The Boxing History Blog

Tony Bellew was enjoying his honeymoon in Mykonos after marrying the mother of his three children, Rachael Roberts, when he watched on a phone in a bar, Oleksandr Usyk claim the undisputed cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision over Murat Gassiev in Moscow. In his broken English, the new champion from Ukraine called out the only challenger left to him before his inevitable move up into the heavyweight division; Tony Bellew.  The thirty-four-year-old Bellew, who had won the British, Commonwealth and WBC silver light-heavyweight titles and the cruiserweight WBO International and European belts after his failed WBC light-heavyweight title challenge to the hard-punching Adonis Stevenson, also captured the WBC cruiserweight title in front of his home city fans at Goodison Park stadium, the home of his beloved Everton FC. His back-to-back victories over David Haye at heavyweight cemented his legacy in the sport and secured him and his family financially. The WBC granted Bellew Champio

Salvador Sanchez  Next up to challenge Salvador Sanchez was Spain’s twenty-eight-year-old reigning European featherweight champion Roberto Castanon. The challenger boasted a 42-1 (24 KOs) record, and his only loss was a second-round knockout in his challenge to Danny Lopez for the WBC title in March 1979.   Sanchez-Castanon took place on 22nd March 1981 at Caesar Palace’s Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, with the twenty-two-year-old hardly losing a round on his way to a tenth-round technical knockout.   The champion did not fight again until 11th July in a ten-round non-title contest against America’s Nicky Perez at the Olympic Auditorium in front of a Los Angeles crowd. Sanchez was declared a unanimous winner with scores of 100-91, 100-90 and 98-92, improving his record to 40-1-1 (30 KOs), before a sterner challenge from Wilfredo Gomez scheduled for 21st August in Las Vegas.   Gomez, born in Puerto Rico on 29th October 1959, had a 96-3 amateur career, representing his country