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While he spend his entire career
fighting out of his adopted
home-country Belgium, former
World Boxing Federation (WBF)
World Super Welterweight
Champion Patrick Vungbo
was born in August of 1966 in
Congo, Central Africa.
He began boxing relatively late,
at the age of eighteen, when he
was taken to a gym in Anderlecht
by his uncle, a former
professional boxer. Young
Patrick quickly proved to be
talented, and at the same time
had the right attitude to be a
successful boxer.
A year later he won the Belgian
novice amateur championships,
and just three years after first
putting on a pair of gloves he
made his professional debut in
November of 1987 in Izegem,
against 23-year-old hopeful
Phillipe Tampere (4-1) from
nearby Roeselare.
With four thousand people in
attendance, only very few
rooting for Vungbo,
the debutant was brought in to
be “the opponent” against
Tampere. However, Vungbo
had other plans and shocked the
local fans when he knocked out
their hero in the third round.
Things were moving fast for
Vungbo,
and even though he won his first
six paid bouts convincingly, he
was not exactly wrapped in
cotton wool. After stopping
Frenchman Eric Ceriac (4-4-1) in
his second outing, he
out-pointed Freddy Demeulenaere
(10-2-1) in February of 1988.
It was quite an impressive
victory for a guy with only two
paid fights, and the fact that
Demeulenaere went on to win
Belgian and BeNeLux titles, as
well as challenge for the
European championship, only made
it even more significant in
retrospect.
In July of 1988 he traveled to
Milan, Italy where he suffered
his first defeat at the hands of
tough Mexican Guillermo Cruz
(9-3). Vungbo
was fighting out of the “home
corner”, but Cruz paid no
attention to that as he stopped
the raising prospect in seven
rounds.
Vungbo
rebounded well, and won his next
three fights against decent
opposition, including
Jean-Claude Dele (9-3) and
Nordine Dahmani (16-18-9),
before it was time for another
trip abroad. On February 24,
1989 he returned to Milan where
he beat Italy-based Tunisian
Habib Hammami (8-3) on points in
his own back-yard.
Now 10-1 (6) after only fifteen
months in the professional
ranks, Vungbo
was deemed ready to step up to
championship level, and his
first title fight would come in
a rematch against Freddy
Demeulenaere, now 14-4-2, on
March 17, 1989, with the Belgian
national Welterweight title on
the line.
A determined Vungbo
made it clear that his first
victory was no fluke, as he once
again beat Demeulenaere on
points to lift his first
professional championship. The
loss to Cruz not withstanding,
Vungbo
had quickly taken the Belgian
boxing-scene by storm.
But his path to the top would
not be without further
set-backs. He defended his
Belgian crown the following
June, fending off tough but
limited trial-horse Fabian
Chapelle (7-12-3), before it was
back to Italy for another tough
assignment against Colombian
contender Guillermo “La Pantera”
Mosquera (18-1).
On the undercard of Billy Hardy
vs. Vincenzo Belcastro for the
European Bantamweight title,
June 28, 1989, Vungbo
fought valiantly, and again
showed that he could compete at
a high level. But in the end he
came up on the short end of a
decision after six rounds.
Three non title-fight victories
lead to a third fight with
Freddy Demeulenaere (17-7-3),
and while it was a closer fight
this time it was the same
out-come as Vungbo
retained his Belgian crown by
split decision and improved his
record to 16-2 (6) on Christmas
day, 1989.
A points-loss to French Champion
Daniel Bicchieray (18-3-3)
followed six months later,
before another defense of the
Belgian title against undefeated
Mark McGreath (9-0) and a
routine victory over journeyman
Carlos Tavarez (9-12-3) closed
out 1990.
In April of 1991 he squared off
with Belgian-based Ugandan
Godfrey Nyakana (8-0). Making
the fourth defense of his
national Welterweight title,
Vungbo
lost a unanimous decision after
ten rounds, and continued to
find it hard to break through to
the next level.
Six months on he returned with a
decent victory over Jean-Marc
Linquet (10-2), knocking the
Frenchman out in five rounds,
but two months later Vungbo
tasted defeat again when Spanish
champion, and future European
and WBC World champion, Javier
Castillejo (18-1) stopped him in
five in Madrid.
It was up and down for Vungbo,
who was never afraid to take on
a tough challenge, and never
afraid to travel into his
opponents back-yard to do it.
His next three fights were
victories over Valery Monakhov,
Delroy Waul (15-1-1) and Mourad
Louati (20-3-1), but a loss to
British contender Paul Jones
(17-7-1) brought him back down
to earth again.
But, his record still a
respectable 22-6 (8), and still
only twenty-six years old, the
best was yet to come for Vungbo.
He moved up to Super
Welterweight and again he rose
from the ashes, putting together
six straight victories between
October of 1992 and June of
1993.
He beat Hassan Mokhtar (4-6) to
become a two-weight Belgian
national champion, and defended
his new title with a fourth
victory over Freddy Demeulenaere
(29-19-4), in a fight that also
netted him the BeNeLux title.
This string of victories took
his ledger to 28-6 (10), and put
him in line for the biggest
fight of his life.
On November 1, 1993 in Izegem,
Vungbu took on immensely
talented former British and
European champion Pat Barrett
(35-3-1) for the vacant WBF
World Super Welterweight title.
It was another step up in class
for him, and he was again the
underdog, but this time he was
fighting on home ground.
As expected, it was a tough and
close fight, but Vungbo
put together all the experience
he had gathered over the years,
and performed out of his skin
against what was probably his
best opponent to date to win a
split decision with scores of
119-114, 117-113 and 114-116.
Unfortunately he would not be
world champion for long. Back in
Izegem only seven weeks after
winning the title, he lost it by
decision to old nemesis Godfrey
Nyakana (19-1-1). Few fighters
would have agreed to such a
quick turn-around, but once
again Vungbo
proved to be out of the ordinary
and willing to fight anyone at
any time.
That would not change, and in
his very next fight, on May 20,
1994, he again fought Javier
Castillejo (34-2) in Madrid,
this time with the European
title on the line. Again he
lost, but he took Castillejo the
full distance and showed that he
still had something to give.
Vungbo
won his next three fights, and
secured another crack at the
European crown against Laurent
Boudouani (28-2), who had
dethroned Castillejo and would
later become WBA World Champion.
Vungbu was stopped in six
rounds, and it appeared that his
best days were finally behind
him.
He fought on for another five
years, going 4-4-1 and regaining
and defending the Belgian Super
Welterweight title. He never
again reached the level he was
at with the Barret victory, and
retired in 2000 following his
fiftieth fight, with a 36-13-1
(10) record from a career where
he took on any challenge
presented to him.
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