Before Manny Pacquiao, Rolando Navarette was General Santos City’s first gift to the boxing world.  Known as the “Bad Boy of Dadiangas” for his penchant to be always involved in petty fights and brawls, Rolando won the WBC Super Featherweight title from Cornelius Boza Edwards in Italy in August 29, 1981.

I remember watching the replay of that video at the old restobar of the Pasiliaos along Pioneer Avenue, downtown General Santos, named Queenies Steakhouse beside Pioneer Theater when Betamax was still the vogue.

At that time, the restaurant was jampacked and though the video quality was grainy to say the least, we all felt we were at the same ring with our then “people’s champ”.

Rolando Navarette later defended his title against Choi Chung-Il of Korea but eventually lost it to Rafael “Bazooka” Limon.

As a precursor to the Dela Hoya-Pacquiao fight this weekend and to give the younger “generals” an idea of how Navarette fought, here is the YouTube video of that classic Navarette-Edwards fight twenty-seven years ago. This is the 5th and “knockout” round.

But before that, here are their stats:

Cornelius Boza Edwards*****versus****Rolando Navarette

25 years old                       AGE                    24 years old

5’9 feet                             HEIGHT                5’4 feet

129.25 lbs                        WEIGHT                129.75 lbs

7                                       REACH                 6.5

And below is a recent picture of the former WBC Superfeatherweight Champion:

And now, the video of the 5th and Knockout Round of the Classic Navarette-Edwards Fight in 1981.

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