Paul Vaden

Paul "The Ultimate" Vaden (born December 29, 1967 in San Diego, California) is a retired professional boxer. Vaden held the IBF light middleweight championship from August 12, 1995 to December 16, 1995. Vaden compiled a professional record of 29–3 with 16 knockout victories, and one loss. Vaden remains the only native San Diegan to become a professional world boxing champion.

Known as "Kid Ultimate", Vaden had a highly accomplished amateur career, compiling an outstanding amateur record of 327–10. In 1990 Vaden became the United States national amateur light middleweight champion. (Link to – United States national amateur boxing light middleweight champions). Vaden was also a bronze medal winner in the 71 kg (156 lbs) division at the 1990 Goodwill Games. A top candidate to make the 1992 U.S. Olympic team Vaden instead decided to turn professional, citing dissatisfaction with amateur boxing's newly implemented scoring system, and the sport's political nature as chief among his reasons.

Vaden, now campaigning as "The Ultimate", turned pro April 5, 1991 and began his career with 18 consecutive wins. On March 25, 1994 he won the IBF Inter-Continental Junior Middleweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over veteran John Montes.

On August 12, 1995 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as a decided underdog, Vaden defeated Vincent Pettway by 12th round TKO to win Pettway's IBF 154 lb title. Pettway built an early lead but faded as the fight went on. Vaden came on strong in the later rounds, and the referee, Richard Steele, stopped the fight with 27 seconds left in the 12th round. At the time of the stoppage Vaden, despite appearing to be winning the fight to ringsiders, was surprisingly behind by 1 point on all three judges' scorecards.

On December 16, 1995 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Vaden met WBC light-middleweight champion Terry Norris in a title unification bout. The pre-fight build-up was notable for the animosity displayed between the two fighters.

...
Wikipedia