By RENE TORRES
During the roaring 1920s, boxing in the Rio Grande Valley was just as popular as baseball and high school football. Boxing matches were as common as rival football games between Brownsville and San Benito.
One of the biggest boxing events in the Valley was held in January 1928 at the Fort Brown skating rink.
The 30 rounds of boxing, promoted by Tex Becerril, were overflowing with fans from throughout the Valley.
The card’s main event matched two Valley notables: Roberto Hinojosa from Brownsville and Robert Leach from Weslaco.
However, this story is not about the main event punchers, but rather about an undercard fighter from San Benito.
San Benito’s Kid Guerra, aka the “Crowing Rooster,” was one of the undercard matches that pitted him against Billy Williams of Brownsville. Newspaper reports anticipated their encounter to be a thriller.
Kid Guerra, at 135 pounds, was described as a fighter with a deadly punch. Before the January event, “The Rooster” had won three bouts—two by knockout.
Williams, Guerra’s opponent, was a crafty little scrapper, as elusive as Mohammad Ali. Billy’s resume showed he had fought many rounds in San Antonio before coming to the Valley.
The stage was set. The sold-out event at Fort Brown brought many fans to witness the best boxing in the area. With many fistic “bugs” in attendance, the matches started sharply at 8:30 p.m.
The Guerra versus Williams match was a six rounder with the “Crowing Rooster” predicting he would not need all six to win.
The match started as forecasted with Williams using the ropes to evade the hard punching Guerra. By the fourth round, Williams changed his strategy by moving to the middle of the ring.
As the round progressed, Guerra’s advantage became apparent as they toed it out in the center of the ring.
Near the end of the round, Williams swung back to the ropes and rushed out at Guerra, striking heads with the blond and slumping to the floor. The referee began counting but the bell beat him to the count at nine.
According to Williams, referee Goodman must have been watching another match “because I was clearly fouled.”
Williams came out in the fifth round, but soon quit, saying he was unable to fight in his condition. Thus, the “Crowing Rooster” from San Benito took the match by technical knockout—running his string of knockouts to three at the expense of Billy Williams.
Rene Torres is a retired University of Texas at Brownsville, and Texas Southmost College assistant professor. He has a long history in the Rio Grande Valley as an educator, sports historian and humanitarian, with a wealth of community service to his credit.
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