WHEN Xander Zayas won the vacant WBO 154lbs title against Jorge Garcia last Saturday, he became the latest in a long line of rising stars to win a global crown at the first attempt.
Not every rising star has been a favourite in his first title bid, of course. Floyd Mayweather was just a 5/6 pick ’em for his bout with Genaro Hernandez, while, as Hugh McIlvanney reported in his big-fight preview, Riddick Bowe was “11/10 against” for his first fight with Evander Holyfield.
With Xander Zayas’ title-winning effort in mind, I thought I’d take a look at 10 boxers who were undefeated prior to their first championship bid, and how things turned out for them in their careers.
Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar had it all: the looks, the talent, the backstory (promising his seriously ill mother that he would return from the 1992 Olympics with a gold medal, which he did). His first world title fight was what the Americans call a “gimme” – a certainty.
De La Hoya was matched against Jimmi Bredahl of Denmark for the WBO 130lbs title. The bout headlined a promotion at a refurbished Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 5, 1994.
Bredahl, a southpaw, had won 16 fights in a row, while De La Hoya had an 11-0, 10 KOs, record. The fight was, of course, a mismatch, but Bredahl stuck it out for 10 rounds before his corner pulled him out.
The win over Bredahl was just the beginning for De La Hoya, who went on to win titles at 135lbs, 140lbs, 147lbs. 154lbs and 160lbs in a legendary, Hall of Fame career.
Riddick Bowe
Although Lennox Lewis stopped him in the Seoul Olympics’ super-heavy gold-medal bout, Bowe piled up win after win as a professional and he was 31-0 when he went in against Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight title on November 13, 1992, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
While Bowe was arguably in career-best shape for that fight, there had long been doubts about his dedication, going right back to his amateur days when he lost by stoppage in the 1988 US championships.
Bowe’s defeat in that tournament “confirmed in many minds the suspicion that Bowe, a 6-5, 215-pounder from Brooklyn, has been coasting along on natural talent and lacks the discipline to train hard for international competition,” columnist Wallace Matthews wrote in Newsday.
But Bowe seemed to have found himself as a professional under the direction of esteemed trainer Eddie Futch. He earned the right to meet Holyfield when he stopped Pierre Coetzer of South Africa in the seventh round of an elimination match.
Bowe didn’t knock Coetzer down, but he busted him up, leaving Coetzer’s face “looking just a bit less misshapen than that of a horror-film character”, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bowe’s win over Holyfield, in November 1992, should have been the start of something big. He looked in excellent physical trim at 235lbs. But Holyfield outpointed him in their rematch (the famous “fan man” fight) when Bowe came in 11lbs heavier than he had done for the first fight. The win over Holyfield in their initial meeting turned out to be the high point of Bowe’s career.
Naseem Hamed
‘Prince Naseem’ was an undefeated challenger who lived up to the hype. His first win in a title fight came on his opponent Steve Robinson’s home ground in Cardiff, on September 30, 1995.
Hamed was 19-0, 17 KOs, going into the fight and was boxing as a featherweight for the first time, having turned pro at 18 as a flyweight and then growing into the bantam and super-bantam divisions.
Robinson was making his eighth defence of the WBO title and he had never been stopped, but Hamed took him apart in eight rounds.
“The coronation of a young star” was how Ian Darke described it on the Sky Sports broadcast. Hamed went on to have a superstar career with multiple wins in title fights and induction into the Hall of Fame.
Howard Davis Jr
Davis seemed to have the world at his feet: Olympic gold medallist at the Montreal Games, winner of the best stylist award. He defeated tough veteran Vilomar Fernandez (the No.1 lightweight contender at the time) to earn a shot at Jim Watt for the WBC 135lbs title in June 1980.
But, after just 13 pro bouts, Davis wasn’t ready for Watt, who soundly outpointed him in their 15-round title fight outdoors in Glasgow. Davis had another lightweight title opportunity, but a last-round knockdown cost him a win over Edwin Rosario. A 140lbs title bid ended in a first-round KO against Buddy McGirt, leaving Davis as a potential big-time star who didn’t quite get there.
Sugar Ray Leonard
Leonard’s first championship challenge saw him stop Wilfred Benitez with just six seconds remaining in the 15th and final round on November 30, 1979. It was Sugar Ray’s 26th win in a row, while Benitez (who was behind on the scorecards) lost for the first time in 40 bouts. Leonard opened as a 1/3 favourite, although the odds narrowed to 5/9.
While Leonard lost to Roberto Duran seven months later, he gained his revenge in the “no mas” rematch and went on to win titles at 154lbs, 160lbs, 168lbs and 175lbs (the latter two titles at stake in the same fight against Donny Lalonde). Sugar Ray definitely lived up to expectations.
Roy Jones Jr
Deprived of a gold medal in the Seoul Olympics in a fight he obviously won, Jones enjoyed a superstar pro career.
His excellence was firmly established in his first world title fight – no “gimme” here; Jones went in with Bernard Hopkins for the IBF middleweight title on May 22, 1993, in Washington DC.
Jones’ unanimous decision win over Hopkins was impressive enough at the time, given it came between two superb, evenly matched rising young contenders, and looks even better in hindsight, with Hopkins going on to carve out a great career of his own.
Jones would also reign at super-middle, light-heavy and, briefly, as WBA heavyweight champion. I’ve heard it said that if Jones had retired immediately after his heavyweight title win over John Ruiz, he might even have been considered the best of all time.
Mark Breland
What happened with Breland? He was world amateur champion, an accomplishment that’s extremely difficult to achieve. Breland’s Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles was diluted by the absence of the Cuban and Communist bloc teams but, still, nothing to sneeze at.
As a pro he was 16-0 when he knocked out South African left-hander Harold Volbrecht to win the vacant WBA welterweight title in February 1987. A tall, rangy, sharpshooter with an excellent left jab and jarring right hand, Breland looked like a new Thomas Hearns. But the much more seasoned and physically stronger Marlon Starling exposed frailties when, behind on points, he overpowered a tiring Breland in the 11th round.
Breland came back to regain the title and he destroyed a faded Lloyd Honeyghan in London. But Aaron Davis outlasted Breland and knocked him out. Although Breland certainly had a highly respectable pro career, I think it’s fair to say that he didn’t quite reach the heights he seemed capable of reaching.
Floyd Mayweather Jr
No arguments about greatness here, but when Floyd challenged Genaro Hernandez for the 130lbs title in 1998 it was seen as a 50-50 fight.
I asked Mayweather’s father and trainer, Floyd Sr, how he thought the fight would go. “My son will win easy,” Floyd Sr told me. “You’ll see.” He was right. Mayweather won the title in his 18th fight with an eighth-round retirement; Hernandez never boxed again.
Mayweather would go on to establish himself as one of the all-time greats – or even, if you believe the man himself, “TBE” (The Best Ever). He is no doubt emboldened by having won world titles from super-featherweight to super-welterweight and retiring in 2017 with a perfect 50-0 record.
Blackjack Billy Fox
Back in the 1940s, Philadelphia’s Blackjack Billy Fox looked the real deal. He was riding an unbeaten string of 36 consecutive victories when he challenged rugged veteran Gus Lesnevich for the light-heavy title at Madison Square Garden in 1947.
Associated Press reported that “practically everyone except Gus’ immediate family” believed Fox would win.
But Lesnevich’s savvy, experience and sheer toughness pulled him through. Fox wobbled Lesnevich with a right hand in the third round but the old champ came back to win in the 10th. Lesnevich won the rematch on a first-round KO and that was pretty much the end for Blackjack Billy, although he fought on for another two years.
Miguel Cotto
Cotto was 20-0, 16 KOs, when he faced Brazil’s Kelson Pinto for the vacant WBO 140lbs title in a September 2004 meeting of undefeated fighters. Pinto, taller and longer, had a 20-0, 16 KOs, record and he’d beaten Cotto twice in the amateurs.
It looked a dangerous fight for Cotto but on home ground in Puerto Rico, he was in devastating form, dropping Pinto three times (once in the second, once in the fifth, when Pinto’s knee touched down, and again in the sixth) before the fight was stopped. Cotto went on to establish himself as one of the all-time great Puerto Rican boxers, and the Hall of Fame beckoned.
