William Torelle Joppy
(born September 11, 1970) is an American middleweight boxer. Joppy held the WBA middleweight title on two occasions. He first became the WBA champion in June 1996 by stopping defender Shinji Takehara in Japan with a flurry of punches in the ninth round. He then would make a couple defenses of his crown. However, on August 23, 1997, Joppy lost a controversial decision to Julio César Green. Joppy's very next fight, on January 31 of the next year, saw him avenge that loss with a decision win by a wide margin. This fight won Joppy the WBA title for the second time. After recovering from a neck injury, Joppy stopped Green on cuts in the seventh round in a rubber match (Green had been the interim champion while Joppy recovered), and made a few more defenses, including a 3 round KO of a nearly 50 year old Roberto Duran.
|
WILLIAM JOPPY TICKETS
|
Unsuccessful unification
Joppy lost the title a second time, however, on
May 13,
2001, to
Félix Trinidad in the middleweight unification tournament. Joppy was knocked down in rounds one and four before finally being stopped in the fifth. After the WBA title was vacated due to
Bernard Hopkins beating Trinidad and being very dubiously declared a "super champion," Joppy had the chance to fight for it again. He claimed the title from
British contender
Howard Eastman in a close majority decision where he was knocked down by Eastman in the final few seconds.
On
December 14,
2003, Joppy lost his title to
Bernard Hopkins, losing by a wide points margin on all three judges' cards. A year later, Joppy lost another lopsided unanimous decision against
Jermain Taylor.
Joppy returned as a Super Middleweight on July 29th 2005 knocking out journeyman Rashaan Blackburn in the third round. Joppy said then that he hoped to have one final title run as a Super Middleweight before retirement. After a string of five victories against lesser opponents, Joppy obtained a title fight against the new IBF champion
Lucian Bute on
29 February, 2008. Bute won by way of technical knockout in round 10.
As of March, 2008, Joppy's record stands at 39 wins (29 by way of knockout), 5 losses (2 by way of knockout), and one draw.
|-
| colspan="3" style="background:#78FF78;" |Sporting positions
|- style="text-align: center;"
|- style="text-align:center;"
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
|width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
|-
|- style="text-align: center;"
|- style="text-align:center;"
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
|width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
|-
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|
Vacant
}}
|width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|
|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
|-