Eusebio Pedroza

Eusebio Pedroza (born March 2, 1953) is a retired boxer from Panama who held the WBA and lineal featherweight championship from 1978 to 1985. His 19 successful defenses as world featherweight champion are a record for that division. His cousin, Rafael Pedroza, was a world champion also, in the junior bantamweight division, although Rafael's reign as world champion was short-lived.

Biography

Pedroza started out as a professional boxer on December 1, 1973, with a four-round knockout win over Julio Garcia. His first 15 bouts were all in Panama. He went 14-1 over that span of fights, including a win over Jacinto Fuentes, a boxer who would later draw and lose to Wilfredo Gómez. His one defeat over that period of his career came to Alfonso Pérez by a knockout in three.

For fight number 16, Pedroza traveled in the last week of March 1976, to Mexicali, Mexico, to challenge WBA world bantamweight champion Alfonso Zamora for the world title. In his first championship try, Pedroza suffered his second loss, being knocked out in two rounds. After returning to Panama, he beat Pablo Jimenez by a decision in ten, then lost to Oscar Arnal in Venezuela by a knockout in six. He would not lose again for nine years.

Pedroza won three fights in 1977, two by knockout, and then, in April 1978, the WBA featherweight champion, Cecilio Lastra of Spain, travelled to Panama to defend his title on April 18 against Pedroza, who knocked him out in round 13 to become world featherweight champion.

Pedroza, during the next seven years, traveled the world to defend his title. Among his 19 successful defenses were one against Enrique Solis in Puerto Rico, a 15-round decision win, one in Japan against former world champion Royal Kobayashi, knocked out in 14, one in South Korea against Sa Wang Kim, knocked out in 8, one in Houston against the former three time world champion and fellow Hall of Famer Rubén Olivares, who lasted 12, one in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea versus Johnny Aba, who lost in 11, two against future world junior lightweight champion Rocky Lockridge, who went the distance with Pedroza in New Jersey and in Italy but lost by decision both times, a return to Venezuela to knock Carlos Piñango out in seven, a return to New Jersey to defeat Juan Laporte by decision, a return to Italy to beat Jose Caba, also by decision, and a fight in North Carolina in which he retained the title with a draw against Bernard Taylor. He also defended in his home country many times during that span, and became a household name in Latin America, his face appearing on the cover and posters of Ring En Español and Guantes magazines multiple times.

Pedroza rose off the canvas in 1984 to knock out Gerald Hayes in ten, and he tied the record for division defenses with a win over Angel Levi Mayor, once again in Venezuela. In February 1985, he made history by beating the former world bantamweight champion Jorge Luján to defend his title for the nineteenth time. Pedroza finally lost his title in England, being defeated by Northern Ireland's Barry McGuigan in London by a 15-round decision on his 20th defense.

During Pedroza's reign, talks surfaced of a unification bout against World Boxing Council featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez. These hopes were dashed when Sanchez died in an automobile accident in 1982.

Between 1986 and 1992, Pedroza tried various comebacks, going 3-2 in total on those comeback attempts.

He retired with a record of 42 wins, 6 losses and one draw, with one no contest, and 25 wins by knockout. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.

Professional boxing record

42 wins (25 knockouts, 16 decisions), 6 losses (3 knockouts, 3 decisions), 1 draw (1 decision), 1 no contest[1]
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Age	Location	Notes
Win	33-3	Juan Laporte	UD	15	1982-01-24	7008911952000000000♠28 years, 328 days	Atlantic City, New Jersey	Retained WBA World Featherweight title.

See also

• List of lineal boxing world champions
• Lineal championship
• List of WBA world champions

References

External links

• Professional boxing record for Eusebio Pedroza from BoxRec
• Eusebio Pedroza, International Boxing Hall of Fame
• Latino Sports Legends
• Eusebio Pedroza's boxing stats