Lü Bin Chased a World Title in Only His Second Professional
Lü Bin challenged Carlos Cañizales for the WBA light flyweight championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 15, 2018. The Chinese boxer’s ambitious bid came in only his second professional contest and ended with a twelfth-round technical knockout defeat.
Career highlights
Born in Yongkang, Zhejiang, on October 18, 1994, Lü first earned international recognition as a youth amateur. He won the light flyweight title at the 2012 AIBA Youth World Championships in Yerevan, Armenia.
He later competed in AIBA Pro Boxing and represented China at the Rio 2016 Olympics. In Rio, he finished equal ninth in the light flyweight tournament. His amateur and Olympic background preceded the unusually rapid move toward a conventional professional world-title challenge.
The Cañizales championship fight
Cañizales retained his title at the Axiata Arena by stopping Lü at 2:59 of the twelfth and final round. The bout gave Lü a championship opportunity almost immediately in his professional career, following the youth world title and Olympic appearance that had established his international standing.
The youth championship had been Lü’s first major international breakthrough. He later described the podium ceremony as a defining memory and named Vasyl Lomachenko as his boxing role model. His quick-handed southpaw style also brought an AIBA Pro Boxing world title in 2015, adding another important achievement before the Rio Games and the later Cañizales challenge.
Sources
- Olympedia: Lü’s background and Rio Olympic result
- International Boxing Association: Lü’s youth world championship and APB background
- BoxRec: Cañizales–Lü championship date, venue and result
