Super bantamweight

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Super Bantamweight is a weight division in professional boxing. It is alternately referred to as Junior Featherweight. The maximum weight for this division is 122 pounds.

There were attempts by promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanctioning organizations or state athletic commissions would recognize it. Jack "Kid" Wolf won recognition as champion when he beat Joe Lynch at Madison Square Garden on September 21, 1922, but afterwards the weight division fell into disuse.[1]

The division was revived in the 1970s and the first title fight took place in 1976 when the World Boxing Council recognized Rigoberto Riasco as its champion when he defeated Waruinge Nakayama in eight rounds. The World Boxing Association crowned its first champion in 1977 when Soo Hwan Hong knocked out Hector Carasquilla in three rounds to win the inaugural WBA championship. In 1983 the International Boxing Federation sanctioned the bout between Bobby Berna and Seung-In Suh for its first title. Berna won in the eleventh round.

Notable fighters to hold championship titles at this weight have been Wilfredo Gómez, Erik Morales, Manny Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, Lupe Pintor, Jeff Fenech, Fabrice Benichou, Daniel Zaragoza, Buzz Grant, and Kennedy McKinney. Wilfredo Gómez holds the record for longest title reign, at five years and ten months. He also holds the record for most title defenses, at seventeen.

[edit] Professional Champions

[edit] References

  1. ^ “World Champions: The Last 20 Years”, International Boxing Digest 39, no. 1: 64, August 1997