Ricardo Mayorga

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Ricardo Mayorga
Image:Mayorga 6444.jpg
Real name	Ricardo Antonio Mayorga Perez
Nickname	El Matador
Weight	Light Middleweight
Nationality	Nicaraguan
Birth date	October 3, 1973
Birth place	Managua, Nicaragua
Style	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	36
Wins	28
Wins by KO	23
Losses	6
Draws	1
No contests	1

Ricardo Mayorga (born October 3, 1973) is a boxer from Nicaragua, a former WBA/WBC Welterweight champion and former WBC Junior Middleweight champion of the world.

Mayorga enjoys lighting up a cigar every time he wins a fight and who is a confessed smoker of two packs of cigarettes a day (which is bad for a fighter's conditioning) when he is not doing his boxing training.

Mayorga lost his first pro bout, being beaten by a tko in six in his first professional bout by Humberto Aranda in 1993.

Sad but otherwise undaunted by defeat, he came back in 1994 to win three fights, all by knockout, including the third round knockout win over Jose Morales, which was his first career win.

His first fight in 1995 was also his first fight in Nicaragua, and it was fought for the Nicaraguan Welterweight title. Mayorga won the title when he knocked out Miguel Pérez in six rounds. After two more knockout wins, he defended it in a rematch with Perez, and the second time, he defeated Perez by a knockout in three.

He then took off three years from boxing, and when he returned, in 1998, he beat German Espinales by a knockout in four, but in his next bout, he lost a ten round decision to former Edwin Rosario rival Roger Flores. After the Flores bout, he fought Henry Castillo and suffered his second loss in a row, also by decision in ten.

In his next fight, in 1999, he beat Porfirio Miranda by a knockout in one round. After one more win, he gained revenge against Castillo, defeating him by a knockout in seven, and then he met Jose Cordova for the Central American Welterweight title. He added that belt by beating Cordova by a decision in twelve.

After one more win, Mayorga went to Puerto Rico to meet Cuba's fringe contender Dyobelis Hurtado, a boxer who had faced Pernell Whitaker and Kostya Tszyu in world title tries, among others. Mayorga and Hurtado came up with a technical draw in two rounds, and in his next fight, Mayorga lifted the WBA's Latin American Jr. Middleweight belt with a two round knockout of Marcos Avendano. A rematch with Espinales for the Fecarbox Welterweight title, brought Mayorga exactly the same result as their first encounter: A four round knockout win, and another minor title belt.

He won seven more fights in a row, including 2 defenses each of his WBA Latin American and Fecarbox belts, until, on July 28 of 2001, he challenged the WBA's world Welterweight champion Andrew Six Heads Lewis at the Los Angeles Roy Jones Jr.-Julio Gonzalez undercard. The fight was declared a no contest after two rounds because both fighters had cuts opened by a headbutt and they were unable to continue. However, they had a rematch on March 3 of 2002 and Mayorga became the fifth Nicaraguan to win a title, by knocking Lewis out in five rounds.

Despite winning the title and achieving those accomplishments, Mayorga was still not considered to be the real champion in the division by most experts: Vernon Forrest, who had taken the WBC's world Welterweight championship from Shane Mosley and defeated Mosley again in a rematch, was considered by many to be one of the best fighters, regardless of fighting division, around the world.

Mayorga and Forrest quickly signed up for an unification bout, and on January 25, and in front of an HBO Boxing audience, Mayorga upset most boxing critics and experts by dropping Forrest in round one, and once again in round three, winning the fight by a knockout in the third, and becoming the WBA and WBC's unified world champion.

On July 12, also in front of an HBO boxing audience, Mayorga and Forrest had a rematch, and this time Mayorga retained the title by a 12 round majority decision.

Mayorga announced he would visit Iraq to do a boxing exhibition tour in front of United States military personnel. That visit, however, has yet to happen.

Mayorga was featured for the first time on the cover of Ring Magazine on the December 2003 issue, released in October. The cover read The craziest man in the sport: Mayorga lights up boxing.

On December 13, 2003, Mayorga lost his world titles, to Leon Spinks' son, Cory by a majority decision in Atlantic City. This came after Mayorga had made tasteless remarks about Spinks's deceased mother. Mayorga apologized after the fight.

Mayorga next would have fought for the WBA's version of the world Welterweight title, on April 17 of 2004 at the Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, against the Puerto Rican champion, Jose Rivera. However, he showed up with six pounds over the Welterweight division, prompting for an unexpected debut at the Jr. Middleweight division instead of a world Welterweight title fight. He beat Eric Mitchell by a decision in twelve rounds at his Jr. Middleweight debut.

Mayorga was in a training camp for an upcoming fight on October 2 with Félix Trinidad, but Mayorga was arrested on September 3^{[citation needed]}, putting his fight with Trinidad in serious jeopardy. However, soon after, he was arrested at Managua International Airport, and his lawyer obtained permission for him to leave the country because he was leaving the country for a job that he had been contracted to do. Mayorga resumed his training once he arrived to the United States, having to face the criminal charges after his fight with Trinidad.

De la Hoya Vs. Mayorga promotional poster

Mayorga dropped Trinidad in round three of their confrontation on the above mentioned date, but he was dropped himself three times in round eight, the only three times Mayorga had ever been knocked down in his pro career,leading to a knockout loss (see:Trinidad versus Mayorga).

On October 5, 2004, three days after his fight with Trinidad, Mayorga announced his retirement from boxing, but he returned to boxing, and, on August 13, 2005, Mayorga became a two division world champion by gaining the vacant WBC world Super Welterweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Michele Piccirillo of Italy, in Chicago.

On May 6, 2006 Mayorga lost to Oscar de la Hoya by TKO in the 6th round. Although Oscar de la Hoya had been very inactive in the ring, due to the high personal disregard Mayorga had against him, including saying that Oscars people are behind Mayorga, and comments about his wife^[1], de la Hoya decided to put the gloves back on and fight Mayorga. de la Hoya was favored in the match by boxing critics and dropped Mayorga in the first round with a big left hook. Later in the sixth, de la Hoya again dropped Mayorga, although Ricardo was able to get back up before the ten count. Oscar then continued with a barrage that led to referee Jay Nady stopping the fight.

Preceded by: Andrew Lewis	WBA Welterweight Champion 30 Mar 2002– 13 Dec 2003	Succeeded by: Cory Spinks
Preceded by: Vernon Forrest	WBC Welterweight Champion 25 Jan 2003– 13 Dec 2003	Succeeded by: Cory Spinks
Preceded by: Winky Wright	WBC Light Middleweight boxing champion 13 Aug 2005– 6 May 2006	Succeeded by: Oscar de la Hoya