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 24th 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 13th 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 17th 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 22nd 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.
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.