Ayub Kalule (born 6 January 1954) is a retired boxer from

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, who first came to prominence when he won the Amateur World

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

Title at the inaugural 1974 World Championships in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. As a professional, he held the WBA and The Ring light middleweight titles from 1979 until 1981.

Boxing career

Born in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, he began his professional boxing career in 1976 when he won a four-round decision over Kurt Hombach in Copenhagen, 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 of Alipata Korovou for the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

Title and a 10-round decision of former US Gold Medalist

Sugar Ray Seales "Sugar" Ray Seales, (born September 4, 1952) is an American former boxer. He was the only American boxer to win a gold medal in the 1972 Summer Olympics. As a professional, he fought middleweight champion Marvin Hagler three times. He is also th ...

. On 24 October 1979, Kalule was in

Akita is a Japanese name and may refer to: Places * 8182 Akita, a main-belt asteroid * Akita Castle, a Nara period fortified settlement in Akita, Japan * Akita Domain, also known as Kubota Domain, feudal domain in Edo period Japan * Akita, Kumamoto, ...

, Japan to take on Masashi Kudo for the Lineal and WBA

Junior middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the International Boxing Federation, IBF or ...

titles. Kalule easily outboxed the champion and thus captured the coveted world championship crown. He then successfully defended the title four times before taking on the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard on 25 June 1981 in the

Houston Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas. It was financed and assisted in development by Roy Hofheinz, mayor of Houston ...

. 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 repeatedly 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 Patrizio Sumbu Kalambay (born 10 April 1956) is a Congolese-born Italian former professional boxer. A world champion and two-time title challenger, he held the WBA world middleweight title from 1987 until 1988. Personal life Kalambay was born ...

. Prior to that, he received another shot at the WBA Jr Middleweight Title held at that time by Davey Moore. Kalule put up a very good fight, but again was KO'd, this time in the 10th round. Ayub's career ended on 5 February 1986 when he lost the European Middleweight Title to

Herol Graham Herol Graham (born 13 September 1959) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1978 to 1998. A three-time world title challenger, he is generally acknowledged as one of the best British boxers of the post-war era to have never w ...

. He finished his career with a very impressive record of 46–4 with 23 KOs.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

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Boxing-Records
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalule, Ayub 1954 births Living people Ugandan male boxers Sportspeople from Kampala Ugandan emigrants to Denmark Southpaw boxers Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Uganda Boxers at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in boxing AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Commonwealth Boxing Council champions European Boxing Union champions Middleweight boxers World light-middleweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions The Ring (magazine) champions

Boxing career

Professional boxing record

See also

References

External links