On July 4, 2003, Mahyar Monshipour applied for a first world title match. He faces a friend, the world champion super bantamweight WBA Salim Medjkoune at Futuroscope in Poitiers. True to his promise, Monshipour put up a fight from the very beginning, The fight was transforming rapidly into a real war, between two men going blow for blow. In the last round, the challenger Mahyar Monshipour (leading Salim Medjkoune to two of the three judges, 107-102 and 106-104 to 104-104) continues the pace. With a right hook to the chin that abruptly ended the fight after 1 minute and 27 seconds, Medjkoune heavily collapses to the ground and remained there for several minutes before getting up to the cheers of 4,300 spectators that were relieved for his well being. Monshipour became the new world champion WBA.