Forgotten Warriors: Julio Cesar Green

Julio Cesar Green could fight. He was always game and ready for a good fight. He was strong in all areas: he had power, he had the skills and iq and he had the speed. His chin wasn't bad either, for he only got stopped for real once, at the end of his career and by the much bigger and naturally stronger Mikkel Kessler. He fought in all the middle divisions but is best remembered as a middleweight, where he achieved his great triumph-winning the WBA belt from William Joppy. Also, in his time, he was one of the few really good and notable Dominican boxers, alongside Hector Acero Sanchez and another forgotten warrior, Merqui Sosa.

Born in Las Terrenas, a small town on the northeastern coast of the beautiful Dominican Republic, on 19 May 1967, Green relocated to New York at some point to start his boxing career and turned pro 30 October 1990. After winning his first four fights, he was upset for the first time by Kevin Tillman, on 27 September 1991, by UD6. He fought mostly as a middleweight, but also junior middleweight. On 20 November 1992 he won the New York State middleweight title by stopping journeyman Willie Douglas by a cut in round 8. He never defended the title and instead challenged for the NABF junior middle title against Wayne Powell, a noted light middleweight who fought against Julian Jackson and Bernard Hopkins. It was 23 October 1993 and Green impressed by stopping the far more experienced fighter by TKO 7. He was next scheduled to defend against Matthew Charleston, but neither fighter made the weight so it became a non-title fight. Green was again impressive, dispatching Charleston in one round by TKO. His second defense would be remembered, but for unusual reasons: he was fighting against Lonnie Beasley, a top contender who only had one loss in 24 fights. The fight was competitive but Green was the better man, until the 12th and the last round, when the ref Vic Drakulich forcefully separated the two from a clinch and Beasley stumbled backwards and fell on the canvas. When he hesitated to get up, Drakulich waved the fight off. He was then chased from the ring by one of Beasley's angry cornermen. After that, Green got the revenge for his sole loss when he stopped Kevin Tillman by TKO 5.

On 16 June 1995 he got a shot at the vacant WBA 154-pound title against Carl Daniels, a class fighter who had previously given Terry Norris a good fight. The fight took place in Lyon, France for some reason and Daniels proved to be too polished and experienced for Green, winning clearly on points. After that, Green decided to start campaigning exclusively as a middleweight. He didn't have to wait long for the next world title shot. After beating Berenice Barber by KO 4 and Earl Allen by TKO 9, he was matched against the reigning WBA middle champion, William Joppy, on 23 August 1997 in Madison Square Garden. Joppy was undefeated at 24-0-1 and considered to be the hottest fighter in the division, alongside Bernard Hopkins. He was both a puncher and a boxer. Green the underdog surprised everyone when he put Joppy down in round 2 for the first time in his career, but was himself down twice in the next round. He still managed to get the best of Joppy in a very close fight which went to the scorecards and Green was announced as the winner by the scores of 116-113, 114-112 and 113-112. It was one of the bigger upsets of that year. However, the great triumph would not last long. They had a rematch on 31 January next year, this time in Tampa, Florida. It seems Joppy had done his lesson this time, as he came away with a decisive unanimous decision. Green went back to the drawing board for a while and just had one easy fight later that year, before getting to fight for the interim WBA title on 20 February next year. Opponent was the overmatched Darren Obah and Green was convincingly ahead on the scorecards before stopping Obah by TKO 9.

On 24 September that year, he had his rubbermatch versus Joppy and this time the fight would get stopped in the seventh round due to a cut over Green's left eye. Joppy had again been dominant and was leading by a shutout. Having failed to recapture his title, he then moved up to super middleweight. His first fight there wasn't that convincing, as he drew against the journeyman Charles Whittaker. He still got to fight the WBA champion, Byron Mitchell, on 27 July 2002 in Mandalay Bay. Mitchell was making his second defense and was known as a dangerous puncher, but Green again surprised by sending Mitchell down twice in the opening round. It looked like another upset was in the making at his hands, but in the next round he got penalised for holding and hitting and it gave Mitchell some time to come back, which he did in the next round, when he landed some punches that opened a cut on Green's left eyelid. The fight went on until almost 2 minutes of the fourth round, when it was stopped because of the cut. Green was ahead on all three scorecards. After this unfortunate loss, Green was never the same again and was inactive for the next year, before returning in January 2004, as a light heavyweight, which at 5'8 he was small for, but his opponent was a 0-4 tomato can called Roberto Jimenez, so he easily won by KO 1 in his home country. He then surprisingly got the offer to fight the young hot prospect from Denmark, Mikkel Kessler. Kessler was 32-0 and held the WBC International title. Green had to come to Denmark and the fight was held at the Brøndby Hall in Brøndby, outside Copenhagen, on 13 March. Just after a minute, Green was hit by a body shot and went down from a delayed reaction, on all fours. He made no attempt to beat the count and the fight was waved off at 1:20. Kessler and his corner appeared confused by this sudden ending.

It was clear: he was now washed up. He only had one more fight, in Santo Domingo, against another easy opponent called Feliberto Alvarez. It was at light heavyweight and Green won by TKO 2. He was now 37 and chose to retire from the ring, leaving a record of 27 wins with 19 ko's, 6 losses and 1 draw. The reason I chose to write about him is simply that he never gets mentioned today and I only found one message board thread on the internet which mentioned him and his fight against Beasley. Since he was a capable fighter once who even briefly held a world title, I thought that was unjust. And so, I made him a forgotten warrior.