March 14th

On this day...
 
1998-Artur Grigorian (23-0, 14) Vs Marco Rudolph (13-0-0-1, 8)
In Sydney in 1991 German fighter Marco Rudolph beat Soviet fighter Artur Grigorian in the World Amateur Championship final. In 1998 the two men would rematch, both as unbeaten professionals. Grigorian was the WBO Lightweight champion, the first Uzbek world champion, whilst Rudolph was looking to repeat his win from Sydney. Sadly fro Rudolph he was stopped in 6 rounds by Grigorian, who would remain the WBO champion until 2004, when he was stopped by Acelino Freitas.
 
1993-Ratanapol Sor Vorapin (12-2-1, 8) vs Nico Thomas (11-9-2, 5)
In December 1992 Ratanapol Sor Vorapin, aka Anucha Phothong, won the IBF Minimumweight title beating Manny Melchor at the age of just 18. During the 1990's Ratanapol would be one of the key figures at Minimumweight and would be a key figure with the IBF title. Interestingly his first defense of the title came in 1993 when he took on Indonesian foe Nico Thomas, who had held the title back in 1989. Sadly for Thomas he was stopped in 7 rounds denying him a chance to become a 2-time champion. Just to quickly go over how key Ratanapol was in the division, he was involved in 22 world title fights at 105lbs between 1992 and 1997!
 
1979-Masashi Kudo (21-0, 11) Vs Manuel Ricardo Gonzalez (43-0-4, 12) I
Japanese world champions at 154lbs are rare, one of the 4 men to achieve the feat is Masashi Kudo, who achieved the feat in 1979, when he controversially beat Argentinian foe Manuel Ricardo Gonzalez for the WBA title with a majority decision. The win saw Gonzalez suffer his first loss, but he would get a rematch just 3 months later, losing that by 12th round TKO. Sadly for Kudo that would be his only successful defense, before losing the belt to Ayub Kalule in October 1979.