Art Aragon, at 80; boxer and 'Golden Boy'

Boxer Art Aragon (right) connected against Henry Davis in the ninth round of a 1953 welterweight fight in San Francisco. (Associated Press file)

LOS ANGELES - Art Aragon was boxing's original "Golden Boy." Though he never won a world title, his brashness, good looks, and celebrity lifestyle made him one of the sport's biggest drawing cards of the 1940s and 1950s.

Mr. Aragon, who had a stroke March 15, died Tuesday after being removed from life support, his son, Brad, said Wednesday. He was 80.

"He loved the show," his son said. "He loved the sport, and he always had. He attended fights up until the end."

Although top ranked as a welterweight and lightweight, Mr. Aragon lost his only world title fight to lightweight champion James Carter in 1951. Mr. Aragon, who struggled to make his weight class throughout his career, said afterward he was weak from having to lose 7 pounds in the days before the fight.

"I was the only fighter they ever carried into the ring, I was so weak," he said in 2006 when he was inducted into the California Boxing Association Hall of Fame.

Mr. Aragon had 116 fights with a 90-20-6 record, including 61 wins by knockout. He fought such stars of the era as Tommy Campbell, Jesse Flores, and Carmen Basilio, who knocked him down after eight brutal rounds in 1958.

Born in Belen, N.M., the fighter grew up in East Los Angeles and began boxing in 1942. His first recorded professional fight was in 1944.

Flamboyant both in and out of the ring, Mr. Aragon wore a gold robe and trunks and reveled in playing the villain. Often he would taunt a crowd into booing him, sometimes thumbing his nose at the audience after defeating a popular opponent.

"You ever get booed by 10,000 people? It's exciting," he once said.

He was known for his practical jokes and his quips.

He was equally colorful outside the ring, golfing with Bob Hope and counting as friends such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe and William Holden. He was married four times and had a high-profile romance with actress Mamie Van Doren.

"The Golden Boy was a perfect title for him," Van Doren told the Los Angeles Times. "His smile turned everyone on."

His career, however, was marred by allegations that at least some of his fights were fixed. In 1956 he was convicted of offering a $500 bribe to welterweight Dick Goldstein to take a dive in a Texas fight, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Los Angeles sportswriters gave Mr. Aragon the nickname Golden Boy, later applied to boxer Oscar De La Hoya, in reference to the 1939 movie of that name that starred Holden as a prizefighter.