Hacine Cherifi

Hacine Cherifi (2014).

Hacine "Billy" Cherifi ( born December 12, 1967 in Lyon ) is a former, French professional boxer and WBC champion at middleweight.

Cherifi 1989 professional boxer and wore his first 23 fights on French ground. He was on 19 October 1996 by a points victory over Russian Alexander Saitsew, European champion at middleweight. He defended his title successfully against the Croat Branko Sobot and the British Neville Brown before he resigned the title to fight the WBC world championship belt.

The first attempt to secure the title at super middleweight, failed by a points defeat on British Robin Reid. On 24 April 1999, he defeated middleweight the Americans Keith Holmes by unanimous decision and thus secured his WBC world title. However, in a rematch against Holmes eleven months later, he lost by technical knockout in round 7 his title again.

In September 2000, he boxed against William Joppy for the WBA world champion middleweight title but lost by points defeat over 12 rounds. In July 2001 he worked against Harry Simon, to secure the interimen world title on the version of the WBO, but failed again points defeat over 12 rounds. Even against Félix Trinidad, he suffered a defeat in May 2002.

In July 2003, his attempt failed to become European champions again by technical knockout in round 9 at the British Howard Eastman. Four months later, he also lost the world championship match of the IBO against the Briton Brian Magee technical knockout in round 8

After five more fights, including defeats against Felix Sturm and Rudy Markussen, he ended his boxing career in June 2005.

Achievements

• French Champion: 1995, 1996, 2002 and 2003
• European Champion: October 19, 1996 (2 successful defenses, then Title resigned )
• World champion of WBC May 2, 1998 - April 24, 1999