How do we recognize a sacred monster? To the legends, more or less reliable, which surround him. “When José Manzano boxed, he always had a fishing line that allowed him to make a necklace with the teeth of his opponents! », says for example Michel Contré, trainer of the Bouscat boxing club. “We called it ”Frappe que un coup”,” adds Christian Laborde, president of the same club.
This portrait painted, we expect to encounter a terrifying brute. Instead, a 77-year-old lamb appears, with white hair and rare words, described as “kind and pacifist” by Josette, his wife of fifty-five years, surrounded by his two daughters and three grandchildren. . Friday December 13, at the Monrepos hall, José Manzano, known as “Pépé”, received the gold medal from the French Boxing Federation from Fouad Kasmi, president of the Departmental Boxing Committee.
A devastating punch
Assailed, the septuagenarian remains no less approachable. If the dates are vague, the memories of an amateur career with a laudatory record parade: 70 fights, around twenty defeats, the rest in draws or victories including 24 before the limit. Above all, Pépé had a gift that few can boast of: punch. Devastating according to the ancients.
He became a boxer late in life – 21 years old – thanks to a suggestion from his wife: “He was constantly fighting on a football field to defend others. I advised him to move towards the noble art. » Under the orders of the emblematic trainer Manuel Lacasa, Pépé, an employee in the construction industry, boxed within the Municipal Athletic Club of Bordeaux (CAM) then in Cenon until he was 27.
After which, tired of waiting for an authorization to box professionally, he in turn became a trainer (CAM, Pessac and Floirac), obtaining his federal provost diploma in 1977. Hundreds of athletes, from the simple anonymous, passed through his hands. to a future Mexican world champion, while the most astute noticed in the 1980s his slightly stooped silhouette in the corners of French boxers in the French or European championship.
