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Paul Upham
Since
it was announced that he would be facing 38 year-old Yoshinori
Nishizawa in the first defence of his WBA world super middleweight
title on Monday night at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre,
Anthony Mundine has received plenty of criticism regarding the
quality of his opponent. The record of Nishizawa 24-13-5 (12)
does not look good although he has been unbeaten in his last
eight fights, while the World Boxing Association had to give
special approval for the fight and has reportedly elevated the
veteran to No.15 in their new un-released ranking’s. The
question of interest then is who have Australia’s other
modern day world champions faced in their very first world title
defence?
 Lionel
Rose 42-11 (12)
– won WBC/WBA bantamweight titles, 16th February 1968
: In the days of only one world champion for each weight class,
Rose became the undisputed world champion when he defeated Masahiko
“Fighting” Harada on points over 15 rounds in Tokyo
Japan. After a ten round non-title points win over Tommaso Galli
on 26th April, 20 year-old Rose made his first world title defence
on 2nd July 1968 with a fifteen round points win over southpaw
Takao Sakurai in Tokyo, Japan. 26 year-old Sakurai 22-0 (4)
was undefeated going into the fight.
 Johnny
Famechon 56-5-6 (20)
– won WBC featherweight title, 21st January 1969 : After
defeating Jose Legra on points over fifteen rounds in London,
England, Famechon had three ten round points win in March, April
and May 1969 over Jose Jimenez, Giovanni Girgenti and Jimmy
Anderson. 24 year-old Famechon then made the first defence of
his WBC title with a controversial fifteen round points win
over Masahiko “Fighting” Harada on 28th July 1969
at the Sydney Stadium. 26 year-old Harada’s record was
54-5 (21) going into the fight
 Rocky
Mattioli 65-7-2 (52)
– won WBC junior middleweight title, 6th August 1977 :
One of Australia’s lesser known world champions, Mattioli
won his WBC title with a 5th round knockout win over Eckhard
Dagge in Berlin, Germany. After two non-title ten round points
wins over Larry Paul (2nd December 1977) and Jose Rodriguez
(21st January 1978), 24 year-old Mattioli made the first defence
of his title with a 7th round knockout win over Elisha Obed
at the Kooyong Tennis Stadium in Melbourne on 11th March 1978.
25 year-old Obed from the Bahamas had a record of 67-4-4 (46)
going into the fight, but had lost his previous bout on points
over ten rounds in December 1977 to Joao Mendonca 19-0-1 (12)
in Brazil. Obed had previously held the WBC 154lb title from
November 1975 to June 1976 making two successful defences.
 Lester
Ellis 42-8 (28)
– won IBF super featherweight title, 15th February 1985
: After wining the IBF title on points over fifteen rounds against
Korean Hwan-Kil Yuh at the Festival Hall in Melbourne, Ellis
made the first defence of his title only two months later on
26th April at the same venue. The 20 year-old Australian defeated
Rod Sequenan by 13th round knockout. The 24 year-old Filipino
southpaw had a record of 43-9-3 (27) going into the fight, was
coming off four straight wins and had faced Hwan-Kil Yuh for
the same IBF title twelve months earlier, losing a fifteen round
split points decision.
 Jeff
Fenech 28-3-1 (21)
– won IBF bantamweight title, 26th April 1985 : After
defeating Satoshi Shingaki by 9th round stoppage at the Hordern
Pavilion in Sydney, 21 year-old Fenech had two non-title fight
stoppage wins over John Matienza (14th June) and John Farrell
(26th July) before making his first defence with a 4th round
stoppage in his rematch with Shingaki at the State Sports Centre
in Sydney on 23rd August 1985. Going into the fight with a record
of 8-1-1 (6), 21 year-old Shingaki had not had any other fights
between his two losses to Fenech.
Barry
Michael 48-9-3 (15)
– won IBF super featherweight title, 12th July 1985 :
Michael defeated Lester Ellis on points over fifteen rounds
to win the IBF title on 12th July 1985. The 30 year-old then
made his first defence three months later on 19th October 1985
with a 4th round TKO win over Korean Jin-Shik Choi at the Darwin
Oval in the Northern Territory. 25 year-old Choi had a record
of 17-1 (15) going into the fight and had won eight straight.
Interestingly, Jin-Shik Choi’s only loss going into the
fight was to Rod Sequenan (Ellis’ first defence) two years
earlier by 12th round knockout.
 Jeff
Harding 23-2 (17)
– won WBC light heavyweight title, 24th June
1989 : In what is still one of boxing’s great come from
behind wins, Harding won the WBC title with a dramatic 12th
round stoppage of Dennis Andries at the Convention Centre in
Atlantic City, USA. 24 year-old Harding then made his first
title defence four months later with a 3rd round stoppage win
over Englishman Tom Collins at the Boondall Entertainment Centre
in Brisbane on 24th October 1989. 34 year-old Collins had a
record of 24-15-1 (17) going into the fight and was coming off
a 2nd round knockout win over Tony Wilson 16-1 (13) to claim
the British light heavyweight title.
 Kostya
Tszyu 30-1 (24), 1 NC
– won IBF super lightweight title, 28th January 1995 :
After blasting out and stopping Jake Rodriguez in six rounds
to win the IBF title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, 25 year-old
Tszyu returned to the ring five months later for his first defence
with a twelve round points win over Roger Mayweather at the
Newcastle Entertainment Centre on 25th June 1995. 34 year-old
Mayweather was 54-11 (32) going into the fight and had won 11
of his last 13 fights in the previous two years, losing to Darryl
Tyson (40-6-1) and Ray Lovato (14-0). Mayweather was a former
two-time world champion at 140lbs, holding the WBA title from
January 1983 to February 1984 and the WBC title from November
1987 to May 1989.
ANBHOF
- Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame
ANBF
AUSTRALIAN RANKINGS
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