Manuel Medina

Manuel Rubio Medina (born March 30, 1971) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2008.

Manuel Medina began his professional boxing career on September 9, 1985, beating Daniel Flores by a four-round decision in Mexicali, Mexico.

Medina was only fourteen years old when his first professional fight took place.

Medina won one more fight, then lost two bouts in a row: on December 5, he lost a four-round decision to Gerardo Martinez in his first fight abroad, held in San Jose, California, United States.

On January 16, 1986, he suffered his first knockout defeat, being stopped because of a cut by Alex Madrid in San Diego.

After losing to Madrid, Medina had a streak of twenty seven wins in a row.

That streak was stopped by Juan C. Salazar, who outpointed Medina over ten rounds on July 10, 1989, in Tijuana.

After two more victories, however, Medina contended for his first championship belt, the regional WBA "International" super featherweight title, which he won by a seventh round disqualification victory against Edgar Castro, on December 11 of that same year, in Inglewood.

Medina retained that title twice, then defeated Tyrone Jackson on May 21, 1990, also at Inglewood by a twelve-round decision.

In his next fight on 5 July, he outpointed former world featherweight champion and Barry McGuigan conqueror, Steve Cruz over ten rounds.

He is a five-time featherweight champion, having held the IBF title thrice between 1991 and 2002, the WBC title in 1995, and the WBO title in 2003.

Medina won four bouts, then had his first chance at becoming a world champion, when, on August 12, 1991, he faced IBF featherweight champion Troy Dorsey in Inglewood.

Medina was knocked down twice early, but became a world champion by getting up and defeating Dorsey by a twelve-round decision.

He made four defenses of his title, including victories against Tom Johnson, beaten by a nine rounds technical decision and Fabrice Benichou, another world champion boxer, outpointed by Medina over twelve rounds.

His first reign as world featherweight champion took him to places like France and Italy.

Medina lost the championship to Johnson by a twelve-round decision on their February 26, 1993 rematch, held in France.

He turned to the super featherweight division, where he won one fight, then attempted to become world champion there also.

But, on June 26 of the same year, he lost to IBF super featherweight champion John John Molina by a twelve-round decision, in Atlantic City.

Medina then returned to featherweight, where he won two more fights before facing Johnson in a rubber match, held on January 28, 1995 at Atlantic City.

Johnson retained the IBF featherweight title he had won from Medina by beating him via a twelve-round decision.

In his next fight, Medina won the WBC's regional Fecarbox title by defeating Juan Polo Perez by a twelve-round unanimous decision on March 15 in Miami, Florida.

Medina's next fight was televised nationally in the United States, as he became world Featherweight champion for the second time, defeating Alejandro González on September 23 of '95, with a twelve-round unanimous decision, at Sacramento, California, for the WBC featherweight title.

He lost the title in his first defense, losing a twelve-round decision to Luisito Espinosa on December 11 at Tokyo, Japan.

After a win, Medina tried to become a three time world featherweight champion by challenging Naseem Hamed for Hamed's WBO title, but he was defeated by Hamed with an eleventh-round knockout on August 31, 1996 in Dublin, Ireland.

He followed that loss with a win, and another attempt at winning a world featherweight championship for a third time, this time around in a rematch with Espinosa.

held on May 17, 1997.

He lost to the Asian champion, this time by an eight rounds technical decision at Intramuros, Philippines.

Medina then lost his next fight, by a ninth-round knockout on August 7, to future world champion Derrick Gainer.

On October 18, he recovered from his two loss streak to defeat Jose Ayala in Homestead, Florida, winning the WBA's Fedecentro regional championship, and setting himself in a position to obtain another chance at winning the world featherweight title for the third time.

He knocked Ayala out in the eighth round.

On April 24, 1998, Medina joined Carlos De León, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Edwin Rosario, Evander Holyfield and a small number of other boxers in the exclusive group of fighters to reign as world champions three or more times in the same division, when he outpointed defending IBF title holder Hector Lizarraga over twelve rounds in San Jose, California.

He retained the title on April 16, 1999, in Las Vegas with a nine rounds technical decision over former world super featherweight champion Victor Polo, then proceeded to lose the championship to Paul Ingle.

The fight against Ingle, held on November 13 of the same year, in Hull, England, went on to be considered one of the fights of the year by boxing fans, experts and magazine writers alike.

Floored in the second and tenth rounds, Medina almost saved his title when he dropped Ingle in the twelfth and last round.

He ended up losing a unanimous decision, however.

Medina then met future world champion Frank Toledo, beating him in Las Vegas by a ten-round decision on May 19, 2000.

Toledo then went on to win the IBF title by outpointing Mbulelo Botile, who had defeated Ingle.

Medina, meanwhile, picked up two more wins, including a fourth-round knockout over future world title challenger Mike Juarez.

Medina and Toledo had a rematch on November 16, 2001, with Medina joining Robinson as a four-time world champion in the same division when he knocked Toledo out in the sixth round.

His next fight was filled with controversy.