José Soares Santa (25 December 1902 – 5 April 1968), known as Santa Camarão ("Camarão" being a family nickname meaning Shrimp in English)[1] or Zé Santa in Portugal, and as Jose Santa or Joe Santa in the United States, was a Portugueseboxer. At 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) he was one of the tallest heavyweight boxers in history.
Son of António Soares Santa and Josefa Pereira dos Santos, Santa was a remarkable individual growing up to 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) at a time when the average height for a man in Portugal was 1.64 m (5 ft 5 in). He was born in Ovar, and in 1911 moved to Lisbon, where his father was earning for his family. There he had a brief career in wrestling, before changing to professional boxing in 1922.[1]
Santa's professional boxing career lasted until 1934, which he mostly spent in Portugal (1922–26, with a few fights later in 1929), Brazil (1926–28 and 1933–34), and the United States (1930–33) where he was widely popular with the Portuguese immigrants livings in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He contested the European title in 1929 against Pierre Charles, but lost by points; he also lost to heavyweight champions Max Baer and Primo Carnera. He also signed for a three-round exhibition fight with former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson late in Johnson's career but the commission nixed it, fearing for Johnson's life.[2]
Santa played himself in two boxing movies, Love in the Ring (1930) and The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933), alongside the boxing celebrities Max Schmeling, Max Baer and Jack Dempsey.[3]Love in the Ring was the first international movie where Portuguese was spoken on screen, by Santa Camarão. He received US$8,000 for The Prizefighter and the Lady, which was his largest ever single payment.[1]
In 1932, while fighting in the United States, Santa married the Portuguese American woman Mary Loreta de Oliveira. After retiring from the ring, in 1935 he took her back to his hometown. The same year Mary Loreta gave birth to his son, Renaldo José Santa. She separated from her husband in 1949, taking Renaldo with her.[1]
Rua José Santa Camarão in Lisbon
Santa Camarão died in 1968 in Ovar, in the same house where he was born.[1] Later a street in Lisbon was named Rua José Santa Camarão in his honor.[4] In 2003, he was posthumously awarded the Medal for Good Sports Services (Medalha de Bons Serviços Desportivos) by the Government of Portugal.[5]
Until Nikolay Valuev (2.14 m (7 ft 0 in)) became a professional boxer in 1993, Santa was the tallest heavyweight in boxing history. He enjoyed a sizable reach advantage over most rivals, and when seen on fight footage, he seems like a towering giant compared to many heavyweights of his era, who were usually shorter than him.
^Presidência do Conselho de Ministros – Gabinete do Secretário de Estado do Desporto e Juventude (13 May 2003). "Despacho n.º 9301/2003 (2.ª série)". Diário da República. 110 (2): 7187.
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