Manuel Medina (boxer)
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Juan Manuel Rubio Medina (born March 30, 1971 in Tecuala, Nayarit, Mexico) is a boxer, who is better known as Manuel Medina. He has been a world Featherweight champion five times. His nickname is Mantecas, which can be loosely translated to (food) fat.
[edit] Professional boxing career
Manuel Medina began his professional boxing career on September 9, 1985, beating Daniel Flores by a four round decision in Mexicali, Mexico. Medina was only fourteen years old when his first professional fight took place.
Medina won one more fight, then lost two bouts in a row: on December 5, he lost a four round decision to Gerardo Martinez in his first fight abroad, held in San Jose, California, United States. On January 16, 1986, he suffered his first knockout defeat, being stopped because of a cut by Alex Madrid in San Diego.
After losing to Madrid, Medina had a streak of twenty seven wins in a row. That streak was stopped by Juan Carlos Salazar, who outpointed Medina over ten rounds on July 10, 1989 in Tijuana. After two more victories, however, Medina contended for his first championship belt, the regional, WBA "International" Super-Featherweight title, which he won by a seventh round disqualification victory against Edgar Castro, on December 11 of that same year, in Inglewood. Medina retained tha title twice, then challenged Tyrone Jackson for the lightly regarded IBC Jr. Featherweight title, on May 21, 1990, also at Inglewood. He won that belt with a twelve round decision win over Jackson. His next fight, against former world Featherweight champion and Barry McGuigan conqueror, Steve Cruz, was his first fight at the Featherweight division. He outpointed Cruz over ten rounds on July 5 of the same year.
Medina won four bouts, then had his first chance at becoming a world champion, when, on August 12, 1991, he faced IBF world Featherweight champion Troy Dorsey in Inglewood. Medina became a world champion by defeating Dorsey by a twelve round decision. He made four defenses of his title, including victories against future world champion and Medina conqueror Tom Johnson, beaten by a nine rounds technical decision and Fabrice Benichou, another world champion boxer, outpointed by Medina over twelve rounds. His first reign as world Featherweight champion took him to places like France and Italy.
Medina lost the championship to Johnson by a twelve round decision on their February 26, 1993 rematch, held in France. He turned to the Jr. Lightweight division, where he won one fight, then attempted to become world champion there also. But, on June 26 of the same year, he lost to IBF world Jr. Lightweight champion John John Molina by a twelve round decision, in Atlantic City.
Medina then returned to the Featherweight division, where he won two more fights before facing Johnson in a rubber match, held on January 28, 1995 at Atlantic City. Johnson retained the IBF world Featherweight title he had won from Medina by beating him by a twelve round decision. In his next fight, Medina won the WBC's regional Fecarbox title by defeating Juan Polo Perez by a twelve round unanimous decision on March 15 in Miami, Florida.
Medina's next fight was televised nationally in the United States, as he became world Featherweight champion for the second time, defeating Alejandro Gonzalez on September 23 of '95, with a twelve round unanimous decision, at Sacramento, California, for the WBC world Featherweight title. He lost the title in his first defense, losing a twelve round decision to Luisito Espinoza on December 11 at Tokyo, Japan.
After a win, Medina tried to become a three time world Featherweight champion by challenging Naseem Hamed for Hamed's WBO world title, but he was defeated by Hamed with an eleventh round knockout on August 31, 1996 in Dublin, Ireland. He followed that loss with a win, and another attempt at winning the world Featherweight championship for a third time, this time around in a rematch with Espinoza. held on May 17, 1997. He lost to the Asian champion once again, this time by an eight rounds technical decision at Intramuros, Philippines. Medina lost his next fight as well, by a ninth round knockout on August 7, to future world champion Derrick Gainer, for the regional, NABU Jr. Lightweight title.
On October 18, he recovered from his two loss streak to defeat Jose Ayala in Homestead, Florida, winning the WBA's Fedecentro regional championship, and setting himself in a position to obtain another chance at winning the world Featherweight title for the third time. He knocked Ayala out in the eighth round.
On April 24, 1998, Medina joined Carlos De Leon, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Edwin Rosario, Evander Holyfield and a small number of other boxers in the exclusive group of fighters to reign as world champions three or more times in the same division, when he outpointed defending IBF world champion Hector Lizarraga over twelve rounds in San Jose, California. He retained the title on April 16, 1999 in Las Vegas with a nine rounds technical decision over former world Super Featherweight champion Victor Polo, then proceeded to lose the championship to Paul Ingle.
The fight against Ingle, held on November 13 of the same year, in Hull, England, went on to be considered one of the fights of the year by boxing fans, experts and magazine writers alike. Floored in the second and tenth rounds, Medina almost saved his title when he dropped Ingle in the twelfth and last round. He ended up losing a unanimous decision, however.
Medina then met future world champion Frankie Toledo, beating him in Las Vegas by a ten round decision on May 19, 2000. When Ingle had to retire from boxing due to health complications, Toledo won the vacant IBF world Featherweight title. Medina, meanwhile, picked up two more wins, including a fourth round knockout over future world title challenger Mike Juarez.
Medina and Toledo had a rematch on November 16, 2001, with Medina joining Robinson as four time world champions in the same division when he knocked Toledo out in the sixth round.
His next fight was filled with controversy. Faced against former two division world champion Johnny Tapia on April 27, 2002, Medina lost the title by a twelve round majority decision at the Madison Square Garden in New York city. The decision was critizized for months to come by writers from such publications as Ring and KO Magazine. The official scorecards reflected a very close fight, with two judges scoring it 115-113 for Tapia and a third scoring the fight a 114-114 tie.
Medina's first attempt at tying Robinson's record as the only boxer to win a world title in the same division five times came on February 1, 2003, when he and Juan Manuel Marquez faced off in Las Vegas for the championship vacated by Tapia. Medina was knocked out in the seventh round by Marquez, however.
After two more wins, Medina got his second chance at becoming world Featherweight champion for the fifth time. WBO monarch Scott Harrison was a British Olympic hero and fan favorite. The two boxers fought for the first time on July 12 at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. Medina made history and joined Robinson as the only two fighters in history to be five time world champions in the same division, by defeating Harrison, who until then had been defeated only once, by a twelve round split decision. A boxing magazine from the United States then called Medina the gambler's nightmare, because of his tendency to win world Featherweight titles, lose them quickly, then regain them just as quick.
Medina and Harrison were rematched on November 29 of the same year, and Harrison regained the WBO world title, with an eleventh round knockout of Medina, once again, at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.
Medina only fought once in 2004, defeating Leonardo Resendiz on July 23 at Rancho Mirage, California by a third round knockout, to win the NABA regional Jr. Lightweight title.
He was to fight Jose Miguel Cotto on August 20, 2005 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Had he beaten Cotto, he would have put himself in a position to challenge for the WBO's world Jr. Lightwight title. Cotto was not able to reduce weight to the Jr. Lightweight division's weight limit, however, so the fight was suspended.
Medina has a record of 64 wins and 14 losses in 78 professional boxing bouts, with 30 wins by way of knockout.
| Preceded by Troy Dorsey |
IBF Featherweight Champion 12 Aug 1991– 26 Feb 1993 |
Succeeded by Tom Johnson |
| Preceded by Alejandro Gonzalez |
WBC Featherweight Champion 23 Sep 1995– 11 Dec 1995 |
Succeeded by Luisito Espinosa |
| Preceded by Hector Lizarraga |
IBF Featherweight Champion 24 Apr 1998– 13 Nov 1999 |
Succeeded by Paul Ingle |
| Preceded by Frank Toledo |
IBF Featherweight Champion 16 Nov 2001– 27 Apr 2002 |
Succeeded by Johnny Tapia |
| Preceded by Scott Harrison |
WBO Featherweight Champion 12 Jul 2003– 29 Nov 2003 |
Succeeded by Scott Harrison |
