Bronco McKart Fights For UBO World Championship
Former WBO and IBA world champion Bronco
“Superman” McKart (52-9-1, 31 KOs) will be going for his third world
title on September 18 in his hometown of Monroe, Michigan, where he will
take on an opponent to be announced for the vacant UBO World
Middleweight title.
A true veteran of the game, McKart made his
professional debut in 1992 and won the Michigan State and WBC
International light middleweight titles on his way to his first shot at
a world championship in 1996 where he stopped Santos Cardona from Puerto
Rico to lift the WBO crown.
McKart lost the WBO title to future
Hall-Of-Famer Winky Wright, but it was a close call and Wright only
narrowly escaped with a split decision. After four consecutive victories
McKart found himself in position to win his second world title the
following year, and once again he succeeded when he clearly outpointed
Eric Holland to win the IBA title.
He successfully defended the IBA belt
against Ronald Weaver, and in 2000 he finally secured a long-awaited
rematch with Wright, who this time won an uncontroversial unanimous
decision. The pair would fight a third and final time two years later,
this time for the IBF World title that Wright had won after surprisingly
loosing the WBO version to Harry Simon in South Africa. Wright won again
when McKart was disqualified for excessive low blows.
In 2004 McKart challenged for the WBA world
championship at “The Mecca of Boxing”, Madison Square Garden in New
York, but came up short and lost a decision to undefeated champion
Travis Simms. After that fight, McKart decided to move up to
middleweight in search for his third world title. After twelve years and
twelve title bouts at 154 Lbs., six of those for world championships,
victories over top class names such as Aaron Davis, Santos Cardona,
Glenwood Brown, Ronald Weaver, Jason Papillion, Michael Lerma and Alex
Bunema, it was time to look for new challenges at a higher weight.
Despite
mixed results, McKart has established that he can compete at world class
level at 160 Lbs. A victory over Enrique Ornelas, where he captured the
NABF championship, a draw with fellow former world champion Raul Marquez
and competitive defeats against Kelly Pavlik and Roman Karmazin are
testaments to this fact. This past February, McKart won an
Inter-Continental title by outclassing tough Columbian Jose Berrio, and
he is now ready to fight for the UBO world title in his quest to become
a three time, two-division world champion on September 18.
|