The Week That Was …

Oct. 30, 1974: Former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali stops champion George Foreman in the eighth round to win the heavyweight title in Kinshasa, Zaire. In regaining the title, Ali becomes only the second man to do so; Floyd Patterson was the first.

Oct. 30, 1993: Japan-based Orzubek Nazarov, one of the many talented amateur fighters from the old Soviet Union, scores a 12-round unanimous decision over champion

Dingaan Thobela in Johannesburg, South Africa, to win the WBA lightweight crown. Nazarov, who was born in Kyrgyzstan, repeats the feat five months later and makes six successful defenses before losing to Jean Baptiste Mendy in May 1998.

Oct. 31, 1932: Jackie Brown stops Young Perez in Round 13 in Manchester, England, to win the NBA world flyweight title.

Oct. 31, 1935: John Henry Lewis wins a 15-round unanimous decision over champion Bob Olin in St. Louis to win the world light heavyweight crown.

Oct. 31, 1941: Twenty-year-old Sugar Ray Robinson outpoints former welterweight champ Fritzie Zivic via 10-round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden to close out the ’41 campaign 20-0 and bring his overall record to 26-0 … The year 1941 started on a high note for Zivic. In his first defense of the welterweight title, the “Croat Comet” repeated his victory over Henry Armstrong, the man he won the title from, in an action-packed bout via 12th round TKO, January 17. But, he lost the title to Freddie Cochrane in his next defense that July.

Oct. 31, 1992: Lennox Lewis destroys Donovan “Razor” Ruddock via second-round TKO at Exhibition Hall, London, Earls Court, England. The victory puts Lewis in line to fight the winner to the upcoming Holyfield vs. Bowe fight, which Bowe wins … Shortly after, Lewis is declared the WBC champion when Bowe, refusing to honor a preflight agreement that the Bowe-Holyfield winner fight Lewis, relinquishes the WBC title.

Nov. 1, 1922: Mickey Walker wins a 15-round unanimous decision over champion Jack Britton at Madison Square Garden to win the world welterweight title. The “Toy Bulldog” holds the title until 1926 and eventually wins the middleweight crown. He also scores victories over world-rated light heavyweights and heavyweights before retiring in 1935.

Nov. 2, 1907: In his quest to force a heavyweight title fight against champion Tommy Burns, Jack Johnson stops the highly touted “Fireman” Jim Flynn in the 11th round of a scheduled 20-round bout in San Francisco. Burns stopped Flynn in 15 rounds in an Oct. 2, 1906 title defense in Los Angeles.

Nov. 3, 1984: Mexican challenger Jose Luis Ramirez stops Edwin Rosario in the fourth round in San Juan, Puerto Rico and wins the WBC lightweight title. In May of 1983, Rosario scored a close, but unanimous decision over Ramirez to win the vacant crown … In Kingston, New York, Juan Meza stops Jaime Garza in Round 1 to win the WBC junior featherweight crown.

Nov. 3, 2001: WBA/ WBC champ Kostya Tszyu unifies the junior welterweight title with a second-round kayo over IBF titleholder Zab Judah in Las Vegas.

Nov. 4, 1995: In the rubber match of their three-fight series, Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield wage another exciting bout, although neither man is champion. Holyfield drops Bowe and hurts him several times, but can’t finish the job. Bowe recovers and stops Holyfield in the eighth round in Las Vegas. Both men are considered on a downward path. Bowe, it turns out, certainly is. Holyfield has one last major hurrah awaiting him 12 months hence: Mike Tyson.

Nov. 4, 2000: Making his first defense of the WBC welterweight crown he won from Oscar De La Hoya, “Sugar” Shane Mosley defeats Antonio Diaz via sixth-round TKO at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York.

Nov. 5, 1977: Ken Norton wins a 15-round split-decision over Jimmy Young in a heavyweight title eliminator to determine the WBC No. 1 contender for the crown held by Muhammad Ali. Norton’s victory puts him in line for a fourth shot at his nemesis. But the fight never happens because Ali is upset by Leon Spinks in February 1978. Spinks is stripped of the WBC version of the title when he chooses to give Ali a rematch and the Mexican-based world sanctioning body awards the title to Norton.

Nov. 5, 1994: Twenty years and one week after losing the heavyweight title to Muhammad Ali, George Foreman lands a crushing right hand to face of champion Michael Moorer, dropping him for the full 10-count and wins the title at age 45. He is the oldest man to win a world title. It is also the longest time between reigns. Ali’s presence was felt, as Angelo Dundee, who was Ali’s chief trainer, worked Foreman’s corner in the Moorer fight.