{"id":77453,"date":"2019-01-04T02:13:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T07:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=77453"},"modified":"2019-01-04T02:20:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T07:20:54","slug":"ringside-report-looks-back-at-rocky-pepeli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=77453","title":{"rendered":"Ringside Report Looks Back at Rocky Pepeli"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>By Daniel Sisneros<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a long amateur career including Silver Gloves and Jr. Olympics titles in 1980 (at age 15), Iowa’s Rocky Pepeli turned professional in 1987. His first 8 pro bouts were decided in the 1st or 2nd rounds! He opened with a first round KO over Lon Liebergen in Rocky’s hometown of Davenport, Iowa. After scoring another 1st round knockout in Anchorage, Alaska, Pepeli soon found his self as a regular on the boxing events staged at the Reseda Country Club in Reseda, California. <\/p>\n

He quickly became a favorite of Southern California fight fans. His fearless style, wins over Mike Gans and Bobby Quarry, and record of 16-4-1 with 15 by knockout landed him a big fight against world ranked contender and former NABF Cruiserweight Champion “Smoking” Bert Cooper (28-9, 24 ko’s). Cooper ended up stopping Pepeli in the 8th round.<\/p>\n

Rocky would go on to face even bigger names including Eric “The Whip” Curry, Jesse Ferguson, and former World Champion and Boxing Hall-of-Famer Larry Holmes.<\/p>\n

Pepeli got his only shot at a title belt on March 21, 1995 when he faced Russian World Ranked Contender – Alexander Zolkin (20-2, 14) for the vacant NABF Heavyweight Title. It was a wild affair with Zolkin scoring the 3rd round TKO to take the title that had been vacated by Joe Hipp.<\/p>\n

Pepeli also faced James Buster Douglas losing a 10 round unanimous decision to the former World Heavyweight Champion.<\/p>\n

His final pro bout came on April 2, 1998 in Buffalo, NY. Rocky was stopped in the first round by undefeated and world ranked Kirk Johnson (23-0, 17 ko’s).<\/p>\n

After a professional boxing career that spanned 11 years, Rocky Pepeli ended with a final record of 19 wins, 11 losses, 1 Draw, winning 18 by Knockout.<\/p>\n

Purchase Dan’s Hit Boxing Book Mat Tales: True Stories From The Bizarre, Brutal World Of Pro Boxing by Clicking the Image to ORDER it Now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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