Steven Luevano

Steven Luevano
Statistics
Real name	Steven Luevano
Rated at	Super Featherweight Featherweight
Height	5 ft 9 in (178 cm)
Reach	72 in (184 cm)
Nationality	Mexican American
Born	(1981-03-03) March 3, 1981 Los Angeles, California
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	40
Wins	37
Wins by KO	15
Losses	2
Draws	1
No contests	0

Steven Luevano (born March 3, 1981 in Los Angeles, California) was a Mexican-American boxer in the Featherweight division^[1] and is the former WBO Featherweight Champion.^[2] He was trained by the former IBF Super Featherweight Champion Roberto Garcia. He is remembered for his success inside the ring, with his only professional losses coming to Juan Manuel Lopez and Martin Honorio (due to pre-fight damage to his mouth-piece, which caused him be more defensive than usual, and cost him the bout (evidently confirmed by Luevano's excessive spitting out of his mouth-piece, in which led to a point deduction against Luevano because he kept spitting out his mouth-piece during the fight)).^{[citation needed]}

Amateur career

Steven fought on the Mexican National amateur team.^{[citation needed]} He is the 1997 National Jr. Olympic amateur champion at 119 pounds and had almost 300 amateur bouts before entering the pro ranks.^[3]

Pro career

Luevano turned pro in 2000 and defeated many talented veterans including a win over future IBF Featherweight Champion Cristobal Cruz.

WBO Featherweight Championship

On July 14, 2007 Luevano won the Vacant WBO Featherweight Championship by upsetting an undefeated and the future Super Featherweight WBO champion Nicky Cook by K.O.

On October 6, 2007, Steven Luevano (34-1, 15 KOs) defended his WBO Featherweight title, unanimously defeating 35-year old Antonio "T-Rex" Davis (24-4) on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera.^[4] On March 15 Luevano defended his title magnificently against Thailands Terdsak Jandaeng (29-2-0) winning unanimously. In this pay-per-view fight he landed a featherweight boxing record for most jabs landed.

Even though Steven was born in the United States, he came to the ring with the Mexican flag instead, thus leading the boxing world to believe the fact that Luevano was a Mexican boxer.

Steven Luevano was tested in his 3rd defense against Mario Santiago on the David Diaz-Manny Pacquiao undercard at Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 28, 2008. Luevano retained his 126-pound belt via split draw against Santiago. Judge Harry Davis scored it 117-111 for Luevano, Duane Ford had it 115-113 for Santiago and Dave Moretti had it 114-114. ESPN.com also had it 114-114. Luevano landed 215 of 641 punches (34%) while Santiago connected on 214 of 835 (26%).^[5][6]

On October 18, 2008, Luevano defeated Billy Dib of Australia (21-0-0) for his 4th defense by unanimous decision.

On August 15, 2009, Luevano successfully defended his title via disqualification against Bernabe Concepcion (29-1-2). Luevano was ahead on the scorecards when Concepcion landed late blows after the bell at the end of the seventh round, resulting in Concepcion being disqualified.^[7]

Luevano ultimately lost his title on January 23, 2010 as he was stopped in the 7th round by former WBO junior bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez. This was his only knockout loss.

Retirement

While only 29 years old and still in his prime, Steven decided to retire from boxing, following his loss to Juan Manuel Lopez. During his professional career, Steven Luevano won the WBO NABO Super Bantamweight, WBC Continental Americas Featherweight, WBO NABO Featherweight, and made six defences of his WBO Featherweight Championship.^[8]

See also

• List of WBO world champions
• List of Featherweight boxing champions

References

External links

• Professional boxing record for Steven Luevano from BoxRec