Titles: WBA welterweight champion 1983-1986, unified welterweight champion 1985-1986, WBC jr. middleweight champion 1988-1989 Record: 34-6 Born: September 7, 1961 in Fort Worth, Texas (USA) Years active: 1980-1997 Nickname: Cobra In the early 80's Curry was thought of as the best fighter "pound for pound" and a legitimate threat to beat Marvin Hagler, but many feel his problems making weight was the downfall of his potentially enormous career. Curry was the odds on favorite to win the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics but the boycott prevented that and the jump start it would have given his career. Curry was a brilliant defensive fighter who packed very good power in both hands and at 5'10 was very tall for the division. Early in his career a showdown with Marlon Starling was supposed to produce sparks but a dull 12 round win was what he Curry had to settle for. After only 3 years as a pro he won his first title over 15 rounds against Jun-Sok Hwang and showed grit by coming of the canvas to win that fight. Unlike most American champions Curry took the title on the road to Italy, Venezuela, England and Monte Carlo. He made up for his mediocre performance against Starling with a spectacular 2nd round knockout performance against Milton McCrory in 1985. Another 2nd round knockout of Eduardo Rodriguez had people thinking Curry was destined to become a all-time great. Despite calls from his trainers Curry would not move up in weight and left himself physically drained for most of his fights. Yet this did not catch up to him until he meet 20-1 underdog Lloyd Honeyghan in Atlantic City. In a shocking defeat he lost his unified title and needed 20 stitches for a cut over his left eye and suffered a broken nose and cut lip all in less than 5 rounds. Curry moved up to jr. middleweight and quickly earned a shot at Mike McCallum's WBA title. It looked like the added weight had helped Curry and he was doing well before a perfect left hook laid him out in the fifth round. In less than a year Curry had gone from "a future hall of famer" to a "has been". One last piece of Glory came Curry's way when he defeated very good Gianfranco Rosi in the 9th round for the WBA jr. middleweight title. It would only last for 7 months as he suffered a unexplainable loss to little known Rene Jacquot who defeated Curry and forced him into retirement. Curry lost his estimated 5 million dollars in purses and made brief comeback attempts, loosing to Terry Norris and Emmet Linton. Anyone who thinks that ANY fighter is a certain hall of famer or cant miss long time champion has only to look at Donald Curry's career to be proven wrong.
1980 Dec 26 Marty Tineo Las Vegas KO 1 1981 Jan 16 Juan Ramirez San Antonio KO 2 Feb 26 Jerry Reyes Las Vegas KO 2 Mar 26 Rigoberto Lopez Las Vegas KO 5 Apr 23 Danny Favella Fort Worth, TX KO 5 May 28 Joe Moliere Las Vegas KO 1 Jul 2 Eddie Campbell Atlantic City KO 6 Aug 22 Eddie Casper Las Vegas KO 1 Oct 29 Vernon Lewis Fort Worth, TX KO 1 Nov 26 Curtis Ramsey Las Vegas W 10 1982 Mar 10 Mike Senegal Lake Charles, LA KO 10 May 4 Bruce Finch Las Vegas KO 4 Jun 15 Jack Torrance Nashville W D.Q 4 Jul 10 Adolfo Viruet McAfee, NJ W 10 Oct 23 Marlon Starling Atlantic City W 12 1983 Feb 13 Jun-Suk Hwang Fort Worth, TX W 15 (Wins Vacant WBA Welterweight Title) Sep 3 Roger Stafford Marsala, IT KO 1 (Retains WBA Welterweight Title) 1984 Feb 4 Marlon Starling Atlantic City W 15 (Retains WBA Welterweight Title) Apr 21 Elio Diaz Fort Worth, TX KO 8 (Retains WBA Welterweight Title) Sep 22 Nino LaRocca Monte Carlo KO 6 (Retains WBA Welterweight Title) 1985 Jan 19 Colin Jones Birmingham, England KO 4 (Retains WBA Welterweight Title) Mar 30 James Green Dallas KO 2 Jun 22 Juan Pablo Baez Atlantic City KO 6 Dec 6 Milton McCrory Las Vegas KO 2 (Unifies Welterweight Title) 1986 Mar 9 Eduardo Rodriquez Fort Worth, TX KO 2 (Retains World Welterweight Title) Sep 27 Lloyd Honeyghan Atlantic City KO by 7 (Loses Welterweight Title) 1987 Feb 7 Tony Montgomery Las Vegas WDQ 5 Apr 4 Carlos Santos Las Vegas WDQ 5 Jul 18 Mike McCallum Las Vegas KO by 5 (For WBA Junior Middleweight Title) Dec 8 Rigoberto Lopez Reseda KO 4 1988 Jan 3 Lupe Aquino Genes W 12 Jul 8 Gianfranco Rosi San Remo, Italy KO 10 (Wins WBC Junior Middleweight Title) 1989 Jan 3 Mike Sacchetti New Orleans KO 5 Feb 11 Rene Jacquot Grenoble, France L 12 (Loses WBC Junior Middleweight Title) Dec 26 Brett Lally LasVegas KO 2 1990 Aug 18 Jose Duran Martinez Las Vegas KO 4 Oct 18 Michael Nunn Paris KO by 10 (For IBF Middleweight Title) 1991 Jun 1 Terry Norris Palm Springs, CA KO by 8 (For WBC Junior Middleweight Title) 1997 Feb 20 Gary Jones Winnipeg KO 4 Apr 9 Emmett Linton Las Vegas KO by 7