His fine boxing style earned him the nickname ‘La Maravilla’ (The Wonder) and his fists gave Panama its fifth world champion in history. Today, the departure from this earthly world of Enrique Pinder leaves a great void in the boxing and sporting arena in our country.
On Saturday night, June 15, the eve of Father’s Day, the light of Pinder’s life went out at the age of 76. According to family sources, in recent months he had been suffering some health problems related to heart problems.
Born in the sector of ‘El Marañón’, capital city, Pinder made his debut as a professional boxer on August 20, 1966 when he beat Luis Jacobo by technical knockout in the first round of a fight held at the Juan Demóstenes Arosemena Stadium. He remained undefeated in his first 13 fights before losing by knockout to Eugenio Hurtado in 1968 in a fight in which the national bantamweight crown was at stake.
On July 29, 1972, after winning the national title and the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) 118-pound title, Pinder had his first world title shot against then World Boxing Association (WBA) and WBC world champion Rafael Herrera of Mexico at the Gimnasio Nuevo Panama (now the Roberto Duran Arena). After a 15 round battle, Herrera was favoured by the three judges and won a unanimous decision to become the fifth world champion in our country after Teofilo ‘Panama All’ Brown, Ismael Laguna, Alfonso ‘Pepermin’ Frazer and Roberto Duran.
In November 1972, he made a non-title fight at the legendary Forum in Inglewood, California against Mexican Chucho Castillo, winning by majority decision in 10 rounds, and made his only defence of the WBA belt against the Aztec Romeo Anaya, who dethroned him after knocking him out in 3 rounds at the Nuevo Panama in January 1973.
Anaya gave Pinder a rematch in August 1973, but the Panamanian was again knocked out in three rounds. He would make his last fight in November 1973 against the Puerto Rican Francisco Villegas in San Juan, Puerto Rico in which he lost by unanimous decision in 10 rounds.
He retired with a professional record of 35 wins (13 by knockouts), 7 losses and 2 draws. He fought abroad in countries such as the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico.
For a long time he worked at the Jesús Máster Gómez de Barraza Gymnasium.
It is worth mentioning that of the 30 male world champions that our country has had, ‘Panama All’ Brown, Alfredo ‘Preciso’ Layne, Pedro ‘Rockero’ Alcázar, Eusebio ‘Alacrán’ Pedroza, Jaime ‘Cieguito’ Ríos, Ernesto ‘Ñato’ Marcel, Rigoberto Riasco and Pinder have already left to meet the Lord.
