{"id":10717,"date":"2019-02-19T16:21:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T16:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/?p=10717"},"modified":"2019-02-19T16:21:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T16:21:32","slug":"5-great-wbc-super-middleweight-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/5-great-wbc-super-middleweight-champs\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Great WBC super middleweight champs"},"content":{"rendered":"

5 Great WBC super middleweight champs<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Former champion Anthony Dirrell will bid to regain the WBC super middleweight title when he faces Avni Yildirim this weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday\u2019s showdown for the vacant belt, we list some of the top five WBC champions without any particular order.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Andre Ward (2004-2017)<\/strong> secured a unanimous decision over WBC holder Carl Froch to unify the division in the final of the Super Six Tournament. Ward defended the belt against Chad Dawson, dropping the light heavyweight champion three times before securing a 10th round TKO.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Nigel Benn<\/strong> (1987-1996)<\/strong> ended the reign of Mauro Galvano to become a two-weight champion in 1992. After nine successful defenses, \u201cThe Dark Destroyer\u201d lost his belt in a split decision to Thulani Malinga in a rematch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe Calzaghe (1993-2008)<\/strong> produced a career-defining performance to capture the WBC crown in a unification showdown with \u201cViking Warrior\u201d Mikkel Kessler in 2007. \u201cThe Pride of Wales\u201d moved up to light heavyweight to fight Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr before retiring undefeated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSugar\u201d Ray Leonard<\/strong> (1977-1997)<\/strong> won the inaugural 168 lb title after climbing off the canvas to stop Don Lalonde in nine rounds at Caesar\u2019s Palace in 1988. The five-weight champion defended the belt against fellow ring legends Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran before vacating.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Markus Beyer (1996-2008)<\/strong> is the division\u2019s only three-time champion, winning the green and gold belt with victories over Richie Woodhall in 1999, Eric Lucas in 2003 and Cristian Sanavia in 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 Great WBC super middleweight champs Former champion Anthony Dirrell will bid to regain the WBC super middleweight title when he faces Avni Yildirim this weekend [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}