Lonnie Bradley

Lonnie Bradley
Data
Birth Name	Lonnie Sterling Bradley
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	US-american
birthday	16th September 1968
place of birth	Charleston
size	1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	31
Victories	29
Knockout victories	21st
Defeats	1
draw	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Lonnie Sterling Bradley (born September 16, 1968 in Charleston , South Carolina ) is a former American professional boxer and former WBO world middleweight champion.

Amateur career

Lonnie Bradley won the New York Golden Gloves in the light middleweight division in 1990 , the most prestigious amateur boxing tournament in the USA alongside the Chicago Golden Gloves and National Golden Gloves . For the first time, the age limit for participating athletes was raised from 25 to 34 years. In 1991 no New York Golden Gloves were played for financial reasons , but Bradley won the tournament again in 1992 in the light middleweight division. He also won the National Golden Gloves in this weight class in the same year .

In the US Olympic elimination for the Summer Games in Barcelona in June 1992 , he reached the semi-finals after beating Keith Mullings (later WBC world champion), where he was slightly defeated by points against Raúl Márquez (bronze winner of the 1989 World Cup). Then he switched to the professional camp.

Professional career

Between November 1992 and June 1994 he won each of his 15 fights against opponents , 13 of them by knockout. On August 7, 1994, he was in Sullivan County with a points win against Ron Morgan (15-1), New York middleweight champion. In November of the same year he also won by knockout in the second round against Matthew Charleston (21-3) and in January 1995 by tKo in the third round against later IBO world champion Karl Willis (21-1). In the same month he beat the former Mexican champion Luis Vázquez (26-8) prematurely.

On May 19, 1995 he won in Primm by a tKo victory in the twelfth round against the North American champion David Méndez, the vacant WBO world championship in the middleweight division. The title had become vacant after title holder Steve Collins rose to super middleweight division. Bradley became the first world boxing champion from Harlem for more than 37 years when Sugar Ray Robinson won the middleweight world championship against Carmen Basilio in March 1958 .

On July 15, 1995, he defended the title in Inglewood through tKo in the first round against the undefeated Argentine Dario Victor Galindez (18-0). On February 6, 1996 he also defeated the North American champion Randy Smith (16-1) by tKo in the second round. In May 1996 he won unanimously on points against Lonnie Beasley (27-2) and in August 1996 also unanimously against former IBF and WBC world champion Simon Brown (45-5).

In his fifth defense of the title on March 4, 1997 against Otis Grant (28-1), he remained world champion, but only reached a draw. His sixth and last title defense he denied on June 28, 1997 against John Williams and won it prematurely in the eighth round.

In the sparring against the Australian Troy Waters, Bradley's vision problems finally became noticeable and a retinal detachment was diagnosed, which forced him to drop the title and end his boxing career. In August 1999 he tried a comeback attempt, but ended his career in November 2003 after a tKo defeat against David Alonso López for good.

predecessor	Office	successor
Steve Collins	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) May 19, 1995 - June 28, 1997	Otis Grant

Web links

• Profile at BoxRec
• Lonnie Bradley in the BoxRec database
• New York Daily News on the NY GG