William Joppy vs Julio Cesar Green

William Joppy lost his WBA middleweight championship and his unbeaten professional record when Julio Cesar Green gained a unanimous 12-round decision at Madison Square Garden in New York on 23 August 1997. Joppy entered at 24-0-1 and was making the third defence of the title he had won from Shinji Takehara in Japan the previous year. Green, a Dominican based in New York, came in at 21-2 and weighed 159 pounds to Joppy’s 160. Wayne Kelly refereed the contest, which was part of a Don King promotion that also featured Felix Trinidad, Ricardo Lopez and Wilfredo Vazquez.

Joppy had arrived as a champion with ambitions beyond merely retaining his WBA belt. Three months earlier he had defeated the number-one contender Peter Venancio on points after dropping the Brazilian twice, and afterwards spoke openly of wanting unification contests with Keith Holmes and Bernard Hopkins. Green possessed less public standing but considerably more experience than an ordinary challenger. He had held the NABF super-welterweight championship and had lost only twice in 23 professional appearances. Years later, he recalled receiving relatively short notice for the championship opportunity after having recently required stitches in his eyebrow.

The fight changed abruptly during the opening three rounds. The first was relatively close, with two judges favouring Joppy and Rafael Carabano giving it to Green. In the second, Green struck the first serious blow of the contest by putting the champion down. All three judges scored the round 10-8 for the challenger. Joppy’s response was immediate and emphatic. In the third he twice dropped Green, producing a 10-7 round on Steve Weisfeld’s card and 10-8 scores from Carabano and Gonzalo Rivera. Within six minutes both men had therefore been on the floor, Green twice, and the championship contest had already moved well beyond any cautious feeling-out period.

Joppy appeared to settle more successfully after that turbulent beginning. He was favoured by all three judges in the fifth, and Weisfeld and Rivera also gave him the sixth. The cards, however, show that Green remained very much in the contest rather than allowing the champion to establish permanent control. Carabano gave Green the sixth and seventh, Weisfeld preferred him in the seventh and eighth, and Rivera awarded Green the seventh before giving Joppy the eighth. The ninth again went to Green on all three cards. By this stage the challenger had recovered completely from the two third-round knockdowns and was accumulating rounds consistently enough to place Joppy’s championship in danger.

The tenth was another divided round, Weisfeld siding with Joppy while Rivera preferred Green and Carabano scored it even. The eleventh then proved particularly costly for the champion. Joppy was penalised one point, and all three official cards show Green taking the round. Weisfeld scored it 10-8 for Green, Carabano 10-9 and Rivera 10-8.

Green also took the twelfth round on every card. The challenger had therefore survived the serious damage of the third, recovered his composure and finished strongly enough to secure the championship. Steve Weisfeld scored the bout 113-112 for Green, Gonzalo Rivera 114-112 and Rafael Carabano 116-113. The verdict was unanimous, although the varying margins accurately reflected a contest in which Joppy had enjoyed important periods of success and possessed the most dramatic single round with his two knockdowns in the third. Green’s ability to regain control after that setback, together with the champion’s costly point deduction in the eleventh, ultimately decided the issue.

The defeat ended Joppy’s first reign as WBA champion, but the rivalry was far from settled. Green’s championship reign lasted only until 31 January 1998, when Joppy defeated him decisively on points in Tampa and recovered the belt. They met for a third time in September 1999, Joppy winning by seventh-round stoppage when Green was cut. Thus the Madison Square Garden contest remained Green’s only victory in their trilogy and the outstanding achievement of his career. For Joppy it was his first professional defeat, a setback he reversed five months later before embarking upon a much longer second reign as WBA middleweight champion.

I always thought William Joppy was a better fighter than he was sometimes given credit for, but this was a night when he made life unnecessarily difficult for himself. Julio Cesar Green wasn’t expected to take his title, yet he came to Madison Square Garden believing he belonged there and proved it.

Green dropping Joppy in the second immediately changed the mood. Joppy answered like a champion by putting him down twice in the third, and at that point you would have fancied Joppy to take over. He didn’t. Green stayed disciplined, kept nicking rounds and refused to fold after being hurt.

The point deduction against Joppy in the eleventh was costly in a fight this tight, but I wouldn’t hide behind that. Green earned the decision. The scores were 113-112, 116-113 and 114-112, and Joppy lost his unbeaten record as well as the WBA belt.

What I like about Green’s performance is that he recovered from a dreadful third round and carried on doing his job. Plenty of fighters unravel after being dropped twice. Green didn’t, and that’s why he left New York a world champion.