By David Martinez / Boxing Historian / dmboxing.com
I have been truly blessed and fortunate to have met the greatest of the greats in boxing since my involvement in the sport that started back in 1961 .
Sugar Ray Robinson tops my list of the many, but I have to say that one of the nicest boxers I have had the pleasure to meet was certainly top welterweight contender Gasper Ortega .
He had an amazing 44 fights televised nationally (great exposure in those days), and I remember as a young boy watching him many times on our black and white television set with my father in our living room .
I remember seeing him enter the ring wearing an Indian head dress, as he was half Native American and half Mexican.
Born on October 31,1935 in Mexicali, Mexico, Ortega started his professional boxing career on January 1, 1953 at the young age of 17, and fought until September 1965 .
Gasper took on all comers and, just to name a few, they included Tony DeMarco, Kid Gavilan, Isaac Logart, Ralph Dupas, Don Jordan, Denny Moyer, Benny Kid Paret, Florentino Fernandez, Stan Harrington, Emile Griffith, Carmen Basilio, Nino Benvenuti, Sandro Mazzinghi, and Charley Shipes .
He compiled a record of 131 wins, 39 losses, and 6 draws, with 69 wins by knockout, and was only stopped twice in 176 fights.
Ortega was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.
Gasper died at the age of 86 on December 16, 2021. A true gentleman, may his soul rest peacefully in heaven with the Lord.
