Ayub Kalule

Professional Boxer, Boxer

1954 –

69

Who is Ayub Kalule?

Ayub Kalule is a retired boxer from Uganda, who first came to prominence when he won the Amateur World Welterweight Title at the inaugural 1974 World Championships in Havana, Cuba. He turned professional and based himself in Denmark, and went on to win the light-middleweight championship. He subsequently lost the title to Sugar Ray Leonard.

Born in Kampala, he began his professional boxing career in 1976 when he won a four round decision over Kurt Hombach in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kalule would be based out of Denmark for the rest of his career. He then won 29 more victories, achieving 30 wins, 0 losses. Included in those victories were defeats of Alipata Korovou for the Commonwealth Middleweight Title and a 10 round decision of former US Gold Medalist Sugar Ray Seales.

On October 24, 1979, Kalule traveled to Akita, Japan to take on Masashi Kudo for the WBA Junior middleweight Championship of the world. Kalule easily outboxed the champion and thus captured the coveted world championship belt. He then successfully defended the title four times before taking on the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard on June 25, 1981 in the Houston Astrodome. A virtual unknown in the United States, Kalule was considered little more than a courier waiting to deliver the belt to Leonard. The fight proved much more difficult for Leonard as Kalule repeately landed straight lefts and fought on an almost even ground for the first five or six rounds. Slowly Leonard started to take control and in the 9th round ended the fight and Kalule's reign as WBA Champion.

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Born
Jan 6, 1954
Kampala
Nationality
  • Uganda
Profession
Lived in
  • Kampala

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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