Sandro Lopopolo

Sandro Lopopolo
Data
Birth Name	Sandro Lopopolo
Weight class	Light welterweight
nationality	Italian
birthday	December 18, 1939
place of birth	Milan
Date of death	April 26, 2014
Place of death	Milan
style	Left delivery
size	1.65 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	76
Victories	58
Knockout victories	20th
Defeats	10
draw	7th

Alessandro "Sandro" Lopopolo (born December 18, 1939 in Milan ; † April 26, 2014 ibid) was an Italian boxer .

amateur

Lopopolo won the silver medal in lightweight at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 . In the final he was defeated by the Polish Kazimierz Paździor .

Professional career

His professional career began in 1961 with an impressive series of 35 fights without loss. In November 1963 he became Italian light welterweight champion. He was able to defend the title twice, but in September 1964 he was defeated on points by Piero Brandi . Lopopolo won the rematch in March of the following year by technical knockout. He then defended his regained championship title again.

His attack on the vacant European light welterweight title failed in July 1965 due to a point defeat against the Spaniard Juan Albornoz .

Lopopolo's boxing career peaked in April 1966 when, after defeating Venezuelan Carlos “Morocho” Hernández, he became world light welterweight champion according to the WBA and WBC versions. In October he was challenged by Vicente Rivas from Venezuela . In the eighth lap Rivas had to retire injured. Lopopolo then met the American Takeshi Fuji in April 1967 , who knocked him out in the second round.

In the rest of his career, Lopopolo tried three more times in title fights. Twice he failed to gain the vacant European light welterweight title: In May 1970 he was defeated by the French René Roque on points and in February 1972 by the French Roger Zami . Lopopolo switched to the welterweight division to secure the European title there. But the Frenchman Roger Menetrey prevented this in December 1972 by technical knockout in the thirteenth round.

Web links

• Sandro Lopopolo in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Sandro Lopopolo in the BoxRec database