This week in boxing history, PBC highlights chapters from two thrilling rivalries, recalls a pair of first-round knockouts and looks back at an action-packed PBC on CBS card.
May 8, 1971 – Carlos Monzon stopped Nino Benvenuti in Round 3 to retain his WBA and WBC middleweight titles at Stade Louis II in Fontvieille, Monaco.
Monzon took the titles from Benvenuti six months earlier in The Ring’s 1970 Fight of the Year, and knocked the former champion down in the second and third rounds of their rematch before Benvenuti’s manager threw in the towel to stop the fight.
May 8, 1982 – Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini stopped Arturo Frias in the first round to win the WBA lightweight championship at the Aladdin in Las Vegas.
In one of the most action-packed first rounds in boxing history, Frias staggered Mancini before the fighters engaged in an all-out exchange. Mancini dropped the champion late in the round with a left hook, and subsequently pummeled him against the ropes until referee Richard Greene stepped in to stop the fight.
May 9, 2015 – Omar Figueroa Jr. beat Ricky Burns by unanimous decision in a super lightweight fight between former world champions, and Jamie McDonnell defeated Tomoki Kameda by unanimous decision to retain his WBA bantamweight title at State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
Also televised on the PBC on CBS card, former super welterweight champion Austin Trout stopped Luis Galarza in six rounds.
May 10, 1935 – Tony Canzoneri beat Lou Ambers by unanimous decision to win the vacant world lightweight title at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Canzoneri, a former three-division world champion, floored Ambers twice in the third round and once more in the 15th to regain his lightweight title in the first of their three meetings. Ambers would go on to win the final two fights in their trilogy.
May 11, 1981 – Gerry Cooney stopped Ken Norton in the first round of their heavyweight bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Cooney, the top-ranked contender by the WBA and WBC, would go on to face Larry Holmes for the WBC heavyweight title the following year (and lose by 13th-round TKO), while Norton retired after the fight with a record of 42-7-1 (33 KOs).
