From a young age, Julio Gervacio was tipped for success and briefly held a junior featherweight title in the late 1980s.

One of nine children, Gervacio was born in La Romana, Dominican Republic, on October 17, 1967.

“We were a very humble family,” Gervacio told The Ring through Mauricio Gonzalez. “I came from a hardworking family; my dad worked in construction. We didn’t have too much, but we didn't need anything.”

He took up boxing at a young age and had around 70 fights, winning a handful of medals.

His parents were no longer together and when his father received residency to move to the nearby Island of Puerto Rico, Gervacio, who was 14, decided to go with him.

He carried on his boxing career in Puerto Rico and won a Golden Gloves tournament.

While still a teenager, Gervacio, who went in the region of 60-15 in the unpaid ranks, turned professional in December 1985.

“I had a no fear mentality, I didn’t have any nerves debuting,” said Gervacio, who made $1500. “I was very confident in what I had.”

Gervacio drew two of his first four fights, but advanced his record to 15-0-2. After just 23 months as a professional, he met the WBA 122-pound champ.

“[Louie] Espinoza fought a guy I would spar all the time, Tommy Valoy, I put a beatdown on him,” explained Gervacio, who won a 12-round unanimous decision.

“That gave me confidence. It was my first title fight, but I had the mentality that I could win. It was unbelievably emotional, it was incredible. I can't put it into words.”

However, his time at the top proved to be short and the shooting star lost his belt just three-months later to tricky Bernardo Pinango (SD 12).

“They gave him that title,” he said, still rankled by the decision. “Pinango had good movement, he would move around a lot. He was a very dirty fighter because he’d use his elbows.”

Gervacio quickly returned and notched four wins before getting a shot at the inaugural WBO junior featherweight title against Kenny Mitchell in April 1989.

“I started kind of slow and when I started to attack, I had built some confidence, but I was not able to knock him out,” said Gervacio, who lost a 12-round unanimous decision.

Later that year, he lost to Orlando Fernandez (KO 9) and didn’t fight again for almost two-and-a-half years.

“I had some marital issues,” Gervacio said, “and my jaw was broken against Orlando and [was] recovering, that's why I took the time off.”

After returning in March 1992, the classy boxer-puncher reeled off 10 consecutive wins before facing fellow Dominican Hector Acero-Sanchez for the WBC 122-pound title in Atlantic City in March 1995.

“It was a very tough fight,” he said. “It was tough to find him at times. I won that fight, I even knocked him down, I don’t believe they counted it, but he was younger, and he was with Don King and he decided to give him the title and victory. You know how that works.”

Gervacio stuck around for a couple more years, but was largely a steppingstone for the likes of a rising Juan Manuel Marquez (KO 8) at featherweight and Joel Casamayor (TKO 2) up at junior lightweight.

“I went into the fight overconfident, and I started giving Marquez more confidence and he started building on that," Gervacio said of his fight with the future Hall of Famer. “[Marquez] was definitely good. It was early in his career. He was 15 fights in, but definitely talented and skilled.

“I had a lot of confidence going into that fight [with Casamayor.] I had no fear, but that cost me to do well in the fight because I went straight at him and that cost me the loss in that fight.”

Since then, Gervacio (30-7-2, 23 KOs) has had a few issues with the law. In 2002, a court in New York convicted him of distributing narcotics. He was deported in 2009. In 2011, he was arrested again in Puerto Rico for illegally entering the United States.

Gervacio, now 58, is divorced and has 14 children. He lives in the Dominican Republic, but his children are in the U.S. He remains involved in boxing as a trainer and works with a couple of fighters on the Dominican national amateur team.

Juan Manuel Marquez: Technically, Marquez was so sound, every time he would hit me, I would feel the jab.

Bernardo Pinango: Elusive and difficult to hit and crafty.

Orlando Fernandez: Orlando Fernandez was a great boxer, great speed and was able to catch me and knocked me out.

Jose Valdez: Casamayor and Marquez had their strengths; I do feel Valdez had the best footwork.

Marquez: Probably the smartest and most intelligent fighter because he would pay attention to my movement before he’d throw and he was very accurate. He didn’t waste punches.

Louie Espinoza: He’d be on me, and he was definitely the strongest but my movement and everything helped me get the win.

Marquez: I hit him with everything, and I was not able to knock him out.

Joel Casamayor: I lost to Marquez by knockout. I was knocked down, but I was able to get up. But when Casamayor hit me, I was not able to recover at all.

Marquez: I fought such great fighters. Marquez was able to use his talent and skills to have the career he did. He was starting out, but you could definitely see the talent.

Marquez: He was an excellent boxer all-around. He was a person that was very thoughtful and calculated.