June 29th

[straycat]

1894- George Dixon D 20 Young Griffo, Boston.

1903- Joe Gans KO 10 Willie Fitzgerald, San Francisco. Retains World Lightweight Title.

1906- Joe Gans ND 6 Jack Blackburn, Philadelphia.

1915- Sam McVey W 12 Sam Langford, Boston.

1933- Primo Carnera KO 6 Jack Sharkey, Long Island. Wins World Heavyweight Title. Sharkey mysteriously falls forward after being “struck” by a grazing uppercut.

https://uploadir.com/u/gci8rk4g



1936- Tony Marino KO 14 Baltazar Sangchili, Bronx, NY. Wins World Bantamweight Title.



1938- Benny Lynch KO 12 Peter Kane, Scotland.
Had not it been for reigning World Flyweight Champion, Lynch, weighing in 6 ½ pounds over the limit,
this would’ve been a successful defense. Instead, Lynch lost the title on the scales.
Immediately after Lynch scored the KO, the title was declared vacant.

https://uploadir.com/u/bhjxag90



1942- Ezzard Charles W 10 Charley Burley, Pittsburgh.



1955- Wallace "Bud" Smith W 15 Jimmy Carter, Boston. Wins World Lightweight Title.



1956- Mario D’Agata KO 7 Robert Cohen, Rome. Wins World Bantamweight Title.

https://uploadir.com/u/6net3yxr



1960- Gene Fullmer KO 12 Carmen Basilio, Salt Lake City. Retains NBA Middleweight Title.

https://uploadir.com/u/2d1ibe49


1968- Carlos Teo Cruz W 15 Carlos Ortiz, Santo Domingo. Wins World Lightweight Title.



1969- Jose Napoles KO 11 Curtis Cokes, Mexico City. Retains World Welterweight Title.

https://uploadir.com/u/napdd0qk



1970- Sonny Liston KO 10 Chuck Wepner, Jersey City, NJ. The final fight in Liston’s career.

https://uploadir.com/u/7z98qrpy



1980- Tae Shik Kim W 15 Arnel Arrozal, Seoul. Retains WBA Flyweight Title.



1981- Samuel Serrano W 15 Leonel Hernandez, Caracas. Retains WBA Junior Lightweight Title.



1991- James "Lights Out" Toney W 12 Reggie Johnson, Las Vegas.
Retains IBF Middleweight Title. Very close fight! Verdict could have gone either way.

https://uploadir.com/u/u26blee2



1996- Mbulelo Botile KO 9 Marlon "Bong" Arlos, Alice, South Africa. Retains IBF Bantamweight Title.

https://uploadir.com/u/cobykeut



1996- Ricardo Lopez KO 3 Kittichai Preecha, Indio, CA. Retains WBC Strawweight Title.

https://uploadir.com/u/2hlghad8



1997- Pichitnoi C. Siriwat W 12 Sang Chul Lee, Bangkok. Retains WBA Light Flyweight Title.

2002- Wladimir Klitschko TKO 6 Ray Mercer, Atlantic City.
World Boxing Organisation World Heavy Title
https://uploadir.com/u/yqui6k3a

2003- Eric Esch TKO 1 Yusuke Fujimoto, Saitama, Japan.
Butterbean makes his Kickboxing debut
https://uploadir.com/u/8kspbdwv

2007- Wladimir Sidorenko KO 7 Jerome Arnould, Marseille, France. Retains WBA Bantamweight Title

2012- Ruslan Provodnikov KO 2 Jose Reynoso
https://uploadir.com/u/hpxgqsxv

[straycat]

Born On This Day

1967- Kevin Kelly (born Kevin Phillip Kelly in Brooklyn, New York)
Kelley won two New York Golden Gloves Championships as well as the 1985 119 lb Sub-Novice Championship and the 1986 119 lb Open Championship. In 1988 Kelley advanced to the finals of the 125 lb Open division and was to have met Fred Liberatore in the finals. Kelley was injured and could not fight. Liberatore was declared the Champion by Default-Injury.
In the Olympic box-offs he lost to Carl Daniels. His record was 62-5.
Known as the "Flushing Flash", Kelley held the WBC featherweight title and defended it until he lost he TKO to Alejandro González, after Kelley failed to come out for the 11th round. Kelley won the title by defeating Gregorio Vargas by unanimous decision in 1993.
Kelley was then signed to an HBO contract, and remained in title contention for the next decade. More known for being in big fights rather than gaining big victories, Kelley's resume includes TKO losses to boxing legends Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, both of which came during Kelley's career decline.
Kelley's defeats include losses to Naseem Hamed. In 1997 Hamed flew to the United States to fight there for the first time. His ceremonious arrival on the British Airways Concorde was covered by multiple media outlets. There, he and former two-time WBC Featherweight champion of the world Kevin Kelley fought in Ring Magazine's fight of the year at the Madison Square Garden in New York. This fight marks something of a watershed in Hamed's career, as he was forced, for the first time, to abandon his hands-down style of fighting throughout the entire course of the bout, given the calibre of Kelley. In addition, many of the speed and stamina-related hallmarks of his career, i.e. the prevalence of combination punching, ability to dodge blows etc, seemed to have degraded somewhat; debate still rages as to whether this was the result of increasing age, or of increasing quality of opponent, or both. Nonetheless, despite being dropped three times himself, Hamed put Kelley down for a third and final time to win by a fourth round knockout. This was his first of many fights on HBO. The fight was ranked 100th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002.
Kelley knocked out former WBA featherweight champion Derrick Gainer in 1996, a loss which Gainer later avenged via unanimous decision in 1998.
Kelley was then outclassed and KO'd by Bobby Pacquiao. On September 28, 2006, Kelley met Carlos Hernández in the ring. In an upset victory, Kelly put on his best performance in years, dropping Hernandez in the 4th round on route to a UD victory. Hernandez announced his retirement right after this fight.
Kelly was David Díaz's mandatory for the WBC Interim Lightweight Championship, but in his most recent bout, a close decision to former titleist Manuel Medina.
His current record is 60 wins, 10 losses, and two draws. He has 39 wins by knockout.
While fighting, Kelley also has moonlighted as a color commentator, most notably for HBO. He was the lead on HBO's short lived KO Nation television show. The show served as a "hip hop" based boxing broadcast, and was hosted by Ed Lover.

1972- Kirk Johnson (born in North Preston, Nova Scotia, Canada)
Johnson represented Canada at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where he lost in the quarter-finals against eventual silver medallist David Izon (Nigeria). His record was 76 wins and 7 losses.
He had his first professional bout on April 24, 1993 against Andre Smiley.
In his first title fight in 2002 Johnson faced John Ruiz for the WBA Heavyweight Title. In the tenth round Johnson was disqualified for low blows while losing on all of the judges' scorecards. Johnson appealed the disqualification to the WBA, on the grounds that referee Joe Cortez had erred in calling some of the low blows and did not act impartially (both Ruiz and Cortez are of Puerto Rican descent). Though many boxing commentators agreed that the disqualification was unwarranted, the appeal was ultimately denied by the WBA.
On December 6, 2003 Johnson faced the Ukrainian contender and future champion Vitali Klitschko in New York's Madison Square Garden. He showed up out of shape and was schooled by Klitschko, losing by a second round knockout.
Johnson compounded the Ruiz embarrassment by coming into this fight at 260 pounds - an all time high for him. Johnson weighed 232 pounds in his biggest win, over future WBC Heavyweight Champion Oleg Maskaev, in 2000.
After the Klitschko fight, Johnson staged a comeback. He knocked out Mexican heavyweight Gilbert Martinez in July 2004 and won a technical decision over Cuban Yanqui Diaz in June 2005, although he lost his next bout (later changed to a technical decision) against Californian Javier Mora in March 2006. Mora appeared to have accidentally stepped on Johnson's foot, causing Johnson to dislocate his knee. This decision was subsequently appealed and the result changed to a No Decision. Johnson has since recovered from his knee injury.
Johnson's record is now at 37 - 2 - 1 (27 KO's), with one No Decision.
Johnson returned to the ring after a four year absence and fought journeyman Douglas Robertson defeating him via first round TKO.
In 2003, after dropping out of a planned fight against then-heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis because of an injury, Johnson launched a protracted legal battle against the Halifax Regional Police. During the enquiry Johnson claimed that he had his car stopped 28 times over five years while in Halifax. Johnson was awarded $10,000 in damages, in addition to $4,790 to cover his travel expenses. The police service was also ordered to create a scholarship in Johnson's name. It will be awarded annually to a student from North Preston.

[DBO]

I have not heard the name Mbulelo Botile in a long time!

I was a big fan of Reggie Johnson. He had many tight losses in his career and the Toney win would have done wonders for his career.

[straycat]

2013: Gennady Golovkin KO 3 Matthew Macklin, Mashantucket, Conn. Retains WBA Middleweight Title.