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Forgotten Champions: Artur Grigorian


BoztheMadman
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One of THE most underrated champions, especially in the last 25 years, Artur Grigorian held the WBO lightweight title between 1996 and 2004-almost 8 years, making 17 defenses. I believe that is a division record in fact. Only Benny Leonard held his world title longer-but only by 2 months. Grigorian was technically sound southpaw, had a good chin and power and only lost once as a pro, at the end of his career, to the outstanding Acelino Freitas. He was known under the moniker "King Arthur", like Arthur Abraham later on. He came from Uzbekistan and was the first Uzbek pro world champion in history.

 

Born as Atuiz Grigorjan, 20 October 1967 in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, in an ethnic Armenian family, Grigorian was a Soviet amateur boxer in his youth and in 1990 and 1991 won silver medals in the national championships. In 1990, he won gold at the Goodwill Games, defeating Shane Mosley along the way, 5-0 on points. In 1991, he also won silver at the world championships in Sydney, losing to Marco Rudolph 14-19 in the final. After the breakup of USSR, he represented the Unified Team of various Soviet countries, at the 1992 Olympics and was eliminated in the second round on points against Hong-Sung Sik. In 1993, he finally got to represent Uzbekistan at the next world championships but this time failed to win a medal, once again losing in the second round on points to Nordine Mouchi. Grigorian went to Germany to start his pro career and debuted in April 1994, trained by Fritz Zdunek. He won the German light title in his third fight, by TKO5 against Senturk Ozdemir. In 1995, he won the WBO Inter-Continental title by TKO8 against Antonio Strabello. After defending it once, he got to fight for the main WBO title against the experienced Antonio Rivera of Puerto Rico, on 13 April 1996 in Hamburg. Grigorian was ahead by a landslide after Rivera got two points deducted, when he stopped Rivera by TKO12. Thus began one of the longest championship reigns in recent time. He beat Marty Jakubowski, who had a record of 103-2, by a wide UD in his second defense. On 22 February '97, he scored one of his best victories when he stopped the future WBA-champion Raul Horacio Balbi of Argentina by TKO11. On 14 March '98, he avenged his amateur loss to Marco Rudolph in another defense, stopping him by TKO6 after knocking him down in the previous round. He then stopped the man who put Oscar De La Hoya once, Giorgio Campanella, by TKO10, in his next defense, number 6. In 1999, he also knocked out the 24-0 Michael Clark, who would later take part in The Contender, in 5 rounds. His last notable defense wins were against Antonio Pitalua (UD) and Stefano Zoff (UD), in 2000 and 2002 respectively. His last successful defense, the 17th, came against the 24-0 Matt Zegan, Grigorian winning by a majority decision on 18 January '03.

 

He hadn't fought for nearly a year when he defended for the 18th time-and against his toughest opponent yet, Acelino Freitas. Freitas had just come up from super featherweight, where he made 10 title defenses and was a unified world champion as well. He proved to be simply too fast and was also 8 years younger. They fought on 3 January 2004, at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket-first and only fight in the US for Grigorian. Grigorian put up a good fight, but was down four times and in the end lost by the scores of 107-116 twice and 108-115. He became a light welter after that, but after defeating Vasile Herteg of Hungary by TKO4, he retired. He came back for one more fight in 2009, against Kirkor Kirkorov of Bulgaria, which he won by PTS6. He was 41 when he finally hung up the gloves. His record is an excellent 38 wins, 23 by ko, and only 1 loss. It is a shame his career was doomed to be rather seclusive, until its' end that is, and fighting in Germany pretty much ruined his chances of fighting one of the other champions in the division. I would've loved to see him against Mosley and/or Orzubek Nazarov.

 

Grigorian.jpg

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