Born September 12, 1960, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Julian Jackson is a retired boxer known as “The Hawk.” He was also known for his destructive knockout power. Jackson’s career spanned 17 years from 1981 to 1998 with him dominating the light middleweight and middleweight divisions.

Early Career

Julian Jackson entered the ring in February 1981 with a four-round bout against Inocencio Carmona, another boxer also debuting. He would take this match on points and it would be the first of a tremendous 29-match winning streak–most of which ended in a string of knockout victories. The vast majority of these matches went no further than three rounds. Jackson’s nickname is “The Hawk” because “There’s a lot of chickens running from The Hawk.”

Dominance of the Super Welterweight Division

At the start of 1984, Jackson receives his first title shot. By this point, he was 19-0 and continuing to hunt opponents. In Puerto Rico, he would face off against WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight (light middleweight) champion Ron Lee Warrior. The champ entered the match 13-3-1 with eight knockouts under his belt.

Warrior’s last three matches were knockout victories so he was coming in on some momentum. However, Julian Jackson last ten matches were all knockouts with none of the matches going past round five. Warrior would make it three rounds before falling to “The Hawk.”

His first opponent as champion would be the first to take him to the limit. Curtis Ramsey was a veteran pugilist who floated around the welterweight division. Debuting in 1976, he didn’t have the best record at 24-18-5 but would go 12 rounds before being knocked out.

The Hawk’s last bouts of 1984 were pretty much back to business except for the 8-round match against Tim Harris in late November 1984, his second defense of the belt.

Match 30: Clash of the Knockout Artists

At 29-0, Julian Jackson was in line for a shot at the WBA Super Welterweight title in 1986. The champion at the time was Mike McCallum coming in 26-0 with 23 knockouts for his third defense. At the time, McCallum is known for a granite chin and dynamic knockout victories. It would be a battle of the Bodysnatcher against The Hawk.

With two boxers possessing such devastating punching power, it was already known it would be a furious bout. Both men would be hunting the other’s chin or head for a quick victory. It was already known that one man would suffer their first career loss.

Both men landed a number of the blows thrown and for the first round, it looked very close. Of the two, it would be the Bodysnatcher who scored the win, with the TKO on Julian Jackson in the second round. While Jackson wasn’t knocked off his feet and didn’t appear unable to fight, he had taken one too many consecutive blows from McCallum for the referee’s liking.

For now, the WBA Super Welterweight title would elude him but the loss wouldn’t serve to throw him off his path of dominance.

Reference
–http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/565

Selected Match
-WBA Super Welterweight Title: vs. Mike McCallum [c]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJKlp8ZRchI
-vs. Jeff Nelson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qYqj_f18d8