The distance (boxing) 19, 1987. While the International Boxing Federation, which had recently broken away from the WBA, continued to hold onto the position there was no documented medical evidence to show a 15-round fight is more dangerous than a 12-round fight, they eventually voted to shorten their championship distance to 12 rounds as well on June 3, 1988. The last heavyweight 15-rounder title fight was on October 16, 1987 between Mike Tyson and Tyrell Biggs. The last middleweight 15-rounder title fight was a World Boxing Board title match on June 7, 1997 in which Jose Alfredo Flores won a split decision over
Riddick Bowe vs. Jesse Ferguson Riddick Bowe vs. Jesse Ferguson Riddick Bowe vs. Jesse Ferguson, billed as "The Heavyweight Debate", was a professional boxing match contested on May 22, 1993, for the WBA and "Lineal" Heavyweight championships. The fight took place in RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, was Bowe's second defense of the title he had won from Evander Holyfield in November 1992, and was the main event of a card that included a fight between Roy Jones, Jr. and Bernard Hopkins for the vacant IBF middleweight championship, which Jones won. Only three months prior, Riddick Bowe had made the first successful defense of his