Donald Curry is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1991, and in 1997…. who held the undisputed welterweight title from 1985 to 1986….the WBC super welterweight title from 1988 to 1989….and challenged once for the IBF and lineal middleweight titles in 1990.
After losing to Honeyghan, Curry moved up to the light middleweight division…when he defeated Tony Montgomery to win the USBA light middleweight title on February 7, 1987…..as Montgomery was disqualified in the 5th round for intentional headbutts….after being warned for the 1st time for headbutts in the 2nd round…..as seen in this video herewith….for Montgomery came into this fight with 17 wins and zero losses. Curry’s next opponent, former IBF light middleweight champion Carlos Santos, was also disqualified in the fifth round for intentional headbutts.
On April 6, 1987, the day Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the world middleweight championship and two days after defeating Santos….Curry filed a million dollar lawsuit against Leonard and his attorney, Mike Trainer. The suit stated that Leonard and Trainer took “undue and unconscionable advantage of Curry” through fraud, conspiracy and breach of financial responsibilities…. and they “conspired to prevent Curry from entering the middleweight divisions to assure Leonard’s unobstructed opportunity to fight the middleweight champion.” Curry said he asked Leonard and Trainer for advice concerning his future….and they advised him to stay at welterweight and not to move up in weight to fight WBA light middleweight champion Mike McCallum or middleweight champion Hagler. Curry was going to face McCallum on June 23, 1986, but he decided to back out and stay at welterweight. Several weeks later, Leonard announced that he was coming out of retirement to fight Hagler.
After outpointing former WBC champion Lupe Aquino….Curry got another title shot….as he traveled to Italy to fight Gianfranco Rosi for the WBC light middleweight title on July 8, 1988….where Curry put him down five times…. and Rosi retired on his stool after the ninth round. “I trained hard for five months to win this title and it paid off.”….as Curry was once again a champion…. but his reign didn’t last very long. He lost the title in his first defense, dropping a twelve-round unanimous decision to the lightly regarded Rene Jacquot on February 11, 1989 in France….after Curry built an early lead….but Jacquot came on in the second half of the fight….with Curry saying afterward….“I just got tired….and I thought I was in the best condition of my life but in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds my legs just went.” The fight that was named The Ring magazine Upset of the Year.
