Jose Tarres' Big Title Matches in Valencia (1948-1949)

"Iron Head" Jose Tarres and the big wrestling crowds that he drew in Valencia in 1948-1949.

Jose Tarres (real name Jose Roses Ibañez) made his pro wrestling debut in February 1947 in his home town of Barcelona, Spain. Initially he was working on the smaller shows in the area. Three weeks into his career he was already headlining those shows. Five months into his career he made his debut on the "A" shows in Barcelona and went straight into the main events. Tarres' rise to superstardom in Spain was meteoric and interesting story in itself, but that's a topic for another day. Instead let's focus our attention on three matches of his in Valencia that are known to have drawn really big crowds.

At the end of May 1947, less than four months into his career, Tarres headlined a major arena for the first time when he wrestled in a main event at the big bullring in Valencia for the first time. The bullring in Valencia had 16,851 seats, but obviously for events such as wrestling they could fit more people in there. Tarres would wrestle there for a number of years.

In September 1947 Tarres won his first championship, the Catalan Middleweight Championship, and he was now chasing the Spanish Middleweight Championship, which at the time was held by the top Spanish star - the second-generation wrestler Victorio Ochoa. Tarres and Ochoa wrestled for the first time on 24 October 1947, in Barcelona. Tarres knocked out and defeated Ochoa with his trademark headbutt, but it was a non-title match. In a title match three weeks later, Ochoa defeated Tarres and retained his title. It was a very memorable 7-and-a-half-minute sprint that saw Tarres get split open by an Ochoa elbow strike while Ochoa withstood several Tarres headbutts until he finally managed to submit Tarres by virtue of his superior technique. Then in April 1948 Tarres defeated Ochoa in another non-title match in Barcelona and then a month later they wrestled again for the title, but the match ended in a no contest. This was all part of Tarres' road to the championship and things culminated at the show show below. Only a year and a half into his career and Tarres was already drawing a reported audience of 22,000 people.

14 August 1948
Valencia, Spain
Plaza de Toros de Valencia
Reported attendance: more than 22,000 fans
Jose Tarres def. Victorio Ochoa (c) to become the new Spanish Middleweight champion

Jose Tarres and Victorio Ochoa after their match and a Spanish article about the match

Sidenote: Just six days later Tarres defeated the Englishman Jack Dale (c) at Plaza de toros de las Arenas in Barcelona to become the European Middleweight champion too. The local press described the attendance as “the crowd completely occupied all the seats, there wasn't a single space left to stand, both the field and the stands and the upper tiers were completely occupied with spectators”. Las Arenas was a 14,893-seat bullring so we're looking at another 15,000+ crowd. Tarres was now not only the first Spanish (catch) wrestler to win a European Championship, but also the first triple champion in Spanish pro wrestling history (Catalan, Spanish and European champion at the same time).

The following year Tarres had another big title match in Valencia - a European Middleweight Championship defense against the Frenchman Georges Freymond.

30 July 1949
Valencia, Spain
Plaza de Toros de Valencia
Reported attendance: about 23,000 fans
Jose Tarres (c) def. Georges Freymond to retain his European Middleweight Title

Spanish article about Jose Tarres vs. Georges Freymond

Around the same time Tarres was in the process of moving up a weight class and was chasing the top championship in it - the World Mid-Heavyweight Championship. The title was held by the Hungarian Stan Karolyi, who was a top name in both Spain and France. In February 1949 Tarres and Karolyi had each won a non-title match in Barcelona and then finally in September they had the big championship showdown at the bullring in Valencia.

Jose Tarres and Stan Karolyi

24 September 1949
Valencia, Spain
Plaza de Toros de Valencia
Reported attendance: 25,000 fans
Stan Karolyi (c) def. Jose Tarres to retain his World Mid-Heavyweight Title
= One report said 25,000, another two reports said over 25,000, and two additional reports described it as “the crowd filled the bullring” and “full” respectively. Additionally, a Barcelona article from several months later claimed 10,000 people had been turned away because there were no tickets left.

Spanish article about Jose Tarres vs. Stan Karolyi

A moment from the match: Jose Tarres vs. Stan Karolyi

Jose Tarres and Stan Karolyi after their match