woke Peru in 1983, among other things, the brutal reality of terrorism. President Belaunde had sent the sinchis to Ayacucho on December 82 and the front pages of newspapers showed the latest pictures of journalists murdered in the remote Uchuraccay. Summer had come with El Niño and swore to have heard some thunder from behind the hills of La Molina and Surco, a night of unusual rainfall in the capital.
For younger readers these events served only as a set of what we are really concerned:
Anyone who grew up in this decade can recall these events with little difficulty. What perhaps many have forgotten is that also in 1983, three Peruvians were able for the first and last time to fight for a world boxing title. Luis Ibanez in Japan, Orlando Romero "Romerito" at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York and Oscar Rivadeneyra in Vancouver, Canada, jumped into the ring to sing "We are free" and sought a place among the winners names that adorn the national stadium Lima.
Little or nothing was known either Ibañez's rival, Japanese champion Jiro Watanabe. The only picture I had seen him in Ovation been published in which Japan posed with water waist-deep in a pool and fists on guard in typical boxer's pose. It said it was left-handed hitter, who had never fought outside of Japan and had dealt a brutal knockout of former world champion Argentine Gustavo Ballas. Y Watanabe aggressive look in his only photograph available in Peru revealed that he had prepared a similar outcome for the meeting with our compatriot.
addition, we could distinguish many world champion wore a curly thick hair, a novelty for those who had imagined Watanabe as a Japanese-understood to mean that any actor in the series "Ultraman" -. Curly hair and factions of fighter gave him rather a suspicious appearance of Tacora reducer that made our hopes to see a Peruvian crowned world champion still be more stark.
When I turned on the TV at 5:40 am, I noticed the unpleasant surprise that the fight was already in the third round. A few seconds later, the remnants of sleep is not prevented me from realizing that all attendees at ringside had a suspicious appearance and wore guayaberas Caribbean that were consistent with what one would expect from a sports event in Japan. Worse, the boxer who Ibañez had to face not kept the slightest resemblance to the only picture we had seen of Watanabe. Then fell into the account due to the eternal imponderables Peruvian television, images of the fight not being broadcast live and in place Pan American had happened to the unfortunate idea of \u200b\u200ba video of a fight last Ibanez with audio live radio broadcast from Japan.
Minutes later, he missed the radio link with Tsu. And when the breaking of the sun on the hills of the district of Surco, the boring commentators on the television set reported that they had fallen Lucho Ibañez knocked out in the eighth round by the Japanese left-hander who looked like a villain. The novelero hope to see a world boxing champion Peruvian had sunk in the port of Tsu, Japan.