Joey Gamache’s Maine Magic
On June 28, 1991, Joey Gamache stopped Jerry Ngobeni in the tenth round in Lewiston, Maine, to win the vacant WBA super-featherweight championship. On June 13, 1992, he added the vacant WBA lightweight title by stopping Chil-Sung Chun in Maine, becoming a champion in two divisions.
Career Milestones and Fight Results
The Lewiston boxer captured the vacant WBA super-featherweight title by stopping South Africa’s Jerry Ngobeni on June 28, 1991. Rather than defending that championship, he moved up to lightweight.
On June 13, 1992, Gamache defeated South Korea’s Chil-Sung Chun in Portland, Maine, to claim the vacant WBA lightweight title. The bout ended after eight completed rounds and is recorded as a ninth-round stoppage. The two victories came less than a year apart and established him as a champion in successive weight divisions. BoxRec: Gamache–Chun.
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Gamache’s two WBA championships came in back-to-back weight classes rather than through a long reign at one division. He first won the vacant super-featherweight title against Jerry Ngobeni in 1991, then moved to lightweight and defeated Chil-Sung Chun in 1992. The second victory came in his home state of Maine, giving local fans a rare opportunity to see a world title won nearby (UPI report).
The chronology is why Gamache is described as a two-division champion. He did not unify the belts or hold both simultaneously; he captured separate WBA titles at different weights less than a year apart. That distinction keeps the record precise while preserving the scale of the achievement. The title victories also mark the high point of a career that began in Maine and placed a regional boxer on the international championship stage. The vacant-title bouts against Ngobeni and Chun are the clearest milestones for understanding that rise.
Gamache won the two championships in successive divisions rather than holding both at once. The June 1991 super-featherweight win was followed by a move to lightweight, where his 1992 victory over Chun secured the vacant WBA belt. The Portland setting also made the second title a major local sporting event in Maine. The chronology and weight classes are confirmed in contemporary reporting and the title-fight record. UPI report on the lightweight title win.
The lightweight reign and later challenge
Gamache’s first lightweight defense came against Tony Lopez in Portland on October 24, 1992. Lopez stopped him in the eleventh round, ending the Maine boxer’s reign four months after the Chun victory. That result marked the end of his second championship rather than the loss of the super-featherweight belt he had already vacated.
He returned to the WBA lightweight title picture on December 10, 1994, again fighting in Portland. This time Orzubek Nazarov held the championship and retained it with a second-round stoppage. The WBA title-fight chronology records both the Lopez and Nazarov contests, completing the sequence of Gamache’s lightweight championship appearances.
Those bouts give his career a clear championship outline: a vacant super-featherweight title won in 1991, a move up to capture the vacant lightweight belt in 1992, then a lost defense and a later unsuccessful challenge. The Maine venues were central to that story, bringing several of his defining international matchups to a home-state audience.
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Joey Gamache, Boxing, Championship Fights, Boxing History
