Ayub Kalule was born in Uganda. He first came to prominence when he won the Amateur World welterweight title in Cuba in 1974. He turned pro and based himself in Denmark, he went on to win the light-middleweight championship. He subsequently lost the title to the great Sugar Ray Leonard. Welterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956 in Wilmington, North Carolina) is a former American boxer. ...

Ayub Kalule was born January 6, 1954 in Kampala, Uganda. He began his professional boxing career in 1976 when he won a 4 round decision over Kurt Hombach in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kalule would be based out of Denmark for his entire career. Kalule then reeled off 29 more victories to go 30-0. Included in those victories were defeats of Alipata Korovou for the Commonwealth Middleweight Title and a 10 round decision of former US Gold Medalist Sugar Ray Seales.

On October 24 1979, Ayub traveled to Akita, Japan to take on Masashi Kudo for the WBA Jr Middleweight Championship of the world. Kulule easily outboxed the champion and thus captured the coveted world title belt. He then successfully defended the title 4 times before taking on the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard on June 25 1981 in the Houston Astrodome. A virtual unknown in the states, Ayub was considered little more then a courier waiting to deliver the belt to Leonard. The fight proved much more dificult for the Sugarman as Ayub repeately landed straight lefts and fought on an almost even ground for the first 5 or 6 rounds. Slowly Leonard started to take control and in the 9th round ended the fight and Kalule's reign as WBA Champion.

Kalule fought on until the begining of 1986 and managed to win the European Middleweight Title and defend it successfully against future world champion Sumbu Kalambay. Prior to that, he received another shot at the WBA Jr Middleweight Title held at that time by Davey Moore. Kalule put up a very good fight, but again was KO'd, this time in the 10th. Ayub's career ended on Febuary 5 1986 when he lost the European Middleweight Title to Herol Graham. He finished his career with a very impressive record of 46-4 with 24 KOs.

Ayub was a tremendously slick southpaw boxer who had enough sting in his punches to keep any opponent honest. While never really achieving crossover fame in the States, he is regarded by many boxing insiders as one the finest pure boxers to ever come out of Africa. A true gentleman, he is a credit to the sport of boxing.