Farewell to a Legend

Alexis Arguello found dead today, age 57

Alexis Arguello was one of the greatest living legends of boxing, a man respected by all for his skills and heart and loved by nearly as many for his humanity and character. I wish I could go some way towards putting his life into context, but my active time as a boxing fan only marginally overlapped with his career and my knowledge of Nicaraguan politics is nowhere near sufficient for me to say anything about his political career. I became familiar with him through catching old fights when and where I could on ESPN Classic and Youtube, and all I can advise you to do is the same. Watch the man and how he fought, listen to others describe how he carried himself in and out of the ring. He was everything you could wish a fighter to be, a hero to many of the people of Nicaragua, and an object of the greatest respect for others all around the world.

Here is his boxing record. Here is a Youtube search for him, which includes apparently the entirety of his famous- or infamous- first fight against Aaron Pryor, which was hailed as the fight of the decade by Ring Magazine.