Yonnhy Pérez (born 18 January 1979) is a Colombian former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 2005 to 2011. He held the IBF

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports and weightlifting. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class ...

title from 2009 to 2010, reaching a peak ranking of number three at bantamweight by ''

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'' magazine in December 2010.

Professional career

Although born in Colombia, Pérez has fought all but one of his professional fights in the United States. He made his debut on 30 July 2005 in

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

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at the age of 26. Pérez made a winning start to his career,

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 ...

Steve Lozoya in the first round. Pérez faced his biggest challenge on 29 May 2009, when he travelled to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa to fight

Silence Mabuza Silence Mabuza (born 18 September 1977 in Tsakane, South Africa) is a professional boxer in the bantamweight (118 lb) division, and as of 6 Jan. 2008, is a former two time holder of the International Boxing Organization's world Bantamweight ti ...

in an IBF Bantamweight title eliminator. Mabuza, a native of Johannesburg, was a former world champion and had only lost to the renowned

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Rafael Marquez. Despite trailing on all three scorecards, Pérez was able to knock Mabuza out in the final round.

IBF bantamweight champion

In his first world title fight Pérez successfully challenged the IBF champion,

Joseph Agbeko Joseph Agbeko (born 22 March 1980) is a Ghanaian professional boxer. He is a two-time former bantamweight world champion, having held the IBF title twice between 2007 and 2011. Additionally he held the Commonwealth bantamweight title from 2004 t ...

from

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. Agbeko, who in his previous fight defeated

Vic Darchinyan Vakhtang "Vic" Darchinyan (; born 7 January 1976) is an Armenian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweigh ...

, suffered a knockdown (a result of an unintentional headbutt) in the tenth round en route to losing his title to Pérez via a unanimous decision. On 22 May 2010, Pérez, defending his IBF title for the first time, fought to a majority draw against the unbeaten Mexican

Abner Mares Abner Mares Martínez (born November 28, 1985) is a Mexican-American professional boxer who also works as a boxing analyst and commentator for Showtime. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the IBF bant ...

. One judge scored the bout 115–113 in favor of Mares while the other two scored it 114–114 even, resulting in Pérez retaining his title. After the fight both boxers claimed that the decision should have gone their way, and both expressed interest in a rematch.

Perez vs. Agbeko II

Rather than an immediate rematch with Mares, Pérez faced Agbeko for a second time in the first round of Showtime's bantamweight tournament, while Mares faced Darchinyan on 11 December. Pérez went on to lose a unanimous decision to Agbeko in the match, and a

technical decision A technical decision is a term used in boxing when a fight has to be stopped because of a headbutt. In mixed martial arts, a technical decision occurs when a fighter is rendered unable to continued by a foul and the majority of the final round ha ...

(on accidental cuts) to Darchinyan on 23 April 2011. In March 2012, having not fought since the losses to Agbeko and Darchinyan, Pérez announced his retirement from boxing, citing a lack of motivation to continue in the sport.Christ, Scott (8 March 2012)
"Yonnhy Perez Announces Retirement From Boxing"
''

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''.

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. Retrieved 24 October 2016.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Yonnhy World bantamweight boxing champions 1979 births Living people International Boxing Federation champions Colombian male boxers Boxers from Cartagena, Colombia Pan American Games bronze medalists in boxing Pan American Games bronze medalists for Colombia Pan American Games boxers for Colombia Boxers at the 2003 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games 21st-century Colombian sportsmen