Paris (AFP)

Jean-Claude Bouttier, who died on Saturday at the age of 74, was one of the few French boxers to have enjoyed success on and off the ring with the Canal + adventure. His first young physique, his style and his communicative qualities have contributed a lot.

His main sporting achievements in the 1970s were a fight, followed by a rematch, against Argentina's Carlos Monzon, considered one of the greatest boxers of the twentieth century.

Their clash for the title of the middleweight on June 17, 1972, in front of 30,000 people gathered at the Stadium of Colombes, remained in the memories.

Highly mobile, Bouttier dropped the native of Santa Fe in the 6th round, after having been himself in the mat during this recovery. The Frenchman, touched to the eye - Monzon recognized years later having tried to erase it voluntarily - abandons the call of the 13th round because of an internal bleeding.

Convinced to have his chances against the multiple world champion, who was to remain undefeated for thirteen years (only three defeats in a hundred fights during his career), Bouttier gets a revenge at Roland Garros.

- Successful reconversion -

His friend Alain Delon organizes the event on September 29, 1973. The native of Saint-Pierre-la-Cour, in the Mayenne, became the new Marcel Cerdan, middleweight also haloed glory but the tragic end.

"At Colombes, I moved a lot, at Roland Garros, I went in permanently," explained the Frenchman, born October 13, 1944. "In fact, during the first twelve rounds, I was world champion, I was leading to the points, then he touched me to the liver. "

Beaten again by the Argentine, rightly nicknamed "the rifle", by unanimous decision after the fifteen rounds, Bouttier briefly recovers in 1974 his title of champion of Europe, acquired in 1971, before putting a term to his career after a fight against Max Cohen.

His great rival in the Hexagon wins after a decision that Bouttier "never digested, as she (he) seemed unfair".

Retired rings at the evening of this defeat, December 16, 1974, at the age of 30 (64 wins, 7 defeats, 1 draw), he decided, after a few months of "wandering", to recover and organize your new life outside the spotlight.

But not as a butcher, the job that he apprenticed to 14 years in Laval while discovering boxing thanks to his boss, to play at 16 years a first victorious amateur fight. He then went to the professionals in Paris in 1965, alongside Jean Bretonnel, "the" French manager of the time.

- "Feeling like being in the ring" -

He will take care of educational boxing, will organize in 1975 the World Championship between Gratien Tonna and Monzon, with whom he will remain very close, and will become public relations for Pony, a brand of sports equipment, then director of the communication of a advertising support company.

He will also have a role in Claude Lelouch's "Les autres et les autres" in 1980 and will launch his clothing brand before embarking on the Canal + adventure.

At the invitation of his friend Charles Biétry, head of sports in the new pay TV channel, he started in 1984 a career as a consultant and commentator that will last more than 25 years, until 2011.

"When I commented, I had the real feeling of being in the ring, as if I was taking the shots, I was wetting my shirt," he said in his biography "Final Fist", published in 2011.

At the edge of the ring in Las Vegas for Hagler / Hearns, his first fight as a consultant in 1985, he finds an old acquaintance, Bob Arum, a great American promoter he puts in contact with Canal + to obtain a contract who will make the fortune of the encrypted channel.

"My passion is the field, the rings, the boxers," he explained to those who criticized him for not having engaged politically. Many believe, however, that he would have made an excellent president of the French Boxing Federation.

© 2019 AFP