John Mugabi

Infobox_Boxer


name = John Mugabi
nationality =flagicon|Uganda Ugandan
realname = John Mugabi
nickname = The Beast
weight = Light-Heavyweight
birth_date = birth date and age|1960|3|04
birth_place = Kampala, Uganda
home = Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
style = Orthodox
total = 50
wins = 42
KO = 39
losses = 7
draws = 1
no contests = 0

John "The Beast" Mugabi (born March 4, 1960) is a former boxer and world Jr. Middleweight champion. A world traveller, Mugabi was a part of an early 1980s Jr. Middleweight and Middleweight division scene that also included Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Wilfredo Benitez, Davey Moore and Roberto Duran, and, together with the aforementioned world champions, he was a part of an era that many boxing fans rank as one of the most exciting times ever in the Jr. Middleweight and Middleweight divisions. His nickname was "The Beast".

Mugabi was born in Kampala, Uganda, where he started to box. He won a silver medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Professional career

Soon afterwards he started as a professional on December 5, 1980, by knocking out Oemer Karadenis in round one at Kampala. Soon after that win, Mugabi moved to London, where he became acquainted with boxing promoter Mickey Duff, an expert in boxer marketing that got Mugabi various fights in England and made him a known boxer there.

Mugabi won eight fights in Europe, and then he moved to the United States, setting up residence in Florida. Over there, he became a favorite of American tv networks, scoring sensational knockouts of contenders such as Curtis Ramsey, Gary Guiden, former world champion Eddie Gazo, Curtis Parker, "Frank The Animal Fletcher", Nino Gonzalez and Earl Hargrove. Because of his ability to fight both at Jr. Middleweight and Middleweight, fans began to talk of the possibility of him challenging either world Jr. Middleweight champion Hearns or world Middleweight champion Hagler. Despite Mugabi being mandatory contender for some time, A Hearns - Mugabi title match never materialised, as Hearns elected to move to Middleweight to challenge Marvin Hagler.

By the time Mugabi was done with all those capable boxers, his knockout win streak had reached 26 in a row, without any of his professional opponents faring any better. Because of that and because of Hagler's tough battle with Hearns on April of 1985, many fans thought Mugabi had a chance to be the man to take Hagler's world Middleweight title away.

The fight between Hagler and Mugabi was set up for November 14 of 1985. Hagler, however, had a back injury and the fight had to be postponed until the next year.

The fight finally came up on March 10 of 1986, and it was the first fight televised by Showtime. Mugabi landed his share of blows to Hagler's head, and had the better of the early rounds. The turning point came in the sixth round, when Hagler landed many heavy blows and staggered Mugabi. Mugabi fought back gamely, but his early knockout wins left him ill prepared for a long tough fight. In the end it was Hagler who came out as the winner, with a knockout in 11 rounds. Many boxing fans consider this to have been the toughest contest of Hagler's career.

After his first loss, Mugabi retired to Uganda and ballooned in weight to 190lbs. In September 1986 he contacted Mickey Duff, stating that he was ready to fight again. Mugabi went down in weight and was given an opportunity by the WBC to win their world Jr. Middleweight title, vacated by Hearns. Once again, many fans favored him, this time against Duane Thomas, on December 5 of '86. However, Mugabi suffered a broken eye socket, the consequence of a punch with the thumb of a glove, in round three, and the fight had to be stopped. Mugabi underwent optical surgery the day after to repair his injury.

Mugabi then quit boxing for over one year, and put on weight. In January 1988 he came back to fight Bryan Grant on the undercard of Tyson v Holmes. Mugabi won by quick knockout and set off on another knockout winning streak. He became number one contender for the WBC 154lb title in August 1988, but, was not granted a challenge to then champion Donald Curry. After Curry lost his title in an upset in early 1989, Mugabi was given another opportunity to become world champion by the WBC, and on July 8 of that year, Mugabi finally made his dream come true, knocking out Curry's successor, Rene Jacquot in round one in Grenoble to become world Jr. Middleweight champion.

After two first round knockout wins against Ricky Stackhouse and Carlos Antunes, Mugabi,who, by this time, found making the weight limit of 154lbs almost impossible, put his title on the line, against Terry Norris. Mugabi became the second champion, after Al Singer, to both win and lose the world title by knockout in round one when he was defeated by Norris.

However, Mugabi resurfaced with two more wins, and once again found himself fighting for a world title, when he faced Gerald McClellan, on November 20 of 1991, for the vacant WBO Middleweight Championship. Mugabi once again came out on the losing end, by a first round knockout.

Mugabi then retired for 5 years, and moved to Australia, where he still resides and trains fighters. In 1996, he came back and had a seven fight comeback, but, apart from beating Jamie Wallace by a decision in 12 at the Gold Coast for the Australian Middleweight title, his comeback was undistinguished. After losing to Glenn Kelly by a knockout in eight on January 16 of 1999, he finally retired, with a record of 42 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw, 39 wins by knockout.

His 26 fight knockout win streak stands as one of the longest knockout streaks ever in boxing.

In a comment posted on "The Sweet Science" blog in regard to the Antonio Tarver-Roy Jones Jr match in St. Petersburg, Florida, Mugabi responded to a comment about promotion, Mugabi wrote, "It’s great to see that Tampa is still having boxing. I, John, am still sorry for letting my fans down that night. But all champions one day will get beaten. But one day I would love to come and watch some fights in the ring at Tampa. I might bring one of the fighters I train in Australia now."

Amateur career

His amateur record was 195-5(126 KOs). He was never beaten inside the distance. Considering his quality of opposition, this makes Mugabi one of the hardest hitting amateur boxers in history.

Representing Uganda, Mugabi was the Silver medalist at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, boxing in the Welterweight (67 kg) class. Mugabi was defeated in the final by Andres Aldama of Cuba.His results were:
*George Koffi (Congo) won by KO 1
*Paul Rasanimanana (Madagascar) won by KO 2
*Memet Bogujevci (Yugoslavia) won by KO 1
*Kazimierz Szczerba (Poland) won on points
*Andres Aldama (Cuba) lost on points

He was also a Silver medalist at the 1976 Junior World Championships, losing to Herol Graham.

See also

* List of WBC world champions

External links

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