Ayub Kalule (born 6 January 1954) is a retired boxer from
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
, who first came to prominence when he won the Amateur World
Welterweight
Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...
Havana, Cuba
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.WBA and
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light middleweight titles from 1979 until 1981.
Boxing career
Born in
Kampala
Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...
, he began his professional boxing career in 1976 when he won a four-round decision over Kurt Hombach in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kalule would be based out of Denmark for the rest of his career. He then won 29 more victories, achieving 30 wins, 0 losses. Included in those victories were defeats of Alipata Korovou for the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
Middleweight
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to .
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...
Title and a 10-round decision of former U.S. olympic gold medalist
Sugar Ray Seales
"Sugar" Ray Seales, (born September 4, 1952) is an American former Boxing, boxer. He was the only American boxer to win a gold medal in the 1972 Summer Olympics. As a professional, he fought middleweight champion Marvin Hagler three times. He i ...
.
On 24 October 1979, Kalule was in Akita, Japan to take on Masashi Kudo for the Lineal and WBA
Junior middleweight
Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in boxing but also may include other combat sports.
Boxing
The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF o ...
titles. Kalule easily outboxed the champion and thus captured the coveted world championship crown. He then successfully defended the title four times before taking on the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard on 25 June 1981 in the
Houston Astrodome
The NRG Astrodome, formerly and also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, was the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, United States. It seated around 50,000 fans, with a record atte ...
. A virtual unknown in the United States, Kalule was considered little more than a courier waiting to deliver the belt to Leonard. The fight proved much more difficult for Leonard as Kalule repeatedly landed straight lefts and fought on an almost even ground for the first five or six rounds. Slowly Leonard started to take control and in the 9th round ended the fight and Kalule's reign as WBA Champion.
Kalule fought on until the beginning of 1986 and managed to win the European Middleweight Title and defend it successfully against future world champion Sumbu Kalambay. Prior to that, he received another shot at the WBA Jr Middleweight Title held at that time by Davey Moore. Kalule put up a very good fight, but again was KO'd, this time in the 10th round. Ayub's career ended on 5 February 1986 when he lost the European Middleweight Title to
Herol Graham
Herol Graham (born 13 September 1959) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1978 to 1998. A three-time world title challenger, he is generally acknowledged as one of the best British boxers of the post-war era to have never w ...
. He finished his career with a very impressive record of 46–4 with 23 KOs.
Professional boxing record
See also
*
List of world light-middleweight boxing champions
This is a chronological List of World Super Welterweight / Junior Middleweight / Light Middleweight Boxing Champions, as recognized by four of the better-known sanctioning organizations:
* The World Boxing Association (WBA), founded in 1921 as the ...