The Boxing History Blog

The defending WBC light-middleweight champion won the belt by obliterating the tough Ugandan John Mugabi in a round at the end of March 1990. Norris, who was ranked number five, wobbled Mugabi with a left hook at the 45-second point, following up the shot with a barrage of punches that put Mugabi down. The champion managed to survive the onslaught for 90 seconds, but towards the end of the round, a right to the chin relieved him of his senses and the championship belt. Born in Lubbock, Texas on 17th June 1967, Norris eventually had to leave his hometown after getting into a brawl at a baseball game, where he was stabbed by a masked assailant in a nightclub and shot at. "If I stayed, I'd probably be in a pine box." He went to California and followed his brother Orlin to the KO Corral boxing ranch which was run by Joe Sayatovich, who would eventually become his manager. After an amateur record of 291-4 and four Texas State Golden Gloves Championships to his name, Norris...

In January 1977, aged twenty-one, Luigi Minchillo made his professional debut, stopping fellow Italian Silvano Bischeri in the fifth round. Minchillo went 17-0 before suffering his first defeat, a fourth-round stoppage due to cuts against Alvaro Scarpelli. In April 1979, only five months after his first setback, he challenged Clemente Gessi for the vacant Italian light-middleweight title, winning it in the maiden round. He defended his national championship four times and in July 1981 he challenged the French-Algerian Louis Acaries for the European light-middleweight title. Minchillo became champion by unanimous decision and the following month had a second-round TKO victory over America's Danny Myers, before his big date with Roberto Duran in September 1981.  Duran returned to Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in his second bout since losing his world welterweight crown against Leonard. In the opposite corner was 'Il Guerriero Del Ring' or 'The Ring Warrior' Luigi Min...

Ayub Kalule was born in Uganda on 06th January 1954, fighting professionally out of Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1974 he had a very good year in the amateurs, lifting gold at the Commonwealth Games as a lightweight in Christchurch, New Zealand and becoming light-welterweight champion at the World Amateur Championships in Havana, Cuba. As an amateur, he travelled to Denmark with team Uganda in 1976 and decided to stay. He turned professional the same year, beating Kurt Hombach. Over a two-year period, he amassed an unbeaten record of 20-0 (12 KOs). In his next contest, he challenged Al Korovou, the Fiji born Australian, for his Commonwealth middleweight title. The bout took place in Brondby, Denmark and after a fourteenth-round technical knockout, Kalule was the new champion. He defended the crown once against Reggie Ford, knocking out his opponent in the fifth round. In November 1978 he took on Sugar Ray Seales. Kalule took a five-round lead, but he had to settle for a majority decis...

Born in Puerto Rico on 02nd August 1951, Esteban De Jesus was a skilful boxer with a fast array of sharp punches. He turned professional in February 1969, aged eighteen, defeating fellow debutant El Tarita. De Jesus won by a second-round knockout and Tarita never boxed again. In his twentieth contest, he travelled out of his homeland for the first time to take on Venezuelan Armando Mendoza, in his home city of Caracas. Mendoza had only lost the one contest in his thirteen-fight career, but De Jesus kept his undefeated record going with a seventh-round TKO victory. He next fought six weeks later on 24th July 1971, challenging Josue Marquez for his Puerto Rican lightweight championship. Marquez had only been champion for a month, after his points win over Victor Ortiz. De Jesus was too good for the defending champion, taking the title with a twelve-round points decision. He knocked out Ortiz in the fourth round, his national title not at stake, before facing Marquez once more at ...

Mike McCallum One of the most complete ring technicians of the modern era, Mike McCallum first came to prominence in the 1978 Commonwealth Games, held in his home country, picking up the gold medal in the welterweight division.  Born in Kingston, Jamaica on 07th December 1956, he left his native country to turn professional in the United States as a light-middleweight in January 1981. He stopped the American Rigoberto Lopez in the fourth round, going 12-0 before fighting in his home country in his thirteenth contest against Gilberto Almonte. Unfortunately for the Kingston crowd they only got to see 66 seconds of their man in action, issuing a sixth straight and final stoppage defeat on the Dominican's ledger. It would be Kevin Perry who stopped McCallum's stoppage spree, lasting the full ten rounds in front of the Madison Square Garden crowd in the Jamaican's fifteenth pro outing in June 1982.  Two fights later he faced the biggest name of his career to date in the guise of...