Ranking the Best Cuban Fighters in Boxing History | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Jose Napoles turned professional in Cuba in 1958 but fled to Mexico following the Communist revolution of 1960. The slick Napoloes, nicknamed "Butter," would go on to become a major star in his adopted country.

Napoles was a star throughout the 1960s, but his big breakthrough year was 1969. In April of that year, he captured the welterweight title by stopping Curtis Cokes. Two months later he stopped Cokes again in a rematch. He finished the year by defeating former champion Emile Griffith, earning The Ring's award for 1969's Fighter of the Year.

Napoles would reign as undisputed welterweight champ for most of the next six years. In December 1970 he lost the belt in Syracuse, New York, when he was stopped in four rounds on cuts by Carmen Basilio's nephew, Billy Backus, but he took back the belt six months later in a rematch by Round 8 stoppage.

During Napoles' great run, he was a major attraction at the Forum boxing mecca in Inglewood, California. For his career, he was 81-7 with 54 KOs.