- Ralph Dupas
Infobox Boxer
name=Ralph Dupas
realname=
nickname=The Cajun Ghost
weight=Light Middleweight
nationality= American
birth_date=October 14 ,1935
birth_place=New Orleans, Louisiana
death_date=
death_place=
style=Orthodox
total=135
wins=106
KO=19
losses=23
draws=6
no contests=0|Ralph Dupas (b.
October 14 ,1935 , d.25 January 2008 ) was a boxer fromNew Orleans who won the worldlight middleweight championship.Early boxing career
Dupas was the second of eleven children of a New Orleans fisherman, Peter Dupas. He became a professional boxer in 1950 at the age of 14. [Citation
last = Ehrmann
first = Peter
title = Remembering Junior Middle Champ Ralph Dupas
journal = The Ring
volume = 79, no. 1
page = 45
date = January 2000] TrainerAngelo Dundee saw Dupas fight and took him toMiami to train him.Dupas became a ranked contender in the
lightweight division when he defeated Armand Savoi in 1953. By 1955, after beating a variety of top fighters such asPaddy DeMarco and Kenny Lane, Dupas was the top-ranked lightweight in the world. In May 1957 Dupas challenged Joe Brown for the lightweight title, but lost by an eighth-round knockout.Dupas moved up to the
welterweight division. He defeated futuremiddleweight championJoey Giardello in 1961, but lost a 1962 welterweight title shot toEmile Griffith . In 1963,Sugar Ray Robinson beat him by a controversial decision. [Citation
last = Ehrmann
first = Peter
page = 48]Championship
Another championship fight for Dupas materialized in the light middleweight division. Champion
Denny Moyer came to New Orleans onApril 29 ,1963 , and Dupas won the title with a fifteen-round unanimous decision. He lost the title in September of that year to ItalianSandro Mazzinghi by a thirteen-round knockout. After that match, Emile Griffith once again knocked him out in a non-title bout.Post-championship career
Dupas briefly retired in 1964 and worked as a card dealer in Las Vegas. He returned to the ring in 1966 and had little success. He retired for good after five fights that year.
After boxing
After he retired, Dupas began to exhibit signs of
dementia pugilistica . His brother Tony, also a former fighter, moved Ralph from Las Vegas back to New Orleans and put him in a nursing home. [Citation
last = Ehrmann
first = Peter
page = 45]External links
*
References
###@@@KEY@@@###Succession box
before=Denny Moyer
title=World Light Middleweight Champion
after=Sandro Mazzinghi
years=Apr 29, 1963–Sept 7, 1963
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