|
He made two convincing defences
of that title, scoring
inside-the-distance victories
over Richie Woodhall and Paul
Vaden, before travelling to
France in May 1998 to take on
Hacine Cherifi. Holmes knocked
Cherifi down in the ninth round,
but lost a close decision in the
end. After two decisive
victories in non-title fights,
Holmes would get his revenge
less than a year later when he
stopped Cherifi in seven rounds
at the MCI Center in hometown
Washington D.C., to regain the
world championship.
Five months later Holmes
defended the WBC title in a
rematch with Andrew Council, and
as in their first meeting he won
a clear unanimous decision. In
his second defence of his second
reign, Holmes stopped England’s
Robert McCracken, before
squaring off with IBF World
Champion Bernard Hopkins at “The
Mecca of Boxing”, Madison Square
Garden in New York.
The legendary Hopkins beat
Holmes on points, and the
dethroned champion took a few
years off from the ring before
returning as a light
middleweight in 2003. After a
few significant victories over
Jason Papillion and Kuvanych
Toygonbayev, he lost a
razor-thin decision to Roman
Karmazin in a 2005
world-title-eliminator,
side-tracking his goal of
becoming a three-time world
champion.
One fight in 2006 and one fight
in 2007 was all it amounted to
for Holmes, and in 2008 he
didn’t fight at all. He returned
in June 2009 with a decision
over Willis Locket at the
Washington Convention Center,
and on May 29 he will be looking
to make it two in a row in his
hometown, and capture the UBO
International title in the
process.
Titanium Promotions will
announce opponents for Holmes
and DeMarcus Corley within the
next few weeks. |
PRINT
