May 23

Fight of the day

1981: Wilfred Benitez vs Maurice Hope



1922: Harry Greb W 15 Gene Tunney, NYC. Wins U.S. Light Heavyweight Title.
Ten seconds into the first round Greb breaks Tunney’s nose. Later in the round Greb opened a huge gash over Tunney’s left eye. In the third round, Greb busts up Tunney’s right eye. Over the course of 15-rounds, Tunney lost an estimated 2-quarts of blood. The gore was so thick on Greb’s gloves that he had to step back and hold them out so referee, Kid Partland could wipe them off with a towel,
wrote ringside observer James R. Fair.

1940: Ken Overlin W 15 Ceferino Garcia, NYC. Wins World Middleweight Title.

1941: Joe Louis W disq. 7 Buddy Baer, Washington D.C. Retains World Heavyweight Title.

1960: Jose Becerra D 15 Kenji Yonekura, Tokyo. Retains World Bantamweight Title.

1970: Nino Benvenuti KO 8 Tom Bethea, Umag, Yugoslavia. Retains World Middleweight Title.

1981: Wilfred Benitez KO 12 Maurice Hope, Las Vegas. Wins WBC Super Welterweight Title. Benitez becomes boxing’s fifth 3-division champion.

1986: Barry Michael KO 4 Mark Fernandez, Melbourne. Retains IBF Super Featherweight Title.

1987: Leslie Stewart KO 9 Marvin Johnson, Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad. Wins WBA Light Heavyweight Title.

1988: Fulgencio Obelmejias W 12 Chong Pal Park, Suanbo, South Korea. Wins WBA Super Middleweight Title.

2009: Toshiaki Nishioka KO 3 Jhonny Gonzalez, Monterrey, Mexico. Retains WBC Super Bantamweight Title.