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February 23rd, 1985. 23 year old Barry McGuigan aka "The Clones Cyclone" took on 25 year old former WBC Featherweight Champion Juan Laporte in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom.
Prefight records; McGuigan 24(22)-1, Laporte 25(13)-5.
Going into the scheduled 10 rounder, Laporte had notable victories over Dwight Pratchett, Johnny De La Rosa, Mario Miranda, Rocky Lockridge & Ruben Castillo while McGuigan had wins against top oppositions such as Jean-Marc Renard, Jose Caba & Valerio Nati.
Overall, it was an excitement-filled and action-packed affair between 2 hard hitters who gave their all before a roaring crowd in McGuigan’s home city. However, the Irishman had evidently bagged more rounds in the bank as he connected at a higher rate and often outworked Laporte using his long jab to create openings to the body and head.
From rounds 1 to 8, both fighters traded explosively in many occasions but McGuigan evidently had the upper hand in the majority of their exchanges.
In round 9, Laporte rocked McGuigan with a thunderous overhand right.
In round 10, McGuigan wobbled Laporte with a pulverizing right hook with less than 25 seconds to the final bell, which he followed up with a fusillade of punches upstairs and downstairs but the gutsy Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican survived the onslaught and made it to the final bell.
After 30 minutes of pugilistic explosion, referee Harry Gibbs awarded the fight to McGuigan with the score of 99-97.
In an interview with The Ring on July 6th 2017, McGuigan stated that Laporte had the strongest chin of any fighter he had faced in 35 fights;
"Laporte had an incredible chin, unbelievable chin. Nobody ever put him down. I had him out on his feet in the 10th round. He said he’s never been so badly hurt. He fought Julio Cesar Chavez; he fought so many world champions and I think he was stopped at the end of his career. His corner retired him. Nobody ever put him down. Nobody actually stopped him in the ring. He was definitely the toughest. A chin like granite."
On June 8th 1986, McGuigan went on to achieve the greatest victory of his career by defeating the legendary Panamanian, Eusebio Pedroza aka “El Alacran” via UD15 to garner the WBA Featherweight Championship in London.
Pedraza was the WBA Featherweight Champion since April 15th 1978 and had successfully defended the title a record 19 times against top contenders such as Bashew Sibaca, Hector Carrasquilla, Jorge Lujan, Jose Caba, Juan Laporte, Pat Ford, Royal Kobayashi, Ruben Olivares, Spider Nemoto & Rocky Lockridge (2x).
His monumental triumph over Pedraza before a crowd of 26,000 fans in the Loftus Road Stadium made him a national hero as his immense popularity transcended the sport of boxing in Ireland.
Enjoy this highlight of an INTENSE BATTLE and remember to SUBSCRIBE!
