Boxing in The 1950s - 1954

1954

• January 27- World Light-Heavyweight champion Archie Moore retains the title with a third consecutive fifteen round decision over former world champion Joey Maxim, in Miami.
• February 26- Lulu Perez beats Willie Pep by knockout in round two at New York. The fight is tainted with controversy, as many thought that it was a fixed fight. Pep later sued Sports Illustrated for 75 million dollars after Sports Illustrated ran a story in 1981 suggesting Pep took a dive for 16,000 dollars.
• April 1- Bobo Olson retains his world Middleweight title with a fifteen round majority decision over world Welterweight champion Kid Gavilan, at Chicago.
• June 17- World Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano defeats former champion Ezzard Charles, who was attempting to become the first boxer in history to recover the world Heavyweight title, by a fifteen round unanimous decision, at New York.
• August 11- World Light-Heavyweight champion Archie Moore makes his Madison Square Garden debut, retaining the title with a fourteenth round knockout win over future world champion Harold Johnson.
• September 17- In a rematch of their earlier bout of this same year, Rocky Marciano retains his world Heavyweight title with a ninth round knockout of former world champion Ezzard Charles, New York.
• October 20- Johnny Saxton becomes world Welterweight champion, defeating Kid Gavilan by a fifteen round unanimous decision in Philadelphia. It was a controversial win, and 20 of 22 boxing reporters seated at ringside thought Gavilan should have gotten the decision.
• November 17- Jimmy Carter joins the exclusive group of boxers who have been world champions at the same division three or more times, knocking out world Lightweight champion Paddy DeMarco in round fifteen to win the Lightweight title for the third time, San Francisco.
• November 26- Pascual Pérez becomes Argentina's first world boxing champion, defeating Yoshio Shirai by a fifteen round unanimous decision to take the world Flyweight championship, Tokyo, Japan.