After his huge defeat to Marvin Hagler on March 10, 1986, John Mugabi was out of the ring until December. He traveled back to Las Vegas to take on Duane Thomas for the vacant WBC Super-Welterweight title at the Caesar’s Palace Sports Pavilion on December 5. I didn’t see the bout live, since we didn’t have cable or pay stations at my house, but read that John was accidentally thumbed in the eye in the third round, which ended the bout. Rumors surfaced over the years that Mugabi had taken a beating and quit, but none were true. It was just a bad break that he had to live with, and did.
‘The Beast’ was dormant all of 1987, and didn’t return to action until January 22, 1988 on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Larry Holmes bout in Atlantic City, NJ.
Fighting at 162 1/2 lbs., he knocked out Bryan Grant in three rounds. Four months later, he was back in Atlantic City at the Sands Casino Hotel, where he knocked out Knox Brown in three. John scored three more knockouts to close out 1988, and looked to score another title shot in the new year of 1989.
That shot came on July 8, 1989 against Rene Jacquot in his hometown of France. Jacquot twisted his ankle in the first round, and John had won his first title as a professional, the WBC Super-Welterweight crown. After almost nine years of boxing as a pro, ‘The Beast’ won his first belt in the most unexpected way of all. But as the great Larry Merchant once said “Boxing is the theatre of the unexpected.”
John would fight once more in the calendar year of 1989, a non-title bout at middleweight against Ricky Stackhouse on October 30 in France once again. Mugabi finished him in once round, a nice way close out the decade, and ready to usher in the 1990’s with hopes that his title reign would last.
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