Ex-WBA World Super Lightweight Champion Johnny ‘Bump City’ Bumphus Dies at 59
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Tacoma, Washington (February 9th, 2019)– Former World Boxing Association World Super Lightweight champion Johnny ‘Bump City’ Bumphus, a member of the 1980 United States Olympic Boxing team which did not travel to the Soviet Union to compete due to a boycott, has died in his birth town of Tacoma, Washington, at a hospital from cardiac arrest at age 59.
An AAU and National Golden Gloves champion, Bumphus, a southpaw, compiled an amateur record of 341-6, and a professional record of 29-2 with 20 knockouts. He won his WBA world title in January 1984 at Sands Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a 15 rounds decision over Lorenzo Garcia. He lost his WBA title in his first defense to Gene Hatcher by eleventh round stoppage in buffalo, New York, in June 1984.
After defeating Marlon Starling by six-round technical decision in May 1986 to win the USBA Welterweight title, a second-round stoppage loss to Lloyd Honeyghan at Wembley in London for the WBC and IBF World Welterweight titles in February 1987 ended Johnny career for good. Bumphus lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and later worked as a boxing trainer under Lou Duva in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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