- Ayub Kalule
Ayub Kalule (born
January 6 ,1954 ) is a retired boxer fromUganda , who first came to prominence when he won the Amateur WorldWelterweight Title at the inaugural 1974 World Championships inHavana, Cuba . He turned professional and based himself inDenmark , and went on to win thelight-middleweight championship. He subsequently lost the title toSugar Ray Leonard .Born in
Kampala , he began his professional boxing career in 1976 when he won a four round decision overKurt Hombach inCopenhagen , Denmark. Kalule would be based out of Denmark for the rest of his career. He then won 29 more victories, achieving 30 wins, 0 losses. Included in those victories were defeats ofAlipata Korovou for the CommonwealthMiddleweight Title and a 10 round decision of former US Gold MedalistSugar Ray Seales .On
October 24 ,1979 , Kalule traveled to Akita,Japan to take onMasashi Kudo for the WBAJunior middleweight Championship of the world. Kulule easily outboxed the champion and thus captured the coveted worldchampionship belt . He then successfully defended the title four times before taking on the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard on June 25 1981 in theHouston Astrodome . A virtual unknown in the United States, Kalule was considered little more than a courier waiting to deliver the belt to Leonard. The fight proved much more difficult for Leonard as Kalule repeately landed straight lefts and fought on an almost even ground for the first five or six rounds. Slowly Leonard started to take control and in the 9th round ended the fight and Kalule's reign as WBA Champion.Kalule fought on until the beginning of 1986 and managed to win the European Middleweight Title and defend it successfully against future world champion
Sumbu Kalambay . Prior to that, he received another shot at the WBA Jr Middleweight Title held at that time byDavey Moore . Kalule put up a very good fight, but again was KO'd, this time in the 10th round. Ayub's career ended on February 5 1986 when he lost the European Middleweight Title toHerol Graham . He finished his career with a very impressive record of 46-4 with 24 KOs.References
* [http://www.worldwhoswho.com/views/entry.html?id=sl445508 KALULE, Ayub] International Who's Who. accessed
September 4 ,2006 .External links
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* [http://www.boxing-records.com/palm/voirpalma.phtml?boxeur=kaluleay.html Boxing-Records]
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