Paulie Ayala

Paulie Ayala
Data
Birth Name	Paul Anthony Ayala
Weight class	Bantamweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	April 22, 1970
place of birth	Fort Worth
style	Southpaw
size	1.66 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	38
Victories	35
Knockout victories	12
Defeats	3

Paulie Ayala (* 22. April 1970 in Fort Worth , Texas as Paul Anthony Ayala ) is a retired, American professional boxer of Mexican descent and former WBA world champion bantamweight. He is Ring Magazine Boxer of the Year 1999 and is best known for his two fights against Johnny Tapia .

Amateur career

Paulie Ayala has played over 300 amateur fights, winning the Junior Olympic National Championships in 1986 and the Texas State Golden Gloves in 1989 . In 1992 he was with a final defeat against Sean Fletcher, US runner-up in bantamweight and reached in the eliminations for the XXV. Barcelona Olympic Games , 2nd place in bantamweight. He defeated it Chris Hamilton and his previous conqueror Sean Fletcher, before he lost in the final clearly on points against Sergio Reyes. However, due to the fact that he had defeated Reyes seven times in the previous years, he was accepted into the US Olympic team. However, since his father spoke out against participation, Paulie Ayala resigned from the Olympic team and instead became a professional bantamweight boxer in November of the same year.

Beginnings of the professional career

He made his professional debut on November 27, 1992 against Jaime Olvera and won on points. In his next fight he beat the future North American champion and WBO intercontinental champion Jesse Magana with a technical knockout in the 4th round. He was also able to win his next eleven fights in a row, including against the experienced Mexican champion Javier Díaz.

On March 10, 1995 he won by technical knockout over Miguel Espinoza, the title of North American champion of the NABF and defended it six times against strong opponents, he also played five successful non-title fights. Due to the proximity of the NABF to the world association WBC , Ayala, who has so far been unbeaten in 25 professional fights, got the chance to win the WBC world bantamweight title. He boxed on August 23, 1998 against the Japanese title holder Jōichirō Tatsuyoshi , but lost on points. Tatsuyoshi suffered a bloody cut from a headbutt, as a result of which the fight was finally stopped in the 6th round and the scoresheet on which Tatsuyoshi was in the lead were evaluated.

World Champion

After winning two development fights, however, he was allowed to box for the WBA world championship title. The title holder at that time was the former WBO and IBF world champion Johnny Tapia , unbeaten in 48 professional fights , who had advanced from super flyweight to bantamweight and was able to secure the WBA world title here. The fight took place in Las Vegas on June 26, 1999 , with Ayala understandably entering the ring as an outsider. Before the start of the fight, Ayala was physically attacked by Tapia in the ring, but this did not result in any consequences. The fight itself was characterized by high speed and many combinations, Ayala was superior and was able to bring the defending champion into distress several times. Ayala finally won unanimously on points (116-113, 116-113, 115-114) and was thus the new WBA bantamweight world champion, and the duel was voted "Fight of the Year" ( Ring Magazine ).

He then defended his title against the Thai Saohin Condo and the Dane Johnny Bredahl each on points and met on October 7, 2000 again on Johnny Tapia. Ayala's title wasn't in jeopardy as it was a non-title fight. The fight was again of high intensity, Tapia avoided many blows from Ayala with skillful movements, let blow attacks run into the void and was able to land effective combinations on his part. On lap 6, Ayala was hit in the temple by a left hook and stumbled into the ring ropes, but did not go down. Ayala, on the other hand, showed high taker qualities and was able to land some powerful single hits that sometimes showed impact. For the last ten seconds of the fight, the two boxers exchanged blows that lasted up to the round gong. This time too Ayala won unanimously on points (115-113, 115-113, 116-112), whereupon there were tumults inside and outside the ring; The aggressive Tapia had to be led out of the ring by security guards, Tapia's brother-in-law attacked a member of Ayala's promoter Bob Arum and was arrested.

Change of weight classes

On March 30, 2001 Ayala defended his title by winning points against Hugo Dianzo and switched to super bantamweight. There he secured the IBO's "world championship" title of little international importance in a fight not approved by the WBA on August 4, 2001 , whereupon his WBA title was revoked three days later. The title win came through a victory against former WBA world champion Clarence Adams , whom he was able to defeat again in the rematch.

After switching to featherweight, he was given the opportunity to win the WBC world title against Erik Morales on November 16, 2002 , but lost unanimously on points (111-117, 111-117, 112-116). After winning a build-up battle, he boxed against Marco Antonio Barrera on June 19, 2004 and lost to a technical knockout in the 10th round. This was also his last professional fight.

predecessor	Office	successor
Johnny Tapia	Bantamweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) June 26, 1999 - August 7, 2001	Eidy Moya

Web links

• Profile at BoxRec
• Forth Worth Champions - Paulie Ayala
• Ayala's Dad Tells Officials to Forget About His Son