The First Queensbury Rules World Title Fights in Each Country

ALGERIA – MAURICE HOLTZER v PHIL DOLHEM (05/10/1937)

Dolhem boxed a total of 95 rounds during 1937 alone, all nine of his fights going the distance.  Unfortunately for him he came off worse in five of them including this 15-rounder with Frenchmen Holtzer for the world featherweight title.

 

ARGENTINA – PASCUAL PEREZ v DANNY KID (22/10/1955)

Despite not actually being billed as a world title fight when both Perez and Kid weighed-in within the flyweight limit (107lb and 111 ¾ lb respectively) it was decided that the title which Perez had won the year before in Japan would be at stake.  Perez retained his belt with a points win over 10 rounds.

 

 

ARUBA – DANIEL ZARAGOZA v FREDDIE JACKSON (04/05/1985)

Zaragoza was behind on two of the three scorecards in this contest for the vacant WBC bantamweight belt when Jackson got himself disqualified thanks to an intentional head-butt in the seventh session.

 

 

AUSTRALIA – YOUNG GRIFFO v TORPEDO BILLY MURPHY (02/09/1890

The princely sum of 200 sovereigns was at stake in this fight to the finish held at Sydney Amateur Gymnastic Club aswell as Griffo’s world featherweight title strap.  The furious dust up came to an end after 15 rounds when an exhausted Torpedo decided he couldn’t take any more, but that didn’t stop him challenging Griffo to a bare knuckle fight for a purse of £100 immediately after.

 

AUSTRIA – GUSTAVE ROTH v HEINZ LAZEK (01/09/1936)

Light-heavyweight Roth claimed the vacant world title on points in Vienna against Austrian Lazek.

 

BAHAMAS – ELISHA OBED v TONY GARDNER (28/02/1976)

The week after his 24^th birthday, Obed turned the tables on knockout specialist Gardner by finishing him off inside two rounds of his first world light-middleweight title defence.

 

 

BELGIUM – GUSTAVE ROTH V MERLO PRECISO (24/03/1937)

The year after Roth won the vacant light-heavyweight title against Lazek he defended it for the third time, again on points after 15 rounds.

 

 

BOPHUTHATSWANA – MIKE WEAVER v GERRIE COETZEE (25/10/1980)

One of the most obscure countries on the list, Bophuthatswana was an independent country for only a short time in what is now South Africa.  Coetzee gave the much bigger Weaver a good fight in the early rounds before being counted out by the referee during the 13^th stanza.

 

BRAZIL – EDER JOFRE v PIERO ROLLO (25/03/1961)

The Golden Bantam as he was known stopped the very game Rollo after nine rounds, a constant volley of punches in what was to be the last round left the Italian bloodied and unable to continue.

 

CANADA – RUBE FEARNS v MATTY MATTHEWS (24/05/1901)

After splitting a pair of decisions between them in the US in 1900, Matthews winning the world welterweight championship at his second attempt, a 20 round rubber match was organised north of the border in Toronto the following year.  Despite Matthews taking a healthy lead into the tenth round two solid lefts to the jaw by Fearns put him on his back.  He regained his composure but a right cross ended matters shortly after.

 

CHILE – MIGUEL CANTO v MARTIN VARGAS (30/11/1977)

Canto went 15 rounds to defend his title more than any other boxer in history, twice against Vargas, first in Canto’s native Mexico before this return bout in Chile, the homeland of Vargas later in the year.  Both went unanimously to Canto on points.

CHINA – LEEONZER BARBER v MIKE SEDILLO (27/02/1993)

Barber defended his WBO light heavyweight title for the second time on points in Beijing.

 

COLOMBIA – EDER JOFRE v BERNARDO CARABELLO (27/11/1964)

At this point in time no other boxer could hold a candle to Jofre.  Undefeated after 50 professional fights including 37 knockouts, he truly was the P4P king of his day.  However the highly ranked Carabello was himself undefeated at this point and Jofre had not fought for 28 months.  Nevertheless, ring rust didn’t prove to be much of a problem as Jofre chalked up his 17^th consecutive knockout.

 

 

COSTA RICA – RICARDO ARREDONDO v JOSE ISAAC MARIN (29/01/1972)

Three months after winning the WBC super featherweight title from Yoshiaki Numata, Arredondo retained his title on points against Marin.  He wasn’t able to hang on to his form and lost 17 of his last 27 fights.

 

CUBA – JESS WILLARD v JACK JOHNSON (05/04/1915)

Well ahead on merit after the first 20 rounds, it was a combination of age, inactivity and the blistering Havana heat that saw The Galveston Giant wilt in a matter of minutes before being KO’d by a Willard in the peak of physical condition.  Years later Johnson tried to make out that he took a dive for a payment of $50,000 but few people believed him then or now.

 

CURAÇAO – KHAOSAI GALAXY v ISRAEL CONTRERAS (01/11/1986)

Galaxy was in fine form when he produced his seventh KO in a row, fourth as world super flyweight champion, when he added Contreras to his growing list of scalps in the fifth.

 

DENMARK – CARLOS MONZON v TOM BOGS (19/08/1972)

The natural light heavyweight Bogs dropped down to middleweight in an attempt to take the 160lb crown from Monzon but was unable to contend with his power and was knocked down three times in the fifth and what proved to be final round of a scheduled 15.

 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – CARLOS CRUZ v CARLOS ORTIZ (29/06/1968)

Two time lightweight champion Ortiz had been out of the ring for the best part of a year before dropping this split decision over 15 rounds.

 

DUTCH WEST INDIES – DANIEL ZARAGOZA v FREDDIE JACKSON (04/05/1985)

Zaragoza retained his WBC bantamweight title in Aruba after Jackson was disqualified for an intentional head butt in the seventh round.

 

ECUADOR – SAM SERRANO v ALBERTO HERRARA (15/01/1977)

Serrano recovered from an early scare of being knocked down in the first round to stop the relatively inexperienced Ecuadorian inside of 11 rounds.

 

ENGLAND – GEORGE DIXON v NUNC WALLACE (27/06/1890)

Back in the early days of Queensbury rules boxing it was not uncommon for England, America and Australia all to appoint their own ‘world’ champions.  When the stateside champion Canadian Dixon travelled to England he was aiming to become undisputed featherweight champion.  He got his wish at The Pelican Club, Soho after 19 brutal rounds when a battered and bloodied Wallace uttered, “Stop. I’ll give in.”  Dixon was the first black world boxing champion and the following year became the boxing two weight world champion in boxing history.

 

FINLAND – DAVEY MOORE v OLLI MAKI (17/08/1962)

A little over six months before his death in the ring against Sugar Ramos, Moore travelled to Helsinki to defend his featherweight crown.  After Maki was knocked down for the third time in two rounds the referee had seen enough and waved off the contest.

 

FRANCE – TOMMY BURNS v JEWEY SMITH (18/04/1908)

In a mismatch that would not even be allowed in today’s fight game, Englishman Smith having just seven professional ROUNDS under his belt at the start of the fight, Burns notched up his fifth consecutive KO defence of his heavyweight belt in 5 rounds.

 

GERMANY – GUSTAVE ROTH v ADOLPH WITT (29/10/1936)

Roth clearly wasn’t fazed by taking his campaign on the road, he makes his third appearance on the list here.  Again he went the whole 15 rounds against Witt.  (If you were thinking Max Schmeling may have been missed out here I should point out that he won his title in New York, defended it in Cleveland and lost it back in New York.)

 

GHANA – SUGAR RAMOS v FLOYD ROBERTSON (09/05/1964)

In the mid-60’s Robertson twice challenged for the world featherweight title, in 1966 against Vincente Saldivar and two years previously in this hard fought and close split decision which he just happened to be on the wrong end of.

 

GUADALOPE – GILBERT DELE v CARLOS ELLIOTT (23/02/1991)

Dele was undefeated at the point where he met Elliott for the vacant light middleweight belt and had been in the ring just one month prior to this seventh round win.

 

HAWAII – MANUEL ORTIZ v DAVID KUI KONG YOUNG (30/05/1947)

Hawaii being its own nation prior to its admission to the United States, Honolulu Stadium saw local bantamweight Young challenge Ortiz for his world strap only to lose out via split decision.

 

HOLLAND – ZACK PADILLA v HAROLD MILLER (18/04/1994

Padilla’s penultimate fight before retiring as WBO light welterweight champion was this convincing seventh round stoppage.

 

HUNGARY – SIMON BROWN v JORGE MAYSONET (18/02/1989)

Maysonet was clearly outclassed in this encounter, being floored once in the second and twice in the third before the referee stepped in later in the round while he was on the ropes.

 

INDONESIA – SAOUL MAMBY v THOMAS AMERICO (29/08/1981)

Mamby’s fourth defence of his 140lb crown saw him travel to Jakarta where he was taken the distance by Americo who was taking part in just his third fight as a professional boxer.

 

ISRAEL - WELCOME NCITA V FABRICE BENICHOU (10/03/1990)

Fighting someone with possibly the least appropriate name for a boxer I’ve ever heard Benichou probably didn’t feel very welcome in Tel Aviv when after 12 rounds he saw a close but unanimous decision fall in favour of the IBF super bantamweight champion Ncita.

 

IVORY COAST – ELISHA OBED v SEA ROBINSON (25/04/1976)

The quick-fisted Robinson gave a good account of himself in front of 35,000 people in his native Ivory Coast against light-middleweight king Obed only to lose on points.

 

ITALY – PANAMA AL BROWN v DOM BERNASCONI (18/03/1933)

It’s perhaps not surprising that bantamweight legend Brown went 12 rounds to defend his crown in Milan against Bernasconi – neither man was ever knocked out in any of their combined 235 professional fights.

 

JAMAICA – EDDIE PERKINS v BUNNY GRANT (19/04/1964)

The great Willie Pep officiated this bout as referee which saw light welterweight champion Perkins win a unanimous decision over Jamaican Grant.

 

JAPAN – YOSHIO SHIRAI v DADO MARINO (19/05/1952)

In the third installment of four bouts between these two flyweights, Shirai had home advantage and in front of 40,000 of his countrymen defended his title over 15 rounds.

 

KAZAKSTAN – JULIO CESAR VASQUEZ v JUAN RAMON MEDINA (22/01/1994)

One scorecard which read 119-102 after the final bell should tell you all you need to know about this 154lb title bout.

 

KUWAIT – SOT CHITALADA v FREDDIE CASTILLO (22/02/1986)

Chitalada had become WBC flyweight king in just his ninth professional fight and clearly was in no mood to show former champ Castillo any respect when he won on points in what was to prove the last fight of Castillo’s career.

 

MALAYSIA – MUHAMMAD ALI v JOE BUGNER (01/07/1975)

Three years after their first meeting Ali and Bugner met again, this time in Kuala Lumpur and this time the world heavyweight title was at stake.  The result sadly for Joe was the same, a loss on points, albeit over 15 rounds instead of 12.

 

MEXICO – IKE WILLIAMS v JUAN ZURITA (18/04/1945)

Lightweight legend Williams won the first of his world titles in style when the power and volume of his punches were too much for the champ; Zurita was left in a heap in the Mexico City Bullring inside just two stanzas.

 

MONACO – CARLOS MONZON v NINO BENVENUTI (08/05/1971)

In their second fight Benvenuti’s manager throw the towel in during the third round to his man who had already gone down to twice to the South Americans huge punches.

 

MOROCCO – KHALID RAHILOU v MARTY JAKUBOWSKI (05/07/1997)

The sweet science came to Casablanca for the first defence of Rahilou’s light welterweight contest which was stopped in the seventh due to the three knockdown rule being in force.

 

NICARAGUA – ALEXIS ARGUELLO v RIGOBERTO RIASCO (31/05/1975)

Fighting in his homeland for the first time since winning the world featherweight strap from Ruben Olivares in 1974, The Explosive Thin Man was in fine form and Riasco could make it to the end of the second stanza.

 

NIGERIA – DICK TIGER v GENE FULLMER (10/08/1963)

Hoping for it to be third time lucky having previously lost one and drawn one against Tiger, Fullmer’s manager had this middleweight title bout stopped after seven rounds.

 

NORWAY – ALFREDO ESCALERA v SVEIN-ERIK PAULSEN (12/12/1975)

The previously undefeated Norwegian Paulsen certainly deserved his tilt at Escalera’s super featherweight crown but by round nine the referee was forced to step in and halt proceedings.

 

NORTHERN IRELAND – RINTY MONAGHAN v JACKIE PATERSON (23/03/1948)

Five months after winning the vacant flyweight title Monaghan returned to his native Belfast to knock Patterson out inside of seven rounds.

 

PANAMA – ISMAEL LAGUNA v CARLOS ORTIZ (10/04/1965)

After an unbeaten streak stretching back four years Ortiz was pipped by majority decision after 15 rounds in this lightweight title bout.  He would go on to recapture the belt later in the year.

 

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – EUSEBIO PEDROZA v JOHNNY ABA (17/11/1979)

Crossing the path of Pedroza when he was arguably at the peak of his powers the very game Aba went 11 rounds before being stopped by the Panamanian whose 19 featherweight title defences is still a division record.

 

PHILIPPINES – PANCHO VILLA v CLEVER SENCIO (01/05/1925)

Often considered one of the greatest Asian boxers of all time it is easy to forget that the legendary Villa (or Francisco Villaruel Guilledo before he took on the name of the equally legendary Mexican revolutionary) was dead before he was 24.  His last successful title defence saw the flyweight champ travel back to his native Philippines.

 

POLAND – KRZYSZTOF WLODARCZYK v STEVE CUNNINGHAM (25/11/2006)

With Cunningham preferring to stay on the outside while Wlodarczyk doing his better work at closer range this was a tight contest to decide who deserved the vacant IBF cruiserweight strap.  In the end the Pole nicked it thanks to a split decision.

 

PORTUGAL – CHRIS EUBANK v RON ESSETT (27/06/1992)

1992 was a busy year for WBO super middleweight champ Eubank.  The third of his five bouts that year being this 12 round decision over American Essett in Quinta do Lago.

 

PUERTO RICO – SIXTO ESCOBAR v LOU SALICA (21/03/1937)

Jack Dempsey was in charge during this bantamweight title fight in San Juan.  Escobar went on to defend his belt via decision.  Such was his celebrity he is also the first boxer in history to have a stadium named after him!

 

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND – TOMMY BURNS v JEM ROCHE (17/03/1908)

Just 88 seconds after the first bell rang out in the Theatre Royal, Dublin to start this heavyweight title contest Roche was floored by Burns and that, as they say, was that!

 

ROMANIA – LEONARD DORIN v RAUL BALBI (31/05/2002)

Earlier in the year Romanian Dorin had beaten Balbi for the WBA lightweight title and in this rematch he repeated the feat on home turf.

 

RUSSIA – AL COLE v GLENN McCRORY (16/07/1993)

Cruiserweight champion Cole travelled to Moscow to defend his belt against Brit McCrory winning comfortably via unanimous decision.

 

SCOTLAND – JOHNNY HILL v ERNIE JARVIS (29/06/1929)

In his last fight before his untimely death three months later Scotsman Hill defended his flyweight title at Cartyne Greyhound Track in Glasgow, Jarvis being disqualified in the tenth session.

 

SINT MAARTEN – PERNELL WHITAKER v WILFREDO RIVERA (12/04/1996)

Whitaker’s sixth defence of his welterweight crown saw Puerto Rican Rivera take the champ all the way only to lose on a split decision.

 

SOUTH AFRICA – KID MCCOY v BILLY DOHERTY (26/12/1896)

Born Norman Selby in 1872, McCoy was a big hitter who pioneered the corkscrew punch.  He defended his middleweight (158lb) title in Johannesburg with a ninth round knockout on Boxing Day 1896.

 

SOUTH KOREA – KI-SOO KIM v NINO BENVENUTI (25/06/1966)

Ki-Soo Kim became the first world champion from South Korea when he took the light middleweight title off the man who had knocked him out of the Rome Olympics as an amateur six years earlier.

 

SPAIN – FRANKIE GENARO v VICTOR FERRAND (25/03/1931)

The first Olympic champion to win a professional world boxing strap, Genaro travelled to Barcelona to see off the challenge of Spaniard Ferrand.  While the local boy looked to have shaded a decision, the referee (who was also the sole judge) decided it was not enough of a majority to take the title and deemed the match a draw.

 

SWEDEN – JIMMY ELLIS v FLOYD PATTERSON (14/09/1968)

When Edwin Ahlquist the former manager of Ingemar Johansson turned promoter and brought the heavyweight title contest to his native Sweden it was such a big event that it was shown on television in colour, a rarity in those days.  The first defence for Ellis, the bout went all 15 rounds before referee Harold Valan awarded the win to the champion by nine rounds to six.

 

SWITZERLAND – MAURICE HOLTZER v MAURICE DUBOIS (19/02/1938)

Featherweight champion Holtzer was held to a draw by Dubois in Geneva.  The European based IBU stripped all its title holders later that year in a bid to see just one universally recognised champion per weight.

 

THAILAND – JIMMY CARRUTHERS v CHEMRERN SONGKITRAT (02/05/1954)

After a monsoon hit and both boxers ended up fighting in barefoot Curruthers retained his bantamweight title with a seven rounds to five victory before retiring, although he did attempt an ill-advised comeback in the 1960s.

 

TRINIDAD – DONNY LALONDE v EDDIE DAVIS (27/11//87)

Lalonde won the vacant light-heavyweight belt with a second round stoppage.  He defended it once before losing it to Sugar Ray Leonard who also retained his super-middleweight title making it the only bout in history where belts at two different weights were up for grabs.

 

TUNISIA – AL BROWN v YOUNG PEREZ (01/11/1934)

Perez refused to fight on in the tenth round of this bantamweight bout claiming he’d been followed by Brown.  The referee disagreed and counted him out.

 

UNITED STATES – JACK DEMPSEY v GEORGE FULLJAMES (30/07/1884)

In July 1884 a new era of the sport was ushered in when the original Jack Dempsey beat George Fulljames in the 22^nd round of their middleweight title bout, the first Queensbury world title bout ever.

 

URUGUAY – PASCUEL PEREZ v OSCAR SUAREZ (30/06/1956)

Champion Perez beat the count to get off the floor and defend his flyweight title in 11 rounds in Montevideo.

 

VENEZUELA – PASCUAL PEREZ v RAMON ARIAS (19/04/1958)

Undefeated flyweight champ Perez battled to a 15-round win against the first Venezuelan to challenge for a world boxing title.

 

YUGOSLAVIA  – NINO BENVENUTI v TOM BETHEA (23/05/1970)

In what is now Croatia, this was the first world title fight in any communist country.  Benvenuti defended his middleweight belts successfully for the final time, avenging a loss against Bethea four months prior to this encounter.

 

WALES – IKE WILLIAMS v RONNIE JAMES (04/09/1946)

Another surprising entry on the list here (I had to double check that Jimmy Wilde never fought in his homeland for a title) Williams knocked Welshman James six times before stopping him in nine in Ninian Park, Cardiff.

 

ZAIRE – MUHAMMAD ALI v GEORGE FOREMAN (30/10/1974)

Arguably the most famous boxing match in history, even people who have never watched boxing in their entire lives know of The Rumble in the Jungle.  In Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) Muhammad Ali took on the younger and stronger George Foreman in an attempt to reclaim the world heavyweight title he was stripped of for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.  Employing the now famous rope-a-dope technique Ali leaned back on the ropes and covered up while Foreman punched himself out aswell as leaning on Foreman and holding his head down in clinches sapping his energy further.  Then in the eighth round, when Foreman had exhausted himself, Ali exploded off the ropes with a flurry of punches which floored Foreman for a ten count from referee Zach Clayton and Ali was now a two time world heavyweight champion.