Early Years
Venegas was born in an underprivileged section of San Juan, Puerto Rico where fighting was a common way of life. Many of the youth at that time saw the sport of boxing as a way to a better life. Among them was Venegas, who admired Puerto Rico's first international boxing champion, Sixto Escobar. Venegas took up boxing and his performance in the ring soon caught the attention of the island's recently-established Olympic Committee. In 1948 the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee included him in the delegation which would represent the island.
Read more about this topic: Juan Evangelista Venegas
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