Éder Jofre

Amateur career

Jofre represented his native country at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

Olympic results

Pro career

A native of São Paulo, Jofre, son of Aristides, whose nicknames were "Galinho de ouro" (The Golden Bantam) and "Jofrinho", made his professional debut on March 23, 1957, beating Raul Lopez by knockout in five rounds. He had twelve fights in 1957, including two each against Lopez, Osvaldo Perez and Ernesto Miranda, against whom Jofre sustained his first two record stains: two ten-round draws (ties).

He began 1958 by winning four more fights, and then, on May 14 of that year, he had his first fight abroad, drawing in ten rounds against Ruben Caceres in Montevideo, Uruguay. On November 14, Jose Smecca became the only man to drop Jofre in his career; Jofre got up from a first-round knockdown to knock Smecca out in seven rounds.

Jofre won eight fights in 1959, including one against two-time world title challenger Leo Espinoza, and a seventh-round knockout in a rematch with Caceres.

On February 19, 1960, he fought Ernesto Miranda for the third time, this time with the South American Bantamweight title on the line. Jofre outpointed Miranda over fifteen rounds to win his first title as a professional. Jofre retained the title with a knockout in three rounds in a fourth fight with Miranda, and, after one more win, he made his American debut, defeating top-ranked challenger Jose Medel by knockout in ten rounds on August 16 at Los Angeles. Next, he defeated the power-punching Ricardo Moreno (later ranked among boxing's all-time best punchers by Ring Magazine), by a knockout in the sixth round.

On November 18 of that year, Jofre became world champion, when he knocked out Eloy Sanchez in six rounds, at Los Angeles, to claim the vacant WBA World Bantamweight title.

Jofre proved to be a busy world champion, fighting top-notch fighters, both in title engagements and in non-title fights. From 1960 to 1965, he retained his title against Piero Rollo, Ramon Arias (in Caracas, Venezuela), Johnny Caldwell, Herman Marques, Jose Medel, Katsuyoshi Aoki (in Tokyo), Johnny Jamito (in Manila) and Bernardo Caraballo (in Bogotá, Colombia).

In addition, he defeated such fighters as Billy Peacock, Sadao Yaoita and Fernando Soto in non-title bouts. After the fight with Aoki, Jofre was also recognized as World Bantamweight Champion by the WBC, therefore, becoming the Undisputed World Champion.

Up until his defense against Caraballo, Jofre had the record for the longest undefeated run in boxing history since the start of a career. This record would shortly after be broken by Nino Benvenuti and, much later on, by Julio César Chávez.

On May 17, 1965, his streak as an undefeated fighter was broken when he lost to "Fighting Harada" by a controversial fifteen-round split decision in Nagoya, Japan, to lose the world Bantamweight title. Harada was the only fighter ever to defeat Jofre as a professional.

After losing to Harada by unanimous decision at a rematch held in Tokyo on June 1, 1966, Jofre retired.

In 1969, he made a comeback, beating Rudy Corona by a knockout in six rounds on August 26. After winning thirteen fights in a row, he challenged for a world title once again: on May 5, 1973, he fought Jose Legra for the Lineal and WBC featherweight titles, in Brasilia. Jofre became a two-division world champion by defeating Legra with a fifteen-round majority decision.

Despite having won his second world title, Jofre realized he was nearing the end of the road as far as his boxing career was concerned. He defeated Frankie Crawford in a non-title affair and defended his world Featherweight title against fellow former world Bantamweight champion Vicente Saldivar of Mexico, in a "super fight" held at Salvador. He knocked Saldivar out in four rounds.

After a string of fights against lesser opponents, he retired, having beaten the Mexican Octavio Gomez by a unanimous but controversial decision (120 – 110 by judge Antonio Di, 119 – 115 by judge Adriano Carollo and 117 – 116 by judge Américo Vieira) in São Paulo on October 8, 1976. In this last fight, Jofre was slow and uncertain, and himself put in doubt the correctness of the arbiter's decision ("Digam o que disserem, eu não venci Famoso Gomez", in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo).

He had a record of 72–2–4 (50 KOs), making him a member of the exclusive group of boxers that has won 50 or more fights by knockout.

It is commonly believed that Jofre was the first world champion to be a strict vegetarian.

Boxing trainer

Jofre has since dedicated himself to being a boxing trainer in Brazil. He also owns businesses such as supermarkets and others.

Exhibitions and calisthenics

Jofre has occasionally come out of retirement to fight exhibitions. Some of his more noteworthy exhibitions have been against Servilio de Oliveira and the late Alexis Arguello. In 2010, at age 74, Jofre, a physical fitness fanatic who is still the reflection of great health, put out a calisthenics video.

Honors

He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

In 2003, he was listed as #85 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.

He is listed as #19 on Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years.

Jofre was ranked as the number 1 bantamweight of all-time by the International Boxing Research Organization in 2006.