Argentina mourns Hugo Corro By Robert Coster Former WBA/WBC Middleweight Champion Hugo Corro passed away this Saturday at the age of 53 in Argentina. Corro started his pro career in 1973 and had racked up an impressive 43-2-2 record, basically against South American boxers, when he travelled to San Remo, Italy to face Rodrigo Valdez who held the twin WBA/WBC Middleweight belts. The smooth boxing but little known Argentinian with movie-star looks surprised the boxing world by winning a unanimous decision over Valdez (April 22,1978). Corro then proceeded to prove that his win was no fluke by defending his title succesfully against unbeaten American challenger Ronnie Harris then decisively trouncing Valdez in a rematch. Corro lost his title to Vito Antuofermo in Monte Carlo (June 30,1979) by a razor thin, split decision. Hugo retired in 1981 and then made an unsuccesful comeback in the late 80's, losing 3 out of 5 bouts. Corro's final ledger was an excellent 50-7-2 with 26 knockouts to his credit.
Corro Anybody know what happened to him? I was very familiar with Corro, as he won the title when I was boxing. I saw the first fight with Rocky Valdez and it was a poor fight, and IMO it was a bad decision. The two brutal Monzon fights, and savage encounters with Bennie Briscoe and Gratien Tonna had taken their toll on Rocky, but I still thought he did enough to retain his title. Corro left no doubt in the return as he pitched a shutout, and also beat Ronnie Harris who was fresh off victories over Alan Minter and Sugar Ray Seales in a fight I thought Harris was gonna win. Antuofermo beat Corro in one of the worst middleweight title fights I ever saw. He came quickly and went quickly, and is considered around the level of a Paul Pender historically at middleweight.
Thats kind of what I meant by "ugly". I don't remember any fight of his that was pleasing to the eye at all. He fought hard and gave it his all, but I'll be stuffed if there was a single moment in his career where I can say "Very impressive". No idea what happened to him though.
I agree one hundred percent. There is an old tough welterweight/middleweight from Corpus Christi I knew back in the day named Willie Warren who fought everyone, Corro included, and he told me that Cotto was a poor fighter, and he really whipped Corro. I didn't see the fight, but I do recall that Hugo had an extremely boring style that consisted of mainly 1-2's, and a lot of grabbing and holding, holding and hitting oftentimes behind the head. I respected him as a good tough guy, but he had a boring style somewhat similar to John Ruiz.
