McJoe Arroyo

McJoe Arroyo Acevedo (born December 5, 1985) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer competing in the super flyweight division and former IBF Super Flyweight Champion. As an amateur, he represented Puerto Rico in international competition. Arroyo won the bantamweight bronze medal at the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Arroyo and the second or maternal family name is Acevedo.

McJoe Arroyo
Statistics
Real name	McJoe Arroyo Acevedo
Weight(s)	Super flyweight
Height	5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Reach	65 in (165 cm)
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Born	(1985-12-05) December 5, 1985 Ceiba, Puerto Rico
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	21
Wins	18
Wins by KO	8
Losses	3
Medal record Men's amateur boxing Representing  Puerto Rico World Amateur Championships 2007 Chicago Bantamweight Central American and Caribbean Games 2006 Cartagena Flyweight

His twin brother McWilliams Arroyo is also a boxer and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games. Both of the Arroyo brothers won a medal at the World Amateur Boxing Championships, being the only pair of twins to win medals in this competition.[1] They were also the second twins to qualify for the Olympics in boxing.

Early life

McJoe was born along his twin brother, McWilliams, in the municipality of Ceiba in the northeast coastal region of Puerto Rico's main island. Arroyo and his twin, were introduced to boxing in their childhood. At the age of 12, they entered Gimnasio Fito Ramos, a gymnasium located in the municipality of Fajardo, Puerto Rico.[2] In this locale they met Anthony Otero, a retired amateur boxer, who became their trainer during this stage of their careers.[3] They initially took up the sport as a hobby, but after six fights they began establishing a pattern of only spending a limited amount of time inactive during a month, visiting the gymnasium at least every two weeks.[4] Since the early stages of their careers, the brothers decided to fight in different divisions, in order to avoid fighting against each other.[4] However, they participated in sparring sessions, performing as they would do against other sparring partners.[3]

Amateur career

Arroyo represented Puerto Rico in international competition. He won Bronze at flyweight at 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games. In 2007 he participated at the Amateur World Championships and lost in the semifinals to eventual Russian winner Sergey Vodopyanov 9:20, qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games. After recovering, Arroyo participated in the XXVIII International Golden Belt Tournament organized in Constanta, Romania. Here he defeated local Alex Spatariu in his first fight, who abandoned the fight in the third round. In the semifinals he defeated Mirzhan Rakhimzanov of Kazajistan by points, with scores of 21-16. In the finals he fought against Veira de Jesús of Brazil, defeating him by points (28-16).[5] As part of their training the boxing team moved to South Korea, in order to assimilate the time changes.[6] After training and participating in a series of exhibition matches, the team traveled from Korea to Beijing.[7]

Professional career

On December 8, 2009, the Arroyo brothers issued a press release through their mother, Milagros Acevedo, informing that they were no longer interested in continuing their amateur careers.[8] In the letter, they report differences with the criteria used to provide economical support to high-performance athletes, as well as schedule conflicts with their original plans to pursue a professional career after the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games.[8] These concerns were restated in a subsequent press conference, where they noted that supporting their respective families was the main reason to pursue a professional career.[8] On January 12, 2010, PR Best Boxing announced the official signing of both brothers.[9] Arroyo's debut was scheduled for February 27, 2010, where he competed in the bantamweight division as part of a card titled "Haciendo Historia", where Wilfredo Vázquez, Jr. fought Marvin Sonsona for the super bantamweight world championship. His opponent, Giovanni Rivera, had a previous experience of two professional fights.[10] The fight began with Rivera moving around the ring, while Arroyo pursued him while engaging on the offensive, eventually scoring a knockdown. After 25 seconds of the second round had passed, he scored a second knockdown, prompting the referee to stop the contest by technical knockout.[11] In his second fight, Arroyo defeated Steve Cannell by unanimous decision, winning all four rounds.[12] Next he won a consecutive decision over Jairo Delgado.

In his first six-round fight, Arroyo defeated Jason Rorie by technical knockout. On August 28, 2010, he scored a unanimous decision win over Sigfredo Medina. Arroyo then entered the first knockout streak of his career, which began with a first round victory over Israel Rojas. This run was completed by third and first-round technical knockouts over Eduardo Meléndez and Ivan Moxey. However, Arroyo was forced to rest eight months between these two fights after suffering a chin fracture, making his return in the super flyweight division.[13][14] He then faced Shawn Nichol in consecutive fights, winning both by unanimous decision in six rounds. On September 27, 2012, Arroyo defeated former world champion José López by technical knockout in four rounds. He repeated this performance against Felipe Rivas, winning the World Boxing Organization's Latino championship. Arroyo returned with a unanimous decision wins over Jairo Hernández in eight rounds. He won the next fight in equal fashion, this time against former contender David Quijano. On June 14, 2014, Arroyo scored an eleventh-round technical knockout over former world champion Hernán Márquez in an International Boxing Federation title eliminator. He gathered knockdowns in the first, fourth, eighth and final rounds.[15]

References

1. "Victoria para los gemelos Arroyo". El Vocero (in Spanish). 2010-02-28. Archived from the original on 2010-03-03. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
2. Rey Colón (2009-12-09). "McJoe y McWilliams debutarán en enero o febrero". El Vocero (in Spanish). Retrieved 2009-12-10.
3. Rey Colón (2009-12-08). "Convencido de que los Arroyo serán campeones". El Vocero (in Spanish). Retrieved 2009-12-10.
4. Omar Marrero (2008-07-07). "Hermanos Arroyo buscan gloria olímpica en Beijing" (in Spanish). Noticiasonline.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
5. Víctor Pillot Ortiz (2008-06-16). "Deportes". Gestión dorada en Rumania. Puerto Rico: El Nuevo Día.
6. Rey Colón (2008-07-09). A foguearse en Corea los boxeadores (in Spanish). El Vocero.
7. Lester Jiménez (2008-07-31). "Listos para soltar puños y batallar por las medallas". Primera Hora (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
8. Rey Colón (2009-12-08). "Oficial: los Arroyo le dicen adiós al aficionismo". El Vocero (in Spanish). Archived from the original on December 13, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
9. Alex Figueroa Cancel (2010-01-12). "Los Arroyo firman como profesionales". Primera Hora (in Spanish). Retrieved 2010-01-20.
10. "McJoe y McWilliams Arroyo ya tienen rivales para su debut". Primera Hora (in Spanish). 2010-02-07. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
11. Carlos González (2010-02-27). "McJoe y McWilliams Arroyo ganan con rápidos nocauts en su debut profesional". Primera Hora (in Spanish). Retrieved 2010-02-28.
12. "Carlos Negrón, McWilliams y McJoe Arroyo vencen a sus rivales". Primera Hora (in Spanish). 2010-04-18. Retrieved 2010-04-18.

External links

• Boxing record for McJoe Arroyo from BoxRec
• McJoe Arroyo at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• McJoe Arroyo Acevedo at the International Olympic Committee

Vacant Title last held by Zolani Tete

IBF Junior Bantamweight Champion July 18, 2015 – September 3, 2016

Succeeded by Jerwin Ancajas