This week in boxing history, PBC highlights five legendary fighters, including two light heavyweight champions, the final welterweight title defense for arguably the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time and the first four-time heavyweight champion.
August 7, 1983 – Hector “Macho” Camacho stopped Rafael “Bazooka” Limon in Round 5 (of 12) to win the vacant WBC super featherweight title at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In a battle of southpaws, Camacho floored Limon in the closing seconds of Round 3 and then dropped the two-time world champion twice more in the fifth before referee Richard Steele stopped the bout. The 21-year-old Camacho won the championship after the WBC stripped Bobby Chacon of the title when he failed to come to terms for a fight against Camacho.
August 7, 1997 – Roy Jones Jr. knocked out Montell Griffin in Round 1 (of 12) to win the WBC light heavyweight championship before a sellout crowd of 4,500 at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
Jones scored a knockdown of Griffin in the opening seconds of their world title rematch before finishing off the previously unbeaten champion with a powerful left uppercut. Griffin won the championship by disqualification and dealt Jones his first career loss five months earlier when Jones punched Griffin after he had taken a knee.
August 9, 1950 – Sugar Ray Robinson defeated Charley Fusari on points over 15 rounds to retain his world welterweight championship at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey.
In the last fight of his storied career at 147 pounds, the 29-year-old Robinson easily improved to 110-1-2 and made the fifth successful defense of the world title he won in December 1946. Robinson, who was named Fighter of the Year for 1950 by the Boxing Writers Association of America, would go on to win the world middleweight title five times.
August 11, 1954 – Archie Moore stopped Harold Johnson in Round 14 (of 15) to retain his world light heavyweight championship before a crowd of 8,327 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
In the fifth and final meeting between the fighters, the 37-year-old Moore successfully defended his world title for the third time and won his 19th straight fight since losing to Johnson in their third matchup in December 1951. Moore, who went 4-1 against Johnson, was knocked down in Round 10 before storming back to gain the TKO.
August 12, 2000 – Evander Holyfield beat John Ruiz by 12-round unanimous decision to win the vacant WBA heavyweight title at the Paris Las Vegas.
Ruiz, a 4-to-1 betting underdog, was the aggressor throughout the first of three consecutive meetings between the fighters, but the 37-year-old Holyfield won a controversial decision to become the only four-time world heavyweight champion.
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