It has already been announced that former WBO world champion DeMarcus Corley will fight for the UBO World Light Welterweight title on May 29 in Washington D.C., and now Titanium Promotions reveals that one more local former world champion will attempt to lift a UBO belt on their big show promoted at the D.C. Armory.
Former two-time WBC champion of the world Keith Holmes, 41-5, 25 KOs, is back at his best weight after a stint at super middle and light heavyweight, and will be taking on an opponent to be confirmed for the vacant UBO International middleweight title.
Holmes won his first professional title in 1994 when he beat Andrew Council for the USBA light middleweight crown. Less than eighteen months later he won his first world championship, stopping reigning WBC middleweight champion Quincy Taylor in nine rounds at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
He made two convincing defences of that title, scoring inside-the-distance victories over Richie Woodhall and Paul Vaden, before travelling to France in May 1998 to take on Hacine Cherifi. Holmes knocked Cherifi down in the ninth round, but lost a close decision in the end. After two decisive victories in non-title fights, Holmes would get his revenge less than a year later when he stopped Cherifi in seven rounds at the MCI Center in hometown Washington D.C., to regain the world championship.
Five months later Holmes defended the WBC title in a rematch with Andrew Council, and as in their first meeting he won a clear unanimous decision. In his second defence of his second reign, Holmes stopped England’s Robert McCracken, before squaring off with IBF World Champion Bernard Hopkins at “The Mecca of Boxing”, Madison Square Garden in New York.
The legendary Hopkins beat Holmes on points, and the dethroned champion took a few years off from the ring before returning as a light middleweight in 2003. After a few significant victories over Jason Papillion and Kuvanych Toygonbayev, he lost a razor-thin decision to Roman Karmazin in a 2005 world-title-eliminator, side-tracking his goal of becoming a three-time world champion.
One fight in 2006 and one fight in 2007 was all it amounted to for Holmes, and in 2008 he didn’t fight at all. He returned in June 2009 with a decision over Willis Locket at the Washington Convention Center, and on May 29 he will be looking to make it two in a row in his hometown, and capture the UBO International title in the process.
Titanium Promotions will announce opponents for Holmes and DeMarcus Corley within the next few weeks.
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