Real name Raul Horacio Balbi Name Raul Balbi Total fights 68 Nickname(s) Pepe Role Boxer Draws 2 | Nationality Argentine Height 1.70 m Losses 11 Stance Orthodox Division Lightweight Wins by ko 38 | |
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Rated at Light Welterweight
Lightweight Born 7 October 1973 (age 50)
Buenos Aires, Argentina ( 1973-10-07 ) | ||
Raúl Horacio Balbi (born October 7, 1973) is an Argentine professional boxer. Although Balbi currently competes in the light welterweight division, he is most notable for having won the WBA world lightweight title.
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Professional career
Balbi made his professional debut on November 19, 1993 in Mercedes, Corrientes, Argentina. Balbi made a victorious start to his career by knocking out Juan Bautista Sosa in the first round. One of the highlights of Balbi's early career came on June 3, 1995 when he beat Simon Canache to claim the South American lightweight title. The first loss of Balbi's career came on September 9, 1995 when he lost to Manuel Alberto Billalba via a ten round points decision, Balbi avenged this defeat later on in his career by beating Billalba twice.
On February 22, 1997 Balbi travelled to Hamburg, Germany to challenge the Uzbek champion Artur Grigorian for the WBO lightweight title. Balbi's challenge proved to be unsuccessful, as Grigorian scored an eleventh round technical knockout. After the fight Balbi returned to Argentina, where he put together a run of five wins before losing a split decision to Walter Hugo Rodriguez.
Balbi remained undefeated over his next sixteen bouts, earning him a chance to fight Alberto Esteban Sicurella in a WBA title eliminator. Balbi won the fight by tenth round technical knockout, which led to a world title challenge against the French champion Julien Lorcy on October 8, 2001 in Paris. In the third round of the contest Balbi was able to open a large cut above the champion's right eye and had further success when he knocked Lorcy down in the seventh. The fight lasted the twelve round distance and Balbi was announced as the winner via a majority decision.
The first defence of Balbi's title took place on January 5, 2002 against Leonard Dorin in San Antonio, Texas. After a toe-to-toe battle which lasted the full twelve rounds, the Romanian challenger Dorin was announced the winner by split decision. After the fight a surprised Balbi claimed that he was "robbed". A rematch occurred five months later, this time in Bucharest, Romania. On this occasion Dorin won a unanimous decision with scores of: 118-111, 117-112 and 118-110.
A run of six consecutive wins earned Balbi another shot at the WBA title, this time for the vacant light welterweight belt. The fight took place in Bolton, United Kingdom on September 2, 2006, against the Frenchman Souleymane M'baye. Balbi was knocked down twice en route to a fourth round loss via technical knockout, thus handing the title to M'baye. Since his light welterweight title challenge Balbi has lost three times. His most recent match, a draw against Bolivian boxer Franklin Mamani, took place on May 28, 2010.