Maurice Dubois: Swiss European Bantamweight Champion
Swiss boxer Maurice Dubois won the European bantamweight title in the 1930s. In Geneva on 19 February 1938, he challenged Maurice Holtzer for the IBU world and European featherweight titles; their 15-round bout was scored a draw, so Holtzer retained both belts.
Maurice Dubois and Geneva boxing
Dubois was a Geneva-born southpaw whose professional career spanned the 1930s. BoxRec identifies him as a bantamweight and records his death on 15 May 1986. The Cercle des Sports de Genève includes him among the important figures in its club history.
His European bantamweight breakthrough came against Belgium’s Nicolas Petit-Biquet in 1935. He defended the championship against Émile Pladner in Geneva later that year before losing it to Joseph Decico in 1936. The Decico contest ended in the fourth round.
From bantamweight champion to featherweight challenger
Dubois’s meeting with Holtzer concerned the heavier featherweight division, making it separate from his earlier bantamweight reign. Holtzer entered as the European champion and holder of the IBU version of the world championship. Their draw allowed the defending champion to retain those titles.
The IBU championship belonged to the sanctioning structure of that period. Identifying the organization matters when describing the bout, since a historical world title claim should retain the body that recognized it.
The embedded footage features Dubois against Panama Al Brown, another prominent opponent from his career. Their Geneva meeting took place in 1934, before Dubois won the European bantamweight title. These contests place him within the professional boxing scene of interwar Europe and Switzerland.
The Geneva club history and the recorded title fight document Dubois’s career and the 1938 result. Sources: BoxRec athlete profile; Career overview and historical references; [1] [2]
Sources
Career records and reporting: hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com; boxrec.com.
Tags
Boxing, Boxing History
