Donald Curry

Donald Curry was a Fort Worth fighter, called the 'Lone Star Cobra'. He made the 1980 United States Olympic team, but could not compete due to the U.S. boycott. He then started his pro career and rose to superstardom rather quickly, putting together an undefeated streak that culminated in a 15-round points win over Joon Sook Hwang of South Korea in 1983, giving Curry the then-vacant WBA welterweight title. He then defended this belt mostly by KO or TKO, against the likes of Nino LaRocca, Elio Diaz, Roger Stafford (whom he beat within a round), and Colin Jones. Also included in this stretch was a 1984 points win over the future world champion Marlon Starling to claim the division's new IBF title, while retaining the WBA title. Curry was riding on top of the boxing world in December 1985, when he added the WBC title to his chest of laurels by beating Milton McCrory in the second round. He then defended the undisputed (WBA/WBC/IBF) title once with a second-round stoppage of Eduardo Rodriguez before his hometown fans in March of 1986, but his status as world Welterweight champion would last only six more months as Briton Lloyd Honeyghan came to Atlantic City, New Jersey to beat Curry by stopping the defending champion on cuts (considered a knockout win) after the sixth round. After winning two fights at junior middleweight against Tony Montgomery and Carlos Santos in early 1987 (both interestingly ending in fifth-round disqualifications due to headbutts on the part of Curry's opponents), Curry had a chance to vault himself back into titlist status in July of that year, this time at the Jr. Middleweight division. His opponent was Mike McCallum, who held the division's WBA world crown. Curry had his moments early on, but in the fourth round, a left cross from McCallum sent Curry reeling to the canvas and Donald could not beat the 10 second count. After a couple more wins, Curry did win another title, the WBC junior middleweight title, in July 1988, stopping Gianfranco Rosi of Italy on cuts in the tenth round. His junior middleweight championship lasted even shorter than that of his welterweight days, however, when he was beaten by Rene Jacquot of France in February of 1989, losing a 12-round decision (and thus the title) in his first defence. He continued to fight, and had two more stabs at a title, but came up on the short end both times (more specifically, by knockout). IBF Middleweight champion Michael Nunn took him out in the tenth round in Paris in October 1990, and up-and-coming Terry Norris, who defended his WBC Junior Middleweight title against Curry (yes, the belt Curry once had), beat him in eight frames in Palm Springs in June of 1991. After that, Curry spent most of his energies training fighters rather than fighting himself.

When Donald's brother, Bruce Curry, beat Leroy Haley by a twelve round unanimous decision on May 18, 1983 at Las Vegas, Donald and Bruce Curry became the first pair of siblings in the history of boxing to hold world titles at the same time.