Alexis Arguello
Boxer
Died when: 57 years 73 days (686 months)Star Sign: Aries
Alexis Argüello (April 19, 1952 – July 1, 2009) was a Nicaraguan professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 1995, and later became a politician.
He was a three-weight world champion, having held the WBA featherweight title from 1974 to 1976; the WBC super featherweight title from 1978 to 1980; and the WBC lightweight title from 1981 to 1982.
Additionally, he held the Ring magazine and lineal featherweight titles from 1975 to 1977; the Ring lightweight title from 1981 to 1982; and the lineal lightweight title in 1982.
In his later career he challenged twice for light welterweight world titles, both times in famous fights against Aaron Pryor.
Argüello has regularly been cited as one of the greatest boxers of his era, having never lost any of his world titles in the ring, instead relinquishing them each time in pursuit of titles in higher weight classes.
After his retirement from boxing, he became active in Nicaraguan politics and in November 2008 was elected mayor of his native Managua, the nation's capital city.
The Ring magazine has ranked Argüello as 20th on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time", while the Associated Press ranked him as the world's best Junior Lightweight of the 20th century.
He was named one of the 20 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring magazine and is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers to ever come out of Latin America and one of the few to have fought in four different decades.
