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History Lesson: WBC Heavyweight History HERE

Published

10 years ago

January 8, 2015

The Sweet Science

HISTORY OF WBC HEAVYWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONS:

FIGHT FACTS, STATS AND A WHOLE LOT MORE

Bermane Stiverne to Defend WBC Heavyweight World Title Against Unbeaten Sensation and No. 1 Contender Deontay Wilder,

Saturday, Jan. 17 Live on SHOWTIME^® From MGM Grand in Las Vegas

Tickets on Sale Now

NEW YORK (Jan. 7, 2015) – In the most anticipated heavyweight fight in the United States in a decade,WBC Heavyweight World Champion Bermane “B. Ware” Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs), a Haitian native fighting out of Las Vegas, will make his first defense against the confident, undefeated knockout specialist Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs), of Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the explosive main event of a televised tripleheader on Saturday, Jan. 17, live on SHOWTIME^® (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Below are some facts and stats on the WBC Heavyweight World Championship:

When Stiverne knocked out Chris Arreola on May 10, 2014, he became the first Haitian-born prizefighter and 22^nd boxer overall to capture the WBC Heavyweight World Championship.
Wilder, if triumphant, would become the first undefeated American heavyweight to capture a world title since Riddick Bowe won the WBC, WBA and IBF titles in 1992.
Wilder also would become the 13th U.S.-born boxer to win the WBC title and the first since August 2006.
Hasim Rahman was the last American to hold the WBC belt. The last American to hold any version of the heavyweight title was Shannon Briggs, who captured the WBO title in November 2006 and lost in his first defense.
At six-foot-seven, Wilder would join Vitali Klitschko as the tallest WBC Heavyweight World Champion; the tallest heavyweight world champion was seven-foot-tall Nikolai Valuev, a former two-time WBA belt-holder who is also the heaviest (323 pounds) world champion in history.
The initial nine WBC heavyweight champions were from the United States, beginning with Sonny Liston, who in July 1963 became the first WBC champion. Following Liston were Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leon Spinks, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon and Pinklon Thomas.
On Nov. 22, 1986, 20-year-old Mike Tyson of the U.S. became the youngest ever to capture the heavyweight title when he knocked out Trevor Berbick, who had defeated Thomas.
Other WBC heavyweight champions from the U.S. include James “Buster” Douglas, Evander Holyfield, Bowe, Oliver McCall and Rahman.
The only Jamaican-born boxer to become the WBC champion was Berbick, who also was the first heavyweight outside of the U.S. to capture the WBC crown.
There have been two WBC heavyweight champions from England — Lennox Lewis, three different times and Frank Bruno.
There was one fighter from Ukraine, Vitali Klitschko, who held the WBC belt on two occasions, one fighter from Russia, Oleg Maskaev and one from Nigeria Samuel Peter.
Lewis is the only three-time WBC Heavyweight Champion. He made 14 successful defenses in his stints as champ.
Ali, Foreman, Tyson, Klitschko and Rahman were two-time WBC heavyweight champs.
Ali (two tenures) made a total of 19 successful title defenses.
Holmes, with 16, had more successful title defenses than any one-reign champ; Klitschko had a total of 10, Ali had nine WBC world title defenses two separate times; Tyson, Lewis and Klitschko retained the title nine times once.
Interestingly, the feared Liston had zero defenses of the WBC heavyweight title, the same number as Spinks, Norton, Witherspoon, Berbick, Douglas, Bowe, Bruno and Peter.
Two boxers were stripped of the WBC title – Spinks (March 1978 for failing to defend against mandatory challenger Ken Norton and Bowe (December 1992 for not making a mandatory defense against Lewis).
The WBC title was vacated twice (Holmes in December 1982) and Tyson (in September 1996).
Two boxers retired as WBC Heavyweight Champions, Lewis in February 2004 and Klitschko twice, in November 2005 and December 2013.
With the exception of Liston, all the U.S.-born WBC Heavyweight Champions were promoted at one time by Don King.
Stiverne-Wilder will be 135^th WBC Heavyweight World Title fight; 95 of them have taken place in the U.S., including 40 in Nevada (WBC heavyweight title fights have emanated from 20 different countries). Overall, this will be the 300^th WBC title fight in Nevada.

# # #

SHOWTIME Sports^® will present ALL ACCESS: STIVERNE VS. WILDER on Friday, Jan. 9 at 10:45 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME.

Stiverne vs. Wilder, a 12-round world championship bout for Stiverne’s WBC Heavyweight World Title, is co-promoted by Don King Productions and Golden Boy Promotions. Unbeaten WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruz defends against Jesus Ruiz and undefeated junior welterweight Amir Imam meets Fidel Maldonado Jr. in the co-featured bouts. The event will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., and will air live on SHOWTIME (10:00 p.m. ET/ 7:00 p.m. PT). The telecast will also be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary bouts will be televised live on SHOWTIME EXTREME (8:00 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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