Alberto Davila

Albert “Alberto” Davila, known in boxing as “Tweety”, is an American former world bantamweight champion of Mexican descent. Born in Olton, Texas, on 10 August 1954, he was raised in Pomona, California, and fought throughout his career as an orthodox bantamweight. Davila stood 5 ft 3 in and completed 67 professional contests between 1973 and 1988. His accepted record is 56 victories, 10 defeats and one no-contest, with 26 wins by knockout. He won the World Boxing Council bantamweight championship in 1983 and made one successful defence before a back injury brought his reign to an unsatisfactory end.

Davila began boxing at the age of 12 and trained regularly for six years before entering the paid ranks. A graduate of Garey High School in Pomona, he made his professional debut on 1 March 1973, outpointing Carlos Villareal over four rounds. He won his first 13 contests before losing a split decision to Cecil Escobido in July 1974. That setback did not greatly slow his progress. Davila developed into a highly capable technical boxer in an unusually strong bantamweight era, relying more upon judgement, timing and accuracy than upon weight of punch. He was a patient counter-puncher who preferred an opponent to lead, allowing him to slip the first attack and reply with compact combinations. Less than half his victories came inside the distance, but his record should not be mistaken for evidence of a lack of authority. When an opening appeared, he could finish decisively.

His first important run came during the middle of the 1970s. In 1976 he defeated the future WBC champion Lupe Pintor over ten rounds, an excellent result against a boxer who would later become one of the most respected Mexican fighters of his generation. Davila also faced Wilfredo Gómez in Puerto Rico in 1976, moving up to super-bantamweight against one of the most damaging punchers in the lighter divisions. Gómez stopped him in the ninth round, the first time Davila had been halted. Back at bantamweight, Davila beat Frankie Duarte in a WBC eliminator in June 1977, dropping him three times, and then overwhelmed former champion Rodolfo Martínez, who was floored four times in the seventh round. Those victories earned Davila his first world-title challenge.

Carlos Zárate, the unbeaten WBC champion, was waiting at the Forum in Inglewood in February 1978. Zárate entered with 48 consecutive victories and was among the most formidable bantamweights the division had produced. Davila boxed neatly and competitively in the earlier rounds but could not keep the champion’s pressure and power under control. Zárate stopped him in the eighth. Seven months later, Davila received another championship opportunity, this time against WBA title-holder Jorge Luján at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Their contest formed part of the programme on which Muhammad Ali regained the heavyweight championship from Leon Spinks. Davila was knocked down in the fourth round and lost a 15-round decision. He had now challenged two outstanding champions in the same year without succeeding, although neither defeat removed him from serious contention.

A second victory over Pintor was not to follow. Pintor had taken the WBC championship from Zárate and defended it against Davila at Caesars Palace in December 1980. Davila gave the champion a demanding contest and remained competitive over the full 15 rounds. Pintor retained the title by majority decision, with scores of 143–142 and 146–142 in his favour while the third judge scored the fight 143–143. It was Davila’s third unsuccessful world-title challenge. He temporarily withdrew from boxing afterwards, but returned in 1982 and worked his way back into contention with victories over Javier Flores, Franco Torregoza, Chul Soon Hwang and the experienced Alberto Sandoval. By 1983, at 29, he had reached another championship opportunity after a decade in the professional game.

The defining contest of his career took place against Francisco “Kiko” Bejines at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on 1 September 1983. The WBC bantamweight title had become available after Pintor moved up in weight, and Davila was meeting a younger Mexican contender who had won 27 of 34 contests. Bejines led on two scorecards after 11 rounds of a close and generally tactical fight. Knowing that his fourth attempt to become champion was slipping away, Davila attacked immediately in the final round. A sequence of punches, completed by a right hand, dropped Bejines after 33 seconds. The Mexican was counted out, giving Davila the championship he had pursued through three previous defeats. Bejines did not recover consciousness and died from his injuries three days later. Davila remained close to the boxer’s family at the hospital and publicly expressed his grief. The circumstances meant that the most important victory of his career could never be treated as an ordinary championship success.

Davila returned two months later for a non-title victory over Julio Rodríguez, then made his first championship defence against Enrique Sánchez in Miami Beach on 26 May 1984. The contest was held outdoors, and Sánchez controlled much of the early action, hurting Davila with a long combination in the second round. Heavy rain later fell across the ring and altered the character of the fight. Davila recovered, knocked Sánchez down late in the tenth and forced the stoppage after 31 seconds of the eleventh. It was his only successful world-title defence. A back injury then prevented him from fulfilling his obligations, and the WBC removed him as champion. Davila stepped away from boxing, but financial difficulties contributed to his later return.

He resumed his career in 1985 and challenged Miguel “Happy” Lora for the WBC title in Barranquilla, Colombia, in November 1986. Lora was unbeaten and defending before a reported crowd of 50,000. Davila, now 32, completed the 12 rounds but lost a unanimous decision. He subsequently defeated Edel Geronimo before losing the NABF bantamweight title to Frankie Duarte when a severe cut over his left eye forced the stoppage. Victories over Juan José Estrada and Gilberto Contreras brought him one final championship chance, again against Lora at the Great Western Forum on 1 August 1988. Nearly 34 and the oldest challenger then to contest the bantamweight championship, Davila was beaten clearly on points. The judges scored it 117–111 twice and 118–113. He announced his retirement after the fight and did not return.

Davila briefly remained in boxing as a trainer. Among the fighters he worked with was David Kamau, who lost a disputed decision to Julio César Chávez in 1995. Davila believed that Kamau had been placed in a contest he could not win on the scorecards and left training soon afterwards, saying that he did not wish to betray a fighter by continuing under such conditions. He later worked as a labourer in Irvine, California. In 1997 he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. Reliable public information about his family life is limited, and there is no justification for extending the record beyond what has been properly documented.

Davila’s championship reign was brief, but his career was considerably stronger than one successful defence might suggest. He fought Zárate, Gómez, Pintor, Luján and Lora, all world champions of high standing, and defeated Pintor before the Mexican reached his peak. He also overcame Martínez, Duarte, Sandoval, Bejines and Sánchez. His reputation rested upon technical discipline rather than spectacle. He was described during his career as a boxer who fought with intelligence rather than absorbing unnecessary punishment, a suitable assessment of a man who survived and competed for 15 years in one of boxing’s least forgiving divisions. His final record of 56 wins, 10 defeats, one no-contest and 26 knockouts includes six world-title contests and a WBC championship won only after several difficult and unsuccessful attempts.