Kid Gavilan was a fixture in the boxing world of the early 1950s. He fought on television more than thirty times, in bouts for championships and non-title fights. From Camaguey, Cuba, the Kid was named by his first manager, who had a restaurant called El Gavilan or The Little Hawk. Kid Gavilan fought the majority of his fights in the United States after arriving here in the 1940s. Kid fought Sugar Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio, Billy Graham, Johnny Bratton, and others contenders, some of them multiple times. He was noted for his bolo punch, his quickness, and ring savvy. Gavilan had trouble making the 147-pound weight limit for welterweights and tried to move up to the middleweight division in 1954.