Fernando Montiel

Fernando Montiel Martínez, known as “Cochulito”, is a Mexican former world champion who competed from flyweight through to featherweight, with his greatest success coming at flyweight, super-flyweight and bantamweight. Born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, on March 1, 1979, the orthodox boxer stood 5ft 4in with a reach of 66½in. He fought professionally from 1996 until 2016 and retired with 54 victories, six defeats, and two draws from 62 contests, recording 39 wins inside the distance. Montiel held major world championships in three divisions and was briefly the unified WBC and WBO bantamweight champion.

Boxing was the family trade. Montiel was the youngest child of Manuel Montiel Sr., a former professional boxer who became his trainer. His brothers Eduardo, Alejandro Félix, Pedro and Manuel Jr. also boxed professionally. Fernando learned in his father’s gym in Los Mochis, where Jorge Arce was among the other young fighters who developed. The nickname “Cochulito” was inherited from his father, who had been called “Cochul” by a sister unable to pronounce Manuel de Jesús properly when she was young. Contrary to a common assumption, the name had no connection with a fighting cock.

Montiel made his professional debut in Los Mochis on December 6, 1996, stopping Manuel Tamayo in the second round. He was 17 and immediately began boxing frequently around Sinaloa and Sonora. His early career included a ten-round draw with Paulino Villalobos in July 1998, followed by a unanimous decision over the same opponent three months later. In September 1999, he outpointed Rubén Díaz over 12 rounds to win a regional WBA North American super-flyweight title. A fourth-round stoppage of future WBO bantamweight champion Cruz Carbajal in April 2000 was a more meaningful indication of his progress.

His first major world championship came against Isidro García at the Centro de Espectáculos Modelo in Ciudad Obregón on December 15, 2000. Montiel stopped the WBO flyweight champion in the seventh round and made three successful defences during 2001. He travelled to Munich to halt Olympic bronze medallist Zoltan Lunka in seven rounds, knocked out former light-flyweight champion Juan Domingo Córdoba in the opening round at Acapulco and completed 12 rounds to defeat future champion José López in Reno. Montiel then relinquished the flyweight belt and moved into the super-flyweight division.

On June 22, 2002, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Montiel challenged Panama’s Pedro Alcázar for the WBO super-flyweight championship. He won by stoppage in the sixth round, but the contest was followed by tragedy when Alcázar collapsed and died two days later. Montiel defended against Roy Doliguez before losing the belt to the experienced American Mark Johnson by majority decision at the Mohegan Sun Arena on August 16, 2003. It was Montiel’s first professional defeat and a reminder that his power and composure did not make him immune to a clever southpaw capable of controlling distance.

Three victories in 2004 earned Montiel another championship opportunity. He regained the WBO super-flyweight title by knocking out Iván Hernández in the seventh round at El Paso on April 9, 2005. Points victories over Everth Briceno and unbeaten Pramuansak Posuwan followed. Montiel then moved up to challenge Jhonny González for the WBO bantamweight championship in May 2006. The contest was close, but González received a split decision. Montiel returned to super-flyweight and retained his title in the Philippines by split decision against Z Gorres, then stopped Cecilio Santos, Luis Melendez, former champion Martín Castillo and Luis Maldonado. The Castillo victory, a fourth-round knockout at the MGM Grand in February 2008, was among his most impressive at 115 pounds.

Montiel moved permanently into the bantamweight division after defeating Maldonado. He outpointed future champion Juan Alberto Rosas, then knocked out Diego Oscar Silva in the third round at Tijuana on March 28, 2009, to win the interim WBO title. He was subsequently elevated to full champion. A technical draw with Alejandro Valdez followed when their September contest was stopped after three rounds, but Montiel made a much stronger impression by dismissing the unbeaten Ciso Morales in the first round in February 2010.

The defining victory of Montiel’s career came at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on April 30, 2010. He entered as the underdog against Hozumi Hasegawa, the WBC bantamweight champion who had reigned for more than five years and made ten successful defences. Hasegawa boxed effectively for much of the opening four rounds, but Montiel caught him with a left hook late in the fourth. A rapid follow-up drove the Japanese champion into the ropes, and the referee stopped the contest with one second remaining in the round. Montiel added the WBC title to his WBO belt and became the leading bantamweight of the period. He defended both championships by knocking out Rafael Concepción in the third round after flooring him twice in the second.

That success led to a meeting with Nonito Donaire at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on February 19, 2011. Both men were ranked among the leading boxers in the sport, regardless of weight, and each carried genuine one-punch power. Donaire’s speed settled the matter. A left hook dropped Montiel heavily in the second round, and although the Mexican rose, the contest was stopped at 2 minutes 25 seconds. It was the first stoppage defeat of Montiel’s career and ended his unified reign.

Problems making the bantamweight limit prompted Montiel to move up. He returned four months later when Nehomar Cermeño retired after three rounds, then knocked out Alvaro Pérez. A proposed route towards another championship was interrupted by Víctor Terrazas, who outpointed him over 12 rounds in Los Mochis in November 2011. Montiel recovered and assembled eight consecutive victories, defeating Arturo Santos Reyes, Giovanni Caro and Jaderes Padua at super-bantamweight before moving into the featherweight division. A majority decision over former IBF champion Cristóbal Cruz in March 2014 kept him in contention, followed by wins over Jesús Antonio Ríos, Sergio Puente and Rogelio Jun Doliguez.

At 36, Montiel received an opportunity to become a champion in a fourth division when he challenged Lee Selby for the IBF featherweight title at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on October 14, 2015. Montiel’s experience and pressure troubled the taller Welshman, particularly after Selby was cut above the right eye in the sixth round. Selby nevertheless used his jab, reach and greater activity to win a unanimous decision. The official scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112 were wider than the competitive nature of the contest suggested, although Selby was the proper winner.

Montiel returned at the StubHub Center in Carson on April 30, 2016, against the younger and unbeaten Jorge Lara. The end came abruptly. Lara knocked him down three times and won after 1 minute 37 seconds of the opening round. It was Montiel’s final appearance and completed a professional career lasting almost 20 years. He retired with no need for another attempt to prove his standing, having won four major belts across three divisions and defeated champions in Mexico, the United States, Germany, the Philippines and Japan.

Montiel was a compact and technically accomplished boxer-puncher. He carried unusual power for the lighter weights, particularly in his left hook, but was more than a straightforward puncher. He set traps patiently, countered accurately and remained calm when opponents attempted to force the pace. His short stature sometimes created difficulties against taller boxers who could maintain distance, as Johnson, González and Selby demonstrated. At his best, however, Montiel combined timing, balance and finishing ability with enough experience to win important contests away from home. His knockout of Hasegawa remains the clearest example.

After retirement, Montiel remained closely associated with boxing in Los Mochis and with the family gym established by his father. The Montiel family’s involvement in the sport extended across several generations, and Fernando’s championship career represented its greatest achievement. His record contains defeats to elite opponents and a late decline at featherweight, but it also includes long championship service, 39 stoppage victories and a decisive win over an established champion in Hasegawa. He is properly remembered as one of Mexico’s leading lighter-weight fighters of his period and one of the country’s relatively small group of three-division world champions.