On this day 12 February 1966 (Exactly 56 years ago today) Ghana’s Floyd failed in his second attempt to win the world featherweight title when he was knocked out in the second round by the champion, Vicente Saldivar, in their championship fight in Mexico City.
Saldivar knocked out the Ghanaian after two minutes twenty eight seconds of the second round. This was Floyd’s first knockout defeat since he started boxing professionally ten years earlier.
On his first attempt to the title, Floyd lost a disputed verdict to Sugar Ramos in Accra in May 1964. Ramos later lost the title for Saldivar to take the crown.
Experts held the view that Floyd, with his bigger frame and longer reach, could counteract the Mexican’s ability and fierce punching but Saldivar lived up to expectation and dominated the brief bout from the start.
Saldivar shocked Floyd with three hard body punches with a sudden right and left combination, and floored him in the second round.
He took the mandatory count of eight, but twenty five seconds later he was down again from a barrage of punches. This time he sat on the canvas as the referee counted him out.
Floyd appeared as startled as the 40,000 spectators as he took the final count.
It seems Floyd was still feeling his way against the slighter but faster opponent, when Saldivar jumped in with the punishing blows to retain the title which he won on September 26, 1964, by beating the Cuban champion, Sugar Ramos with a 12th round knockout.
Robertson, looking disappointed, said after the fight that it was the first time he had ever hit the canvas. “Saldivar is not a good fighter. He was afraid and this is why he jumped in the way he did, ” Floyd said.
Elsewhere;
On this day 12 February 2001 (Exactly 21 years ago today) Accra Hearts of Oak were named 8th best club in the World in the CNN/World Soccer weekly chart.
The three top teams all failed to win the previous week, clearing the way for Italian Serie A leader AS Roma to take over the lead in the CNN/World Soccer Top 10 clubs in the world.
Joining the list in eighth was Ghana’s Hearts of Oak, which beat Egypt’s Zamalek 2-0 in the African Super Cup final on Sunday.
CNN/World Soccer Top 10
Rankings for Feb. 12-18
Rk. Team Country Pts.
1 (4) AS Roma Italy 90
2 (2) Boca Juniors Argentina 89
3 (1) Real Madrid Spain 83
4 (3) Man Utd England 81
5 (7) Bayern Munich Germany 60
6 (8) Deportivo Spain 53
7 (6) Vasco da Gama Brazil 48
8 (-) Hearts of Oak Ghana 26
9 (10) Arsenal England 25
10 (9) Lazio Italy 22
The previous week’s rankings in parentheses.
Dropped out: Barcelona.
Others receiving votes: Juventus (Italy), Schalke (Germany), Fenerbahce (Turkey), Galatasaray (Turkey), Anderlecht (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain) and Nantes (France).
On this day 12 February 2012 (Exactly 10 years ago today) Zambia clinched their first African Nations Cup crown with a poignant penalty shoot-out win over Ivory Coast.
Nineteen years after a plane crash which killed 18 members of their squad in Libreville, the Chipolopolo returned to the Gabon capital to record the most famous victory in the country’s history
After 14 kicks were converted, Kolo Toure and Gervinho failed to find the target for the Elephants as Zambia’s Rainford Kalaba also blazed over.
But Stoppila Sunzu found the top corner to complete an amazing 8-7 victory.
It was a heartbreaking end for Ivorian skipper Didier Drogba, who missed a spot-kick in normal time.
Source: Modern Ghana