Paul Spadafora

Paul Spadafora
Data
Birth Name	Paul Ross Spadafora
Fight name	Pittsburgh Kid
Weight class	Light welterweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	5th September 1975
place of birth	Pittsburgh
style	Legal display
size	1.75 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	51
Victories	49
Knockout victories	19th
Defeats	1
draw	1

Paul Ross Spadafora (born September 5, 1975 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) is an American professional boxer and former world champion of the IBF lightweight.

Career

As an amateur boxer, he won 75 out of 80 fights. He is a two-time winner of the Ohio State Fair Tournament, as well as Pittsburgh Golden Gloves Champion of the years 1993 and 1994. In October 1995 he made his professional debut in Pittsburgh with a points victory against Steve Maddux.

He won each of his 26 fights by early 1999, 13 of them prematurely. It should be noted, however, that only 8 of these opponents could show a positive match record. He achieved the two most important victories of this development phase in May 1998 against IBO world champion Amado Cabato and in January 1999 against three-time World Cup challenger Ray Martinez.

On August 20, 1999, he finally won in West Virginia with a points victory against Israel Cardona (31-2), the IBF lightweight world title. Until mid-2003 he defended the title against Renato Cornett (30-2), Victoriano Sosa (24-1), Mike Griffith (23-6), Billy Irwin (34-3), Joel Perez (31-4), Angel Manfredy (39-5), Dennis Pedersen (43-1) and Leonard Doroftei (21-0), he also defeated Rodney Jones (23-0) and Charles Tschorniawsky (20-3) in two non-title fights.

Spadafora then put down the title to continue boxing from 2004 in the light welterweight division. Since he came into conflict with the law several times in the following years and also had to go to prison, his number of fights remained modest. In 2004 he defeated Ruben Galvan (20-4) and Francisco Campos (18-0) before he was only able to get back into the ring at the end of 2006, beating Frankie Zepeda (16-3). In 2007 he played only one fight, which he was able to win on points against Oisin Fagan (17-3) from Ireland. Until 2013 he won against Jermaine White (17-3), Ivan Fiorletta (24-5), Humberto Toledo (41-7) and Solomon Egberime (22-3), where he was the North American NABF champion.

On November 30, 2013, he boxed for the interim World Championship of the WBA , but suffered a narrow point defeat against Johan Perez (17-1) from Venezuela. In July 2014, he defeated the two-time World Cup challenger Héctor Velázquez from Mexico.

additional

Spadafora grew up in McKees Rocks and attended Sto-Rox High School . His older brother Harry (* 1971) was also a boxer.

In 1999 Paul Spadafora became the first boxing world champion from Pittsburgh since 1941, when Fritzie Zivic won the title against Henry Armstrong . In 2011 he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves Hall of Fame.

Spadafora also gained notoriety for numerous violations of the law, which repeatedly led to his arrest and imprisonment. In 1994 he was shot as a passenger in his friend's car when the police tried to flee. In 1995 he was arrested as a minor for being drunk. In 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2011 arrests and convictions for improper behavior, drunkenness in public, violation of probation requirements, drug use and driving under the influence of alcohol followed.

In 2003 he shot his pregnant girlfriend during an argument and was sentenced in 2005 to 21 to 60 months in prison for attempted murder. After attending a boot camp , he was released in April 2006.

predecessor	Office	successor
Shane Mosley	World lightweight boxing champion ( IBF ) August 20, 1999 - June 2003	Javier Jáuregui

Web links

• BoxRec profile
• official homepage