2018, a Monday - Satoshi Shimizu TKO3 Takuya Uehara for the OPBF featherweight title. 2017, a Sunday - Marjohn Kiunisala Yap KO10 Seizo Kono for the OPBF bantamweight title. 2016, a Saturday - Denis Lebedev SD12 Murat Gassiev for the IBF cruiserweight title. 2015, a Thursday - Mario Andrade UD10 Ivan Meneses Flores for the WBC Latino flyweight title. 2014, a Wednesday - Daniel Geale UD12 Jarrod Fletcher for the WBO Asia Pacific middleweight title. 2013, a Tuesday - Liborio Solis SD12 Daiki Kameda for the IBF & WBA super flyweight titles. 2012, a Monday - Wisaksil Wangek KO2 Albin Bais for the WBC Asian super flyweight title. 2011, a Saturday - Miguel Cotto RTD9 Antonio Margarito for the WBA super welterweight title. 2010, a Friday - Renan St. Juste KO2 Sebastien Demers for the WBO NABO super middleweight title. 2009, a Thursday - Tim Coleman SD12 Mike Arnaoutis for the vacant USBA super lightweight title. 2008, a Wednesday - Felix Cora, Jr. UD5 Joell Godfrey, opening bout of The Contender, season 4. 2007, a Monday - Paulino da Silva REF10 Joe Ainscough, British Central Area super middleweight title 2006, a Sunday - Sergey Sorokin UD12 Victor Hugo Castro for the WBO Asian super lightweight title. 2005, a Saturday - Jermain Taylor UD12 Bernard Hopkins for the WBC/WBA/WBO middleweight titles. 2004, a Friday - Martin Castillo UD12 Alexander Muñoz for the WBA super flyweight title. 2003, a Wednesday - Grigory Drozd Muslim Biyarslanov for the Russian cruiserweight title. 2002, a Tuesday - Anthony Shuler TKO8 Victorio Belcher for the vacant Indiana super welterweight title. 2001, a Monday - Nobuhiro Ishida D10 Kevin Kelly, no title. 2000, a Sunday - Steve Forbes TKO8 John Brown for the vacant IBF super featherweight title. 1999, a Friday - Rocky Torres UD12 Juan Carlos Viloria for the WBC FECARBOX light heavyweight title. 1998, a Thursday - Radford Beasley KO3 Mike Juarez for the NABF featherweight title. 1997, a Wednesday - Paolo Pizzamiglio UD10 Giovanni Fatori for the Italian super welterweight title. 1996, a Tuesday - Sompoch Harnvichachai TKO2 Keiji Yamaguchi for the WBA light flyweight title. 1995, a Sunday - Adilson Rodrigues UD12 Johnny Nelson for the WBF heavyweight title. 1994, a Saturday - Riddick Bowe UD12 Larry Donald for the WBC Americas heavyweight title. ...and today, we have zero pro bouts scheduled. This content is protected Funny looking at the day of the week trends. Of course we all know that Saturday is the night for big time world championship boxing (at least in the United States, with both HBO and Showtime for decades slotting their marquee premier events there smack in the middle of the weekend) but it really drives the point home to look in contrast with the same date on the other six days. Lebedev vs. Gassiev, Cotto vs. Margarito, Taylor vs. Hopkins, and Bowe vs. Donald are by far the most important match-ups of those listed, and it really isn't even close. I might add to it later, but... probably not. Just doing 2.5 decades was a lot of work already, for the benefit of...idk, maybe a small handful of extreme boxing nerds besides me.
On this date (December 3) in 1982, Thomas Hearns defeated Wilfred Benitez, and Wilfredo Gomez overcame exhaustion to eventually stop Lupe Pintor in what undoubtedly is the best fight ever waged on this particular date.
Interesting as well to demarcate just where I went from casual to diehard fan - in my case turn of the millennium - where I start recognizing the names of fighters outside the world title picture. I knew who Forbes and Brown were, for instance - but Torres, Beasley, Viloria, Juarez? Had no idea who they were contemporaneously. ... and still today have no idea who the hell Pizzamiglio, Fatori, Harnvichachai or Yamaguchi were, and my knowledge of global boxing history (especially recent/modern) is by now pretty damn broad...
Not saying it tops Bazooka Gómez vs. Pintor necessarily, but...SRR vs. Fullmer III was on 12/3/60, another hefty milestone. (...and, you guessed it ...on a Saturday )
Back in the 80's (and before) Weeknights were common days for closed circuit/ppv fights. 1980~Sugar Ray Leonard and Duran met in Montreal on a Friday, and re-matched on a Tuesday. 1981~Leonard faced Hearns on a Wednesday (after beating Kalule on a rare Thursday fight). 1982- Holmes faced Cooney on a Friday. Hearns faced Benitez on a Friday, as already mentioned. 1983- Hagler faced Roberto Duran on a Thursday. 1984~Hearns defeated Roberto Duran on a Friday card. 1985~Hagler met Hearns on a Monday 1986~Once again, Hagler won a fight on Monday, defeating John Mugabi 1987~ SRL came back and defeated Hagler on a Monday card. 1988~ Leonard vs Lalonde took place on a Monday. Tyson beat Spinks on Monday, too. 1989~ Leonard vs Hearns II was on a Monday You really didn't start getting PPV fights exclusively on Saturdays until the 90's. Up until that point, any night could be The Big Fight Night.
