Fulgencio Zúñiga is a professional boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 of 178 cm height, current IBO

International Boxing Organization

The International Boxing Organization is a for-profit organization that sanctions professional boxing matches and awards world and subordinate championships.- Origins :...

 Super middleweight

Super middleweight

Super Middleweight is a boxing and Muay Thai weight division that has a weight limit of 168 pounds .- 1960s–1983 :There was interest in a division between Middleweight and Light Heavyweight in the late 1960s, the mid-1970s, and the early 1980s...

 champion, having beaten previously undefeated knockout artist Victor Oganov

Victor Oganov

Victor Oganov is a Russian boxer of Armenian descent.-Career:Oganov was 64-16 as an amateur and turned pro as a Super Middleweight in Russia in 1998 year. Has a good start in Saint Petersburg Russia, Russia with management team Tundra...

 for the vacant title on September 1, 2007. His record currently stands at 24-5-1, with his losses coming against Daniel Santos

Daniel Santos (boxer)

Daniel Santos is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. As an amateur Santos represented Puerto Rico in international events, including the 1990 and 1992 Junior World Championships, Pan American Boxing Tournament, Goodwill Games, 1995 Pan American Games and the 1996 Summer Olympics, where he won a...

, Kelly Pavlik

Kelly Pavlik

Kelly Pavlik is an American professional boxer. He was The Ring, WBC, & WBO middleweight champion from when he beat Jermain Taylor on September 29, 2007 until he lost his titles to Sergio Martinez on April 17, 2010....

 at middleweight

Middleweight

Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1897...

, Denis Inkin

Denis Inkin

Denis Inkin is a German based Russian professional boxer who fights in the Super-Middleweight division.-Amateur career:...

, Lucian Bute

Lucian Bute

Lucian Bute is a Romanian-Canadian professional boxer, currently based in Montreal, Canada. Bute is the current IBF Super Middleweight champion...

 and Tavoris Cloud

Tavoris Cloud

Tavoris Karod Cloud is an American professional boxer born in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, and the current IBF light heavyweight champion.-Early life:...

.

Early career

Fulgencio Zúñiga made his first national appearance in 1997 in the 48th National Boxing Tournament held in the city of Bucaramanga

Bucaramanga

Bucaramanga is a Colombian city, and capital city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth largest city economy and sixth largest population in Colombia, with 1,212,656 people in its metropolitan area...

, Santander

Santander Department

Santander is a department of Colombia. Santander inherited the name of one of the nine original states of the United States of Colombia. It is located in the central northern part of the country, east of the Magdalena River, bordered to the south and southeast by Boyacá, to the northeast by Norte...

, where he claimed the gold medal in the super middleweight division. In the same year of 1997 he participated in the following tournaments:

13th Bolivarian Games. Arequipa, Peru. Gold Medalist.

Central American Boxing Championship. Tijuana, Mexico. Silver Medalist.

4th Pan-American Boxing Championship. Medellín, Colombia.

During 1998 and 1999 Fulgencio Zúñiga continued his impressive amateur boxing career by winning the 49th National Boxing Tournament held in Santa Marta

Santa Marta

Santa Marta is the capital city of the Colombian department of Magdalena in the Caribbean Region. It was founded in July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, which makes it the oldest remaining city in Colombia...

, Magdalena

Magdalena

Magdalena is the original version of the name Magdalene , and is used in Czech, German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovak, Georgian, Slovene among other languages.Magdalena may also refer to:...

, thus becoming a two-time national champion. Then he represented Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 in the following championships:

6th South American Games (a.k.a. Odesur Games). Cuenca, Ecuador. Gold Medalist.

Roberto Balado Cup. Havana, Cuba. Bronze Medalist.

6th South American Championship. Quito, Ecuador.

Córdoba Cardín Tournament. Havana, Cuba.

Professional

Zúñiga turned pro on February 11, 2001, when he faced Manuel Cabarcas in Barranquilla

Barranquilla

Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...

, scoring a TKO in round one. From March 2001 to November 2002 he faced fourteen opponents, all of whom were knocked out in the first rounds. On June 28, 2003, he faced Daniel Santos of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who eventually outpointed the Colombian fighter. Then Zúñiga faced better opponents, such as former IBC middleweight champion José Luis Zertuche; three-time middleweight championship challenger Antwun Echols; New Yorker George Walton, and highly-regarded Kelly Pavlik. After defeating Zúñiga, “The Ghost” Pavlik said: “This is the toughest fight I have ever fought. I don’t know if anyone in the middleweight division could fight this guy [Zúñiga] at this pace.”

External links