Luis Spota

He was a close friend of the Mexican president Miguel Aleman Valdes. He was the first president of the World Boxing Council (WBC) (February 1963 - September 1968). He died of pancreatic cancer in Mexico City.

• Name — Luis Mario Cayetano Spota Saavedra Ruotti Castañares • Born — 13 July 1925 • Birthplace — Mexico City • Died — 20 January 1985 • Occupation — Writer, Journalist, Boxing official

He was the son of an Italian father and Mexican mother and ran away from home when he was 11. He wrote his first book, Los Metaleros, at age 13. He began as a staff reporter at the Mexico City newspaper Novedades de México, where he later became a columnist.

Other films based on his work include Roberto Gavaldón's acclaimed drama En La Palma de Tu Mano (In the Palm of Your Hand), which won all the top Ariel Awards of 1951; The Empty Star (La estrella vacía), directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and starring María Félix in 1960; Ismael Rodríguez's The Paper Man (El hombre de papel, 1963) with a performance by Ignacio López Tarso that won him the Golden Gate Award for Best Actor at the San Francisco International Film Festival; and Arturo Ripstein's Cadena perpetua (1979). Spota also directed several action films and the anthology film Amor en cuatro tiempos (Love in Four Times, 1955), starring Arturo de Córdova, Marga López, Jorge Mistral, Silvia Pinal and Ariadne Welter.

He was president of Mexico Boxing and Lucha libre Commission from 1959 until the day of his death in 1985. He was the first President of the World Boxing Council (WBC) from February 1963 until September 1968.