Memorable July: A Tale of Two Boxers
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 13 Jul 2024
July, the second month of summer in the Northern Hemisphere has seen many significant boxing bouts that are now etched in the storied annals of the fight sport.
These included the July 4, 1910 Battle of the Century bout between Jack Johnson in defense of his world heavyweight championship against comebacking former undefeated titlist Jim Jeffries, won by Jackson via 15th round knockout in their scheduled 45 round title bout. The fight had heavy racial undertone as Jackson was the first black fighter to officially win the heavyweight championship and Jeffries was the white former champion who was cajoled into ending retirement as Jackson's previous white challengers had failed dismally to unseat him.
Today (July 12 in the US), started the saga of another black fighter 28 years ago to climb up the scales and become one of the greatest two weight divisions champions in history.
He was Evander Holyfield who became world cruiserweight champion by 12 round split decision over Dwight Muhammad Qawi (formerly Braxton) at the Omni in Atlanta on July12, 1986.
With the victory, Holyfield became the first of the highly decorated 1984 Los Angeles Olympic US boxing team to win a professional world title. Holyfield successfully defended his world title in a December 1987 rematch with a fourth round knockout of Qawi.
Evander would be the first cruiserweight boxer and champion to win the world heavyweight championship by knocking out defending titlist Buster Douglas in the third round on Oct 25, 1990 becoming the first to win undisputed championships in two weight divisions.
Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.
Among the fighters he faced and mostly beaten included former champions Mike Tyson, George Foreman, and Larry Holmes. He was 1-1 with Riddick Bowe and Michael Moorer and 0-1-1 against Lennox Lewis. He finished his career with a record of 44-10-2 with 29 KOs His last six losses came when he was no longer in his prime.
July was also kind to another fighter who won his first and fourth world title ten pounds apart on the same date July 7 but five years in between.
Nonito Donaire was no decorated Olympian (He aspired for a slot in the US team with his brother Glenn but were eliminated by a fellow FilAm Brian Viloria in the 2000 US Olympics trials). But as a professional he was a well accomplished fighter.
Nonito won his first world title as pro when he knocked out Vic Darchinyan on July 7, 2007 to wrest the IBF/IBO flyweight championship from the brash then erstwhile unbeaten Armenian.
Five years later on July 7, 2012, Nonito knocked down Jeffrey Mathebula on the way to a decisive 12 rounds points victory to annex the Namibian's IBF super bantamweight title and add it to the WBO title he had earlier won from Wilfred Vasquez Jr.
Donaire Jr. has held multiple world championships in four weight classes from flyweight to featherweight, and is the oldest boxer in history to win a bantamweight world title (at age 38), as well as being the first three-time champion in that weight class. Donaire has also held world championships in three consecutive decades: the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s, being the sixth boxer to do so after Holyfield, Manny Pacquiao, Bernard Hopkins, Erik Morales and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Donaire though now into training of fighters, is still very much around as a boxer and is even considering to move down to super flyweight to fight UK's Sunny Edwards who has reportedly called him up.
Regardless he is cinch for enshrinement in the International Boxing Hall of Fame like Holyfield after he officially retired from boxing.
Photos, left: Donaire KOs Darchinyan July 7 and right: Holyfield-Qawi's July 4 poster.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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