Guadalajara Notebook: Long Before Canelo, There Was Juan Zurita

An SRO crowd is expected on Saturday, May 6, at a 50,000-seat domed stadium on the outskirts of Guadalajara. The attraction is native son Canelo Alvarez who will be defending his various 168-pound world titles against British invader John Ryder.

Alvarez last fought in his home district in June of 2011 when he successfully defended his WBC super welterweight title with a 12^th-round stoppage of Ryan Rhodes. Later that year, he successfully defended the belt with a fifth-round stoppage of Kermit Cintron in Mexico City.

Since then, Canelo has fought exclusively in the United States, 22 fights in all spaced across more than 11 years.

During these years, his accomplishments were long. Among other things, he became the first fighter in the four-belt era to unify the super middleweight title and he reigned for all of 2020 and 2021 as the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter according to polls conducted by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Moreover, he brought a lot of money into the coffers of the sport’s top promoters. His 2021 match with Billy Joe Saunders at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, drew 73,126, the largest crowd in U.S. history for a boxing event at an indoor venue.

Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco — Mexico’s third-largest state by population, home to an estimated 8.5 million – has been producing good prizefighters for decades. Among the earliest to attract a following in the U.S. was Juan Zurita who turned pro in Guadalajara and went on to cop the world lightweight title.

A converted southpaw, Zurita was 18 years old when he made his U.S. debut at LA’s Legion Stadium. In the opposite corner was Filipino globetrotter Pablo Dano. Zurita won a 10-round decision in a crowd-pleasing fight that had the crowd standing on their feet at the finish.

The following month, Zurita had his first of five fights with Midget Wolgast who owned the New York version of the world flyweight title. They met in a non-title 10-rounder at LA’s Wrigley Field that was the chief supporting bout to a match between heavyweights Joe Louis and Lee Ramage, the former a highly-touted up-and-comer from Detroit.

Wolgast, born Joseph Loscalzo in Philadelphia, proved too good for the Mexican and ultimately won the series 3-2. However, in their second encounter, staged at Legion Stadium on May 31, 1935, Zurita was robbed.

The lone arbiter for Zurita-Wolgast II was referee Larry McGrath. Back in those days, California didn’t use judges except for title fights.

When McGrath raised Wolgast’s hand at the finish, a near-riot ensued. A ringsider was knocked unconscious by a flying bottle. Security guards ran interference for McGrath when he left the ring.

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, the decision was so rank that Mexican fans vowed to boycott future events at Legion Stadium. The California State Athletic Commission mollified them by suspending Referee McGrath, an 11-year veteran.

Zurita was so disgusted by his loss to Wolgast that he went back to Mexico. He returned to LA periodically, winning far more than he lost, but a bad defeat to a past-his-prime Henry Armstrong – Hammerin’ Henry knocked him out in the second round – gave the impression that he had slipped into the journeyman class.

When Zurita’s well-connected manager George Parnassus wangled a fight for him with lightweight champion Sammy Angott, the pricemakers made Zurita a 7/1 underdog. This made sense as Angott, a broad-shouldered Italian from western Pennsylvania, was in excellent form. He had lost only three of his last 23 fights. Two of those losses were to welterweight Sugar Ray Robinson and the other to the great Henry Armstrong. He was 3-0 versus Bob Montgomery, owned wins over Lew Jenkins and Willie Pep, and in 97 fights had never been stopped.

Angott vs. Zurita was staged on March 8, 1944, at Gilmore Field, the former home of the Hollywood Stars, one of LA’s two Triple-A baseball teams. Pushed back two days to a Wednesday after a heavy downpour left the field a quagmire, the 15-rounder produced a big upset. Angott left his fight in the gym and Zurita won wire-to-wire.

Zurita’s triumph was big news in Mexico City where he had done most of his fighting. “The town has been turned inside out in honor of the first Mexican ever to hold a major title,” wrote United Press sports editor Jack Cuddy. (Note: Two contemporaries of Mexican extraction, featherweight Richie Lemos and bantamweight Manuel Ortiz, preceded Zurita as world title-holders, but both were born and raised in California).

Twenty-three days after defeating Sammy Angott, Zurita opposed the immensely popular Beau Jack at Madison Square Garden in what would ultimately be his only appearance in a New York ring. This was a non-title fight. Promoter Mike Jacobs had no choice as the New York Athletic Commission recognized Philadelphia’s Bob Montgomery as their lightweight champion. Before an announced crowd of 17,593, Jack won a 10-round unanimous decision.

In May of that year, it was reported that Zurita had suffered a hand injury when a pistol he was handling accidentally discharged. This undoubtedly hastened his retirement as he had only seven more fights, the next-to-last of which came against Ike Williams who sheared away his title with a second-round stoppage at a bullring in Mexico City.

Late in his career, newspaper stories credited Juan Zurita with having more than 200 pro fights. Boxrec has been able to identify 155 and credits him with a record of 131-23-1 (48 KOs). He passed away at age 82 (some say 85) on March 24, 2000, in Mexico City after suffering a stroke that left him in a coma. The boy who was living in Guadalajara when he made his pro debut in that city never soared as high as Canelo Alvarez, but he had quite a career.

Arne K. Lang’s third boxing book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” rolled off the press in September. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher or via Amazon.\

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