Inducted on November 10, 2005
Birth Name: Juan La Porte
Born: 1959-11-24
Birthplace: Guayama, Puerto Rico
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 5′ 5″ / 165cm
Reach: 68″ / 173cm
Boxing Record: click
Trainer: Emile Griffith
Amateur Highlights
Juan La Porte won the 1976 112lb New York Golden Gloves Sub-Novice Championship. He defeated Long Island’s Ricky Brown in the finals. LaPorte was defeated by Joseph Nieto of the Police Athletic Leagues Lynch Center in the 1977 118lb Open Championship. LaPorte trained at the Lunar Boys Club in Brooklyn, New York. He had an amateur record of 29-6, according to the March 1983 The Ring magazine.
Comments
La Porte’s predecessor as WBC featherweight champion, Salvador Sanchez, died in a car accident.
In 1989, one of LaPorte’s sons died in a swimming drowning accident. LaPorte laid his original WBC Featherweight title belt at his young son’s grave. Upon finding out about this, WBC President Jose Sulaiman gave LaPorte a second belt. A second son, Tony Laporte Jr., lost his professional featherweight debut in 2010.
- Inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame on March 30, 2014.