1. Eligio Sardinas Montalvo, better known as Kid Chocolate, was a Cuban boxer who enjoyed great success both in the boxing ring and outside it during the 1930s.
15 Facts About Kid Chocolate
1. 2.
Kid Chocolate's record was 136 wins, 10 losses and 6 draws, 51 wins coming by knockout and one no-decision bout, making Ring magazine's list of boxers with 50 or more career knockout wins.
3.
Kid Chocolate was inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in 1991.
4.
Kid Chocolate later sparred with boxers such as Benny Leonard and Jack Johnson, all world champions, before beginning an amateur boxing career.
5.
Kid Chocolate finished the year by going up in weight , and challenging world Lightweight champion Tony Canzoneri, losing by a decision in 15 in his first attempt to gain the Lightweight crown.
6.
Kid Chocolate started 1932 by winning his first eight bouts, including a world title defense in Havana against Davie Abad, beaten in 15 by decision.
7.
Kid Chocolate won by a knockout in 12 rounds, gaining the New York World title.
8.
Kid Chocolate defended that world title twice, including a third fight with LaBarba, before relinquishing it while in the middle of a European boxing tour that took him to Madrid, Barcelona and Paris.
9.
Kid Chocolate won all of his fights on that tour by decision.
10.
Kid Chocolate retained his featherweight championship at least in the state of New York.
11.
Kid Chocolate retired shortly thereafter, but came back in 1934.
12.
Kid Chocolate never received another world title attempt and felt abandoned by boxing's elite.
13.
But, by the late 1970s, Kid Chocolate's achievements were finally recognized by the Cuban government, who gave him a small pension.
14.
Kid Chocolate was the inspiration for the character Chocolate Drop in Clifford Odets' play Golden Boy.
15.
The highly acclaimed greatest pound for pound boxer of all time Sugar Ray Robinson was a big fan of Kid Chocolate and incorporated a lot of Chocolate's boxing style into his own: "Sugar Ray Robinson was a great admirer of Kid Chocolate," said Fausto Miranda, a former Cuban journalist who covered many of Chocolate's fights.