's curiosity was not focused on what they would do on the ring,
but on their views on the
Argentine
political situation
, when the government of the so-called Argentine Revolution began to prepare its withdrawal.
“Perón
is the only possibility
that all Argentines have of having a great, just, free, sovereign homeland.
What doubt is there that we will be in charge of transforming the Nation and freeing it from its state of colonial prostration to make it the effective reality that San Martín dreamed of? ”Asked Peralta, who considered that the return to the country of the ex-president it would mean "the culmination of a dream and the end of anguish."
Ali, who at the end of 1971 had traveled to Argentina for an exhibition on the Atlanta field, also gave his opinion: “The justicialistas are accompanied
by thousands and thousands of men and women
throughout the Earth.
When I was in Buenos Aires, I immediately realized that nobody wanted to know anything without Perón ”.
Beyond the political evaluations of the contestants, which were foreign to most of the Spanish fans,
the confrontation generated enormous expectations
, regardless of its unofficial nature:
the 10,000 tickets
that had been put on sale were sold out.
A poster of the evening in which Muhammad Ali and Gregorio Peralta met in Barcelona.
The card featured four professional bouts.
In which he served as semi-fund, José Durán from Madrid won the Spanish super welterweight title (which was vacant) by points from José María Madrazo from Bilbao.
Four years later, Durán would obtain the 154-pound crown from the World Boxing Association and
lose it
in his first defense
against
Miguel Ángel Castellini from
Pampas
.
Then the protagonists of the central event climbed the ensogado.
After them came a group of Spanish boxers and expellers to greet them.
Ali shook hands with everyone except Urtain's.
The Basque insisted and the American
threatened to slap him
, which led to a small skirmish that seemed part of the night's script.
Overcome the rush, the time for action arrived.
"It is an exhibition, but it can also end in a fight because
Goyo
Peralta does not know how to loosen up
and if he has the opportunity to put a hand on Clay, there is no one who can convince him not to do it," Luis Bamala had warned.
But that did not happen.
The duel had been agreed to eight rounds of two minutes,
without a referee and without judges
who carried cards, so in the end there would be no winner or loser.
During those 16 minutes, Ali deployed some of his best resources: with constant mobility and a wide variety of blows with his left arm (the right one hardly used it), he penetrated again and again Peralta's guard, who could little do to neutralize that arsenal.
Muhammad Ali exhibited part of his best repertoire in the exhibition before Gregorio Peralta in Barcelona.
Anyway, it was clear to both of them that it was an exhibition.
They never pushed themselves hard, they threw the blows without much power and they never tried to knock down (let alone knock out) the opponent.
Ali showed off his qualities as a dancer, lowered his guard and dedicated himself to avoiding
Goyo's
blows with his waist movements
.
The public remained magnetized by the demonstration of the former world champion, although some, not very satisfied with the show,
whistled
when the final chime was heard.
Just a few hours later, Ali left Barcelona.
Fifty days later, on his return to official activity, he
knocked out and retired Floyd Patterson from professional boxing
at Madison Square Garden.
There were still more than two years to go before he could regain the world titles against George Foreman in Kinshasa.
After one more presentation in Barcelona in September, Peralta
moved his base of operations to Federal Germany
, where he fought eight more fights before his retirement at the end of 1973. Although Perón returned to Argentina on November 17, 1972, after more than 17 years of exile, and he settled permanently in the country on June 20, 1973, the man from San Juan could not accompany him, as he hoped.
The death of the General on July 1, 1974, the empowerment of sectors of the Peronist right and especially José López Rega (with whom he was confronted), the debacle of the government of
María Estela Martínez
, the coup d'état and the civic dictatorship The genocidal military kept him away until 1983, when he returned, already separated from his wife, Mimí Canevello, and without his children Andrés, Andrea, Juan Domingo and Manuel.
He settled in Rosario, where he lived and was active until his death on October 3, 2001.
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