Edwin Rosario was born March 19th, 1963
in Ingenio, a barrio of Toa Baja. His mother, Isabel, was a nurse's
aide, and his father, Antonio, was a fisherman with a passion for
cockfights, which are legal in Puerto Rico. Rosario later shared his
father's love for cockfights and opened an arena where cockfights
are held.
Growing up, Rosario was given the nickname Chapo, a shortened
version of chaparrito, which means "little man." At age 9 he wandered
into the Lecittown Gym in his neighborhood and became one of the best
students of the trainer Manny Sciaca, who turned Rosario into one
of the most skilled fighters to come from Puerto Rico.
Rosario won
his first world championship in 1983, defeating Jose Luis Ramirez
in a 12-round decision for the World Boxing Council lightweight title.
In 1986, Rosario lost the title to Hector Camacho in a controversial
split decision at Madison Square Garden. Later in 1986, he knocked
out Livingstone Bramble in the second round for the World Boxing Association
lightweight championshiop. Rosario kept the title until 1990, when
he was stopped in the 11th round by Julio Cesar Chavez.
Camacho
In Renaissance
France, a duel to the death might have followed that kind of slight.
On June 13th, 1986 what followed in the ring was nearly as brutal
at times, the two men battling for personal and national pride. A
far cry from the defensive fighter he would become, some say as the
result of this fight, Camacho went to war with Rosario in the early
going and paid the price.
In the fifth round, a left hook seemed to
startle Camacho, who for the first time in his professional career
was in real trouble. Rosario swarmed to the body, but especially to
the head, like a man possessed. Two minutes remained in the round,
a seemingly impossible amount of time for a staggered champion. But
somehow, some way, Camacho weathered the storm and earned his nickname
under fire. Macho was more than a gimmick.
The Partisan Puerto Rican
crowd was split down the middle. Camacho was one of the sport's top
rising stars and had grown up in New York's Spanish Harlem. But Rosario
was closer to the ideal warrior that fans from the island embraced,
and there was something a little too Hollwood about Camacho, even
then, for many fans' tastes.
Camacho, training out of Florida, felt
the tension a bit, letting his facade of indifference slip to The
New York Times: