By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas | This part of the Mexican border has few outsized characters. Ask any resident of the Rio Grande Valley to name two and you can't even get them to name one. And if they do, they'll throw some name at you from the very, very distant past, like that of the notorious Border Bandit Juan N. Cortina. That one was around long before locals fell in love with the Chevy, the flea markets and the two-tortilla tacos.
Well, one who appeared up and down both sides of the scurrilous border back in the late-1970s and early-1980s was David "El Maceton" Cabrera, shown in photo above. Cabrera was a boxer.
Not that he ever became a household name here, but Cabrera was one of those stubborn Mexicans who did and did not know defeat. An accident while working as a motorcycle cop in his native Juchitan, Mexico in the State of Jalisco left him with a badly mangled leg. Too young to retire or head for the daily afternoon siesta, Cabrera found boxing.
Enter a man who climbed into the ring often enough to compile a professional record of 41 victories and 13 defeats. Tough as an old leather belt, he settled for no draws. Most fights were knockouts by him or get-knocked-out by the other guy. He fought mainly in Mexico's interior, but he also was a known figure in Border Boxing.
Indeed, his biggest fight came at the old Civic Center on South 10th Street here in The City of Palms. The date was August 30, 1979 and Cabrera was knocked out in the 3rd round by up-and-comer Marvin Camel, a rough dude who became world champion in the then-new Cruiserweight division (200 pounds). The 5'10" Cabrera had been listed as a light-heavyweight at that point.
He would go on to box up and down the Mexican side of the border, in Reynosa and Matamoros. But he would also fight in Mexico City and in Los Angeles. Eleven of his wins saw him knock out his opponent.
Although he was never called a "club-footed" boxer because of his largely useless leg, which he dragged across the ring, Cabrera did once acknowledge that some of his knockout losses had come 'cause he couldn't get up in time to beat the referee's count. His busy and violent career lasted from 1977 to 1989 - his last fight a loss in December of 1989.
Today's young boxers around here do get the excitable local press coverage, some thrown out as potential champions, but most of them get walloped silly by better boxers as they climb the ladder in their weight divisions. Maceton Cabrera, it says here, likely could not have cared less about rankings or even fame. His motorcycle accident had left him no choice but to do something else. His recorded 54 fights in 12 years seem low, although win-loss records for fighters of his time are quirky. Some get the proper logging, others do not.
Plus, it is a known fact that Mexican boxers often took fights under assumed names or agreements that their real names not be used in promotions. Cabrera may have fought 100 fights, for all we know. He needed the money.
El Maceton died on December, 19, 2020, at the age of 73.
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