December 22nd

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1888- Heavyweight boxing champ John L Sullivan challenges Jake Kilrain, from what I can understand the fight takes place July 8th of the following year with Sullivan winning by KO in round 75.

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1991: Sung Kil Moon KO 6 Torsak Pongsupa, Inchon, S. Korea. Retains WBC Super Flyweight Title.


Born On This Day

1943- Pedro Adigue Jr (born in Bontod, Philippines)
orld champion boxer. He came from the small town of Bontod in Palanas, Masbate, the Philippines.
Adigue became a professional boxer on February 18, 1962. After 14 bouts (11 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws), he fought Carl Peñalosa for the Philippine lightweight title but lost on points. Adigue challenged Peñalosa again for the same title on August 2, 1965 but this time won by knockout in the 7th round. He defended his crown once with a decision win over Rudy Perucho June 10, 1966.
He then won the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) lightweight title in September 30, 1966 and has defended it five times.
He then won the vacant WBC junior welterweight championship in 1968 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines, when he defeated Adolph Pruitt. In his first defense on January 31, 1970, he lost the title to Bruno Arcari by a unanimous decision. He won the OPBF junior welterweight title in 1973. Adigue retired in 1977.

1946- Rodrigo Valdez (born in Bolívar, Colombia)
Former boxer from Colombia who was a two-time world middleweight champion and whose rivalry with Carlos Monzón has long been considered among the most legendary boxing rivalries. Valdez was trained by International Boxing Hall of Fame coach Gil Clancy. Many people consider him, Antonio Cervantes and Miguel "Happy" Lora to be the three greatest boxers ever to come from that country.
* 29 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time
Rodrigo Valdéz began his professional boxing career with a win over Orlando Pineda in a four-round decision on October 25, 1963, at Cartagena. He won his next eight bouts, but on October 2, 1965, he lost his undefeated record, beaten by knockout in six by Rudy Escobar.
After that defeat, he went on another undefeated streak of fifteen fights, of which he won thirteen and tied two. However, on his first fight abroad, February 16, 1969, in Ecuador, he lost a ten-round decision to Daniel Guanin. After one more fight in Cartagena, he moved to the United States. Trying to gain more recognition, he campaigned, from 1969 to 1970, in the states of New York, Nevada and California, winning seven fights and losing two. Then, he returned to South America for four more fights in his homeland, winning all.
In his next match, held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, with Bobby Cassidy on August 9, 1971, Valdez won by knockout in round six, because the fight doctor deemed Cassidy not fit to continue from a cut around his eye which had been ruled as produced by a Valdez punch. At the time, nobody knew that Cassidy had hepatitis A. As a consequence of this, Valdez also became affected by the disease. Given a quarantine, he refused to quit boxing periodically and continued training during his time of illness. Separated from most of the world, he was fit enough to win two more fights within three months of his initial diagnosis of hepatitis.
Valdez had nineteen wins in a row when he met Philadelphia legend Bennie Briscoe for the NABF middleweight title, in Nouméa, New Caledonia, on September 1, 1973, beating Briscoe in a 12-round decision to capture the regional championship and becoming a world-ranked middleweight contender. After this win, Valdez claimed for a world title shot at Monzon.
He won two more fights, and the WBC made him its number one contender at Monzon's title. But Monzon did not feel like fighting the Colombian at that moment, so the WBC stripped Monzon of the world title (Monzon retained the WBA title) and made Valdez and Briscoe rematch, this time with the WBC world middleweight title on the line. On May 25, 1974, at Monte Carlo, Valdez became a world champion for the first time, by knocking Briscoe out in seven rounds. Valdez subsequently retained his title against Rudy Valdez, Gratien Tonna and Max Cohen, until Monzon finally agreed to meet him.
One week before the long awaited match-up, on June 19, 1976, Valdez's brother was murdered during a barroom fight in Colombia. Already in Monte Carlo for the fight, Valdez wanted to pull out of it to join his family in mourning. But he was contractually bound to fight Monzon, so he had to stay in Europe, and on June 26, Valdez, who to many observers seemed rather uninterested, lost in the unification bout to Monzon in a 15-round unanimous decision. Valdez won two more fights after returning to Colombia.
The WBA and WBC, recognizing that Valdez probably wasn't in the best of moods to fight during his first confrontation with Monzon, ordered a second fight between the rivals, and so they fought again, on July 30, 1977, once again at Monte Carlo. This time around, Valdez knocked down Monzon in the second round, becoming only the second man to send the Argentine to the floor in Monzon's long career. Valdez was leading after seven rounds, but Monzon mounted a late rally that allowed him to keep the title by a close decision.
Monzon announced his retirement from boxing afterwards, and so Valdez and Briscoe were matched once again, on November 5, 1977, for the vacant undisputed world Middleweight championship, in Campione d'Italia, which belonged back then not to Italy, but actually to Switzerland. Valdez recovered the world Middleweight championship, with a 15-round decision over Briscoe. This time around, however, he would lose his title on his first defense, on April 22, 1978, by points in 15 rounds to another Argentine, Hugo Corro, in San Remo, Italy.
In November 11 of that same year, they had a rematch, at Buenos Aires' Luna Park Stadium, and Corro repeated his 15-round victory to retain the world title.
Valdez fought only twice more, winning both fights by knockout. After beating Gilberto Amonte on November 28, 1980, in the first round, he retired from boxing for good.
Valdez had a record of 63 wins, eight losses and two draws as a professional boxer, with 42 wins by knockout.

1960- Tyrell Biggs (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
American heavyweight boxer who won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, CA in boxing at the Superheavyweight division, after gaining bronze the previous year at the 1983 Pan American Games. He stands at 6'5 and weighed from 212 lbs to 247 lbs in his last fight.
Known by the nickname, "Styrofoam", he first made a sporting splash as a basketball player at West Philadelphia High, in Philadelphia. He was a starting forward for the Speedboys' Public League and City champions in 1978, a team that extended a state-record winning streak to 68 before a regular season loss to Overbrook. In '77, one of Biggs' teammates was Gene Banks, who went on to excel at Duke and play in the NBA.
Biggs' first major success as an amateur boxer was winning the gold medal at the 1981 United States National Boxing Championships in the super-heavyweight division. He repeated this feat the next year, and also in 1982 he won the World Championships in Munich, West Germany, where in the final he defeated Francesco Damiani from Italy on points, who beat the legendary Teofilo Stevenson earlier in the competition. Damiani later went on to win the WBO heavyweight belt as a professional, and took his revenge on Biggs in a non-title fight in 1988 via a fifth round stoppage on cuts. In 1983 Biggs won a bronze medal on the Pan American Games, losing to future professional challenger Jorge Luis Gonzalez in the semi-final.
In 1984 Biggs won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, defeating future professional world champion Lennox Lewis in the quarter-finals. In the Olympics final Biggs beat Damiani on points again. The Cubans, including Stevenson, who defeated Biggs two times before the Olympics, did not participate on the games due to the Soviet boycott.
Biggs finished his amateur career with an outstanding record of 108-6-4.
He turned professional soon after his Olympic victory, scoring a 6 round unanimous decision over Mike Evans on November 15, 1984 at Madison Square Garden in New York City in his first bout. Besides Tyson, Lewis and Damiani he went on to face such other boxing luminaries as James "Quick" Tillis, Ossie Ocasio, Riddick Bowe, Tony Tubbs, Buster Mathis, Jr., and Larry Donald before ending his career with a second round knockout of Carlton Davis in 1998. He never won a title, but stalked the rankings for much of the mid to late 1980s.
Biggs' biggest pro fight was against Tyson, for the latter's undisputed heavyweight title. Biggs and Tyson disliked each other, and Biggs bad mouthed Tyson before the fight. Biggs attempted to outbox Tyson, using his jab and movement. But Tyson kept coming in and landing big punches, tiring and hurting Biggs, and also cutting him near his eye and on his lip. By the seventh round the fight seemed to be coming to an end, as Tyson mercilessly punished Biggs' face, whose head became swollen and bloody. Tyson hit him with a mammoth left hook, knocking him down. Biggs got up, but was dropped by another savage left, and the fight was stopped. Tyson admitted after the fight to carrying Biggs so he could inflict more damage, to avenge Biggs' pre-match comments.
Unfortunately the talented Biggs' life has been a constant fight against drug and alcohol addiction. He had to enter rehab only a few months after turning professional, and some declare that his career at the time of the Tyson fight was already effectively over. An article published when he was 40 years old characterized him as "still fighting between stints in rehabilitation".
His professional ring record concluded with 30 wins (20 knockouts) and 10 losses in 40 contests.
Biggs competed in the American Gladiators Season 5 Gold Medal Challenge of Champions in 1993, losing to 1984 Gold Downhill Skiing medalist Bill Johnson.

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FIFTY YEARS AGO:

December 22, 1961-

Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina-

1948 Olympic gold medalist, former longtime world flyweight champion (1954-1960), and future Hall of Famer (IBHOF, WBHF) Pascual Perez outpointed Rodolfo Trivis over 10 rounds. This was the first of four 10-round decisions Perez would win over Trivis.

Torino, Piemonte, Italy-

Future Italian and European welterweight champion Fortunato Manca, who would challenge for the world junior middleweight title in 1964, stopped England's Tony Smith in the ninth round.

Geneva, Switzerland-

Future two-time French welterweight champin Francois Pavilla, who would challenge for the world welterweight title in 1967, outpointed Michel Lombardet over 10 rounds.

In just his second pro bout, 1960 Olympian Jean Josselin stopped Georges Sablier in the sixth round. Josselin would go on to reign as the French welterweight champion twice, hold the European welterweight title once, and, in 1966, challenge for the South African version of the world welterweight title in August and the world welterweight championship (lineal, WBA, WBC, Ring Magazine titles) in November.

Paris, Paris, France-

Cuban expatriate Angel Robinson Garcia outpointed Tunisian junior lightweight prospect Ameur Lamine over 10 rounds.

Prescott, Arizona, USA-

Future World Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Gaspar Ortega, who had challenged for the world welterweight title six-and-a-half months earlier, stopped Charlie Wright in the third round.


In "related" bouts:

Josselin outpointed Garcia over 10 rounds on December 3, 1962.

Pavilla outpointed Ortega over 10 rounds on February 10, 1964 and fought to a 10-round draw with Garcia on May 11, 1964.

Manca stopped Pavilla in the sixth round to win the vacant EBU European welterweight title on October 9, 1964.

Josselin and then French champion Pavilla battled to a 10-round, non-title draw on March 8, 1965. On November 8, 1965, Josselin outpointed defending champion Pavilla over 15 rounds to annex the French welterweight diadem and on February 20, 1967, Josselin won by decision over again reigning French champ Pavilla after another 10-round, non-title bout.

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Also in 1991

1991-Khaosai Galaxy W 12 Armando Castro, Bangkok. Retains WBA Super Flyweight Title. The final fight in Galaxy’s illustrious career. Galaxy would retire with a 49-1(43) record, including 19 title defenses

Ricardo Lopez W 12 Kyung Yun Lee, Inchon, S. Korea. Retains WBC Strawweight Title.