Juan Martin Coggi - Championship Career

Championship Career

Despite having a record that included no one of apparent relevance, the WBA placed Coggi on top of their list of challengers for the world crown at the light welterweight division. After one more win, Coggi challenged for the world title for the first time.

The WBA's world champion, Patrizio Oliva, had dethroned Coggi's countryman, Ubaldo Sacco, to win the world championship. So the fight between Coggi and Oliva generated much interest among Argentine boxing fans. Coggi's first title try was also his first fight abroad, as the fight was held in Ribera, Italy, on 4 July 1987. Coggi caused a minor upset when he knocked out Oliva in three rounds to become world champion.

Like Monzon, Coggi also became well liked in Italy despite the fact he had beaten an Italian for the world championship. Coggi would fight in Italy a number of times during the rest of his career. His first title defense came in Italy, when he knocked out Sang-Ho Lee in two rounds on 7 May 1988.

After beating Lee, he would win four non-title bouts in his country, including two ten round decisions over Jorge Tejada, who later became a contender in the welterweight division.

For his second defense, Coggi returned to Italy, where he defeated perennial contender Harold Brazier of the United States by a twelve round unanimous decision on 21 January 1989.

His third defense, on 29 April 1989, was also held in Italy. He defeated future world champion Akinobu Hiranaka by a twelve round decision. However, this match was controversial for the decision which gave Italian-Argentine boxer Coggi excessive favor, while Coggi was knocked down by Hiranaka twice at 3rd round, and he has been inferior to Hiranaka at performance throughout 12 rounds. Among many boxing fans, there have been the strong voice that the victory should have been given to Hiranaka, since the match was owned by him. After two non title wins, Coggi had four fights in France, beginning with a fourth round knockout victory over Jesse Williams in another non-title bout.

On 24 March 1990, Coggi beat the former lightweight champion José Luis Ramírez by a twelve round unanimous decision to retain the title. After beating Danilo Cabrera by knockout in round five, Coggi defended his title in Nice against the relatively unheralded Loreto Garza of Sacramento, California, on 17 August. This time around, it was Coggi's turn to lose in a mild upset, as Garza became the champion by outpointing Coggi over twelve rounds.

On his next fight, held on 11 November at Buenos Aires, Coggi once again outpointed Tejada over ten rounds.

His next fight happened under extremely unlikely circumstances: he was in Sacramento to watch Garza defend his world title and, at the same time, challenge him to a rematch, when one of the boxers to be featured as part of the night's undercard suffered a car accident at the Arco Arena parking lot and broke his wrist. Coggi took on the role of substitute fighter, and he beat Alberto Alcaraz by a knockout in round seven, 1 December.

Coggi went on to win his next eleven fights, six of them by knockout, before challenging Morris East for the WBA title on 12 January 1993, in Mar del Plata. Coggi became a light welterweight champion for the second time that night when he knocked East out in eight rounds.

On 10 April 1993, he made his first defense of his second reign, knocking out perennial Puerto Rican world title challenger Joe Rivera in seven rounds, in Mar del Plata. Next, he defended against Hiroyuki Yoshino on 23 June. In what marked his Asian debut, Coggi knocked Yoshino out in five rounds, in a fight held in Tokyo, Japan.

He defended his title three more times in 1993. On 13 August, he outpointed Jose Rafael Barbosa over twelve rounds in Buenos Aires, once again, retaining the world title. On 24 September, he knocked out Guillermo Cruz in ten rounds at Tucuman, and then, on 11 December, he closed 1993 by knocking out Eder Gonzalez, also in Tucuman, in the seventh round.

He and Gonzalez had a rematch on 18 March 1994. In what marked Coggi's American debut, he knocked Gonzalez out in three rounds at Las Vegas, Nevada, once again, retaining the title.