Raúl Horacio Balbi (born October 7, 1973) is an Argentine former professional boxer.

Professional career

Balbi made his professional debut on November 19, 1993, in

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, Argentina. Balbi made a victorious start to his career by

knocking out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

Juan Bautista Sosa in the first round. One of the highlights of Balbi's early career came on June 3, 1995, when he beat Simon Canache to claim the

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n lightweight title. The first loss of Balbi's career came on September 9, 1995, when he lost to Manuel Alberto Billalba via a ten round points decision, Balbi avenged this defeat later on in his career by beating Billalba twice. On February 22, 1997, Balbi travelled to

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, to challenge the Uzbek champion

Artur Grigorian Artur Razmikovich Grigorian (; born 20 October 1967) is a retired Armenian-Uzbek professional boxer. Grigorian is a former WBO lightweight champion. He defended his title against record-breaking 17 boxers, and held it for seven years, six month ...

for the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

lightweight title. Balbi's challenge proved to be unsuccessful, as Grigorian scored an eleventh round technical knockout. After the fight Balbi returned to Argentina, where he put together a run of five wins before losing a split decision to Walter Hugo Rodriguez. Balbi remained undefeated over his next sixteen bouts, earning him a chance to fight Alberto Esteban Sicurella in a WBA title eliminator. Balbi won the fight by tenth round technical knockout, which led to a world title challenge against the

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champion

Julien Lorcy Julien Lorcy (born 12 April 1972) is a French former professional boxer who held the WBA lightweight title twice. Amateur career Record: 65-4 (36 KO) *1990 French National Amateur Featherweight Champion *1991 French National Amateur Featherweig ...

on October 8, 2001, in

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. In the third round of the contest Balbi was able to open a large cut above the champion's right eye and had further success when he knocked Lorcy down in the seventh. The fight lasted the twelve round distance and Balbi was announced as the winner via a majority decision. The first defence of Balbi's title took place on January 5, 2002, against Leonard Dorin in

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. After a toe-to-toe battle which lasted the full twelve rounds, the

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n challenger Dorin was announced the winner by split decision. After the fight a surprised Balbi claimed that he was "robbed". A rematch occurred five months later, this time in

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, Romania. On this occasion Dorin won a unanimous decision with scores of: 118-111, 117-112 and 118-110. A run of six consecutive wins earned Balbi another shot at the WBA title, this time for the vacant light welterweight belt. The fight took place in

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on September 2, 2006, against the Frenchman

Souleymane M'baye Souleymane M'baye (born March 21, 1975) is a French professional boxer and is the former WBA super-lightweight champion. Professional career He won the vacated title by a fourth technical knockout on September 2, 2006 against Raul Horacio Balb ...

. Balbi was knocked down twice en route to a fourth round loss via technical knockout, thus handing the title to M'baye. Since his light welterweight title challenge Balbi has lost three times including against Denis Shafikov. His most recent match, a draw against Bolivian boxer Franklin Mamani, took place on May 28, 2010.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Balbi, Raúl Horacio 1973 births Living people Argentine male boxers Boxers from Buenos Aires World Boxing Association champions World lightweight boxing champions Light-welterweight boxers

Professional career

Professional boxing record

See also

References

External links