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Edwin "El Chapo" Rosario (1961-1997) could be
considered a boxing version of the Puerto Rican
plant Mori-vivi (Mori-Vivi means dead-alive in
Spanish language|Spanish). Unfortunately, his long
battle with a suspected drug addiction caused him
to die in truth at the age of 36.

Chapo, as he was known around the world of boxing,
was born in Barrio Candelaria, Toa Baja, Puerto
Rico|Toa Baja, an extremely poor barrio filled
with children and dogs playing in sandy streets.
Chapo's brother Papo Rosario was a budding
professional boxer  expected to become one of
Puerto Rico's greatest all-time fighters. Chapo
was inspired by Papo, and had a stellar amateur
boxing career.

Papo died unexpectedly, supposedly due to drugs,
two years after his brother's move to professional
boxing. Chapo persevered, wanting to honor his
brother's memory by winning a world championship.
He scored big knockout wins over Young Ezzard
Charles and Edwin Viruet, the former in 3 rounds
as the Larry Holmes|Holmes-Gerry Cooney|Cooney
undercard. He eventually gained a record of 20-0
with 18 knockouts.  This led to talks of a title
fight against world lightweight champion Alexis
Arguello, to be held in Miami, but Arguello
abandoned the division to challenge Aaron Pryor in
a rematch. 

Rosario then was matched with Mexico's Jose Luis
Ramirez on May 1, 1983. Rosario dominated the
first 7 rounds, but tired down the stretch to make
for a very close fight. The judges, as well as
most of the public present, felt Rosario had done
enough to win, and Edwin Rosario had become world
lightweight champion by the unanimous score of
115-113 on all 3 judging cards. Rosario injured
his hand during the fight and needed surgery, for
which the World Boxing Council gave him a
dispense.

Rosario returned to the ring in 1984. In his first
defense of the title, he faced Roberto Elizondo,
who had lasted 7 rounds with Arguello in a
previous world title challenge and was expected to
give Rosario a tough challenge. However, Chapo
knocked out Elizondo in a single round.  Howard
Davis Jr proved more of a challenge -- he led
Rosario on all scorecards with ten seconds
remaining in the bout, but was dropped by Chapo
and lost a split decision. 

A rematch with Ramirez was scheduled, again in San
Juan, on November 3, 1984. Rosario dropped Ramirez
once in round one and again in the second, but
Ramirez was well trained and got off the canvas to
take Rosario's title away with a four round TKO.
This was Rosario's first defeat, and he seemed to
never fully recover.

Rosario won a comeback fight against future world
champion Frankie Randall in London and then had to
wait one more year before an opportunity to
recover the title. On June 13, 1986, he met world
champion Hector 'Macho' Camacho at the Madison
Square Garden in New York. The fight was televised
by Home Box Office|HBO, and although Rosario shook
Camacho badly in the fifth round and rallied down
the stretch, Camacho swept the middle rounds and
the judges thought that had been enough for him to
retain the title by a split decision. To this day,
fans debate whether Rosario or Camacho deserved
the win.

Because of the closeness of that bout, the World
Boxing Association|WBA gave him a chance to
challenge the other world lightweight champion,
Livingstone Bramble.  Rosario went to Miami and
defeated Bramble by a knockout in the second round
to become world lightweight champion for the
second time. His pose, raising his arms after the
fight, became Ring Magazine's cover for the next
month -- the only time Rosario was featured on the
cover of that magazine's English language|English
version. He defended the title against fellow
Puerto Rican Juan Nazario with a knockout in eight
in Chicago, Illinois, but in his next defense he
gave the title away to Julio Cesar Chavez in Las
Vegas. By the eleventh round, Rosario's eye was
almost completely shut and he was spitting blood
from his mouth; the fight was stopped by the
referee, and Rosario lost.

Rosario again took off for one year, but after
Chavez vacated the title in 1989, Rosario came
back and won it again, beating tough Kronk
prospect Anthony Jones for the championship.
Rosario joined the short group of men who had
become world champions 3 times in the same
division. This time, however, he didn't last long;
he gave Nazario a rematch, and Nazario stopped him
on cuts in 1990 at the Madison Square Garden in
the 8th round.

Once again, Rosario came back like the mori-vivi. 
He moved up a weight class to the Junior
Welterweight division, and then defeated defending
world champion Loreto Garza in three rounds in
Sacramento, California|Sacramento's Arco Arena to
become a world champion for the 4th time. However,
personal problems started to take their toll. For
his first defense, against Japanese Akinobu
Hiranaka in Mexico City in 1992, he clearly was
not the same Chapo his fans had grown accustomed
to.

Chapo disappeared from the boxing scene, but years
later showed up on the wrong end of the
newspapers, having been arrested after stealing
some beer from a supermarket. He vowed to stay
clean and went into a program to achieve this. In
1997, he won two comeback fights, then won the
Caribbean welterweight title by beating Roger
Arias of Nicaragua in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, in a
twelve-round decision. Chapo, once an Home Box
Office|HBO staple, was now fighting on small cards
without any TV showings. He was, however, ranked
#10 among Oscar De La Hoya's challengers at the
welterweight division after his win over Arias,
making him an official world title challenger once
again.

However, Rosario passed away before any more
fights could take place, dying of an aneurysm in
December of 1997. Many celebrities and dignitaries
attended his funeral, and a group of Puerto Rican
world boxing champions were among the pallbearers.
More than five thousand people came to the funeral
or watched from their homes as the coffin was
driven from the funeral home to the cemetery.

==See also==
*List of famous Puerto Ricans

*Hector Camacho versus Edwin Rosario


{| align="center" id="toc" cellspacing="0"
width="70%"
|- bgcolor="#ccccff"
| align="left" width="100" |
ed|Sports in Puerto
Rico|
| align="center" style="font-size: 120%;" | Sports
in Puerto Rico
|- align="center"
| colspan="6" |
Roberto Alomar | Carlos Arroyo | BSN | Wilfred
Benitez| Ivan Calderon (baseball player) | Ivan
Calderon (boxer) | Hector Camacho | Roberto
Clemente | Orlando Cepeda | José Cruz | Gigi
Fernandez | Wilfredo Gómez | Jorge Gonzalez
| Belinda Laracuente | Mario Morales | Jose Ortiz
| Victor Pellot | Puerto Rican National Basketball
Team | Puerto Rican Pop Culture | Edwin Rosario |
Ruben Rodriguez | Daniel Santiago | O.J. Santiago
| Sports in Puerto Rico
|}