Obituary: Jose Urtain

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Jose Urtain (right) fighting Henry Cooper for the European heavyweight boxing championship in November 1970. Urtain was found dead in Madrid yesterday after falling from a 10th- floor window. He was 49.

Urtain was stopped by Cooper at the beginning of the ninth round in this fight at Wembley Pool, in London. Urtain first won the European title in April 1970, while still a novice in the ring, stopping Peter Weiland of Germany. After losing the title, he regained it from Cooper a year later, only to lose it once more to Juergen Blin, of Germany, in 1972. He retired from boxing in 1977. Before taking up boxing, Urtain had made his name in the sport of rock-lifting in his native Basque country. He was on the short side for a heavyweight, and noted for the power of his hooking.