Miguel Ángel Castellini (26 January 1947 – 28 October 2020) was an Argentine professional boxer. Castellini, who was active as a professional from 1965 to 1980, is most notable for having held the WBA and lineal

light 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 IBF or super welterweight in the WBA an ...

titles from 1976 to 1977. He died from

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during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina The COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). On 3 March 2020, the virus was confirmed to have spread to Argentina. As of , a t ...

Professional career

Castellini began his professional career on 28 May 1965, in San Miguel de Tucumán against Domingo Gerez. Castellini scored a second round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

over Gerez to record his first win. He remained undefeated over his first thirteen fights before suffering his first loss to Hermogenes Quintela. Quintela knocked Castellini out in the tenth round of their fight on 9 September 1966. On 4 November 1972 Castellini won his first championship by beating Hector Ricardo Palleres to claim the Argentine

title. Castellini fought for the first time outside of his native Argentina on 25 May 1974, he travelled to

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

to beat Carlos Alberto Salinas. During his career Castellini also fought in Italy, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Nicaragua, and Spain. It was while in Spain that Castellini challenged for the WBA and lineal light middleweight titles, then held by Jose Manuel Duran, in front of a sell out crowd of 12,000. Duran, who was making the first defence of his title, was knocked down in the third round by a left hand to the jaw. Although the champion rose from the canvas, he was outworked by the faster challenger and lost his title via a

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

in a fight where both boxers finished with bloody faces. Castellini's championship reign only lasted one fight as he lost it in his first defence to

Eddie Gazo Eddie Jose Gazo Roa (born 12 September 1950) is a Nicaraguan former professional boxer who competed from 1969 to 1984. He held the Lineal and WBA light middleweight titles from 1977 to 1978. Professional career Gazo turned pro in 1971, and ...

on 5 March 1977. Gazo, fighting in his hometown of

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, Nicaragua, defeated Castellini via

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

with scores of: 144–149, 144–148, and 143–148. This defeat was avenged, however, in a non-title bout on 20 September 1980. On this occasion Gazo travelled to Argentina to take on Castellini. Castellini won the fight by knockout in the ninth round in what was to be his final professional fight.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

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Miguel Angel Castellini - The Cyber Boxing Zone Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellini, Miguel Ángel 1947 births 2020 deaths Argentine male boxers People from Santa Rosa, La Pampa Sportspeople from La Pampa Province Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Light-middleweight boxers The Ring (magazine) champions World Boxing Association champions World light-middleweight boxing champions Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina

Professional career

Professional boxing record

See also

References

External links