This is some brief footage that I happened to come across yesterday, which I never knew existed. After defeating Gil Turner in one of the most grueling and exciting WW title fights of all time - and with another title defense against arch rival Billy Graham scheduled for three months later - champion Gavilan decided to take a month-long holiday in Argentina. However, a Gavilan "holiday" involved three fights in the span of a month against the country's top MWs. In the first fight, Gavilan outpointed Mario Diaz, who was considered a skilled boxer with over 80 documented wins on his record at the time. In the next fight, which is the one shown below, Gavi floored and stopped KO artist Rafael Merentino for the first recorded stoppage loss of his career (according to some Spanish-language articles that I've roughly translated, Merentino would retire a few years later, citing an eye injury sustained in this fight). In both of these fights, Gavilan was outweighed by roughly seven pounds at the weigh-in. In the third fight, just seven days after the Merentino one, Gavi outpointed one of Argentina's most legendary KO artists, Eduardo Lausse, who would then embark on a winning streak of over 30 fights and become one of the top MW contenders of the decade. Barely a month after that fight, Gavi was back in the ring defending his title against Graham in Havana. The idea of one of the biggest stars in the sport heading to a foreign country for a string of non-title fights at a higher weight class in such a short span of time is just mind-boggling by today's standards.
