José Antonio Rivera (born April 7, 1973) is an American
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
of
Puerto Rican descent. He is a former WBA welterweight and super welterweight champion.
Professional career
October 1992 marked the date Jose became a professional boxer. From here he fought his way to becoming Massachusetts State Champion twice, the USBA Regional Champion, the IBO World Champion, and the NABA Champion.
On September 13, 2003, in Germany, Jose fought unbeaten European Champion Michel Trabant and walked away with the WBA Welterweight Championship of the World.
On April 2, 2005, in his defense of the WBA title, Jose lost a very close split decision to his challenger
Luis Collazo
Luis Collazo (born April 22, 1981) is an American professional boxer who held the WBA welterweight title from 2005 to 2006.
Professional career
Collazo is of Puerto Rican descent, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
Collazo won the WBA Wel ...
.
On May 6, 2006, Jose would move up a weight class to Junior Middleweight and fight Champion
Alejandro Garcia. He managed to knock him down five times and won to become the new WBA Champion.
On January 6, 2007, Jose defended his new WBA title against
Travis Simms but lost in a ninth-round TKO (Technical Knock Out).
In October he was KOd by
Daniel Santos. He had announced his intention to retire before that fight, and did so.
Jose made a brief one-fight comeback in August 2008, beating Clarence Taylor in an 8-round decision, then retired again after suffering a hand injury. He plans to make a second comeback in his hometown of Worcester, Mass., on May 20, 2011, against Luis Maysonet.
See also
*
List of WBA world champions
*
List of Puerto Rican boxing world champions
In Puerto Rico, boxing is considered a major sport, having produced more amateur and professional world champions than any other sport in its history. Puerto Rico ranks 5th worldwide between countries with most boxing world champions in history (o ...
External links
*
1973 births
Boxers from Philadelphia
Light-middleweight boxers
Living people
Sportspeople from Worcester, Massachusetts
World Boxing Association champions
Welterweight boxers
World light-middleweight boxing champions
Puerto Rican male boxers
American male boxers
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