Raúl Horacio Balbi

Raúl Horacio Balbi (born October 7, 1973) is an Argentine former professional boxer.

Professional career
Balbi made his professional debut on November 19, 1993, in Mercedes, Corrientes, Argentina. Balbi made a victorious start to his career by knocking out Juan Bautista Sosa in the first round. One of the highlights of Balbi's early career came on June 3, 1995, when he beat Simon Canache to claim the South American lightweight title. The first loss of Balbi's career came on September 9, 1995, when he lost to Manuel Alberto Billalba via a ten round points decision, Balbi avenged this defeat later on in his career by beating Billalba twice.

On February 22, 1997, Balbi travelled to Hamburg, Germany, to challenge the Uzbek champion Artur Grigorian for the WBO lightweight title. Balbi's challenge proved to be unsuccessful, as Grigorian scored an eleventh round technical knockout. After the fight Balbi returned to Argentina, where he put together a run of five wins before losing a split decision to Walter Hugo Rodriguez.

Balbi remained undefeated over his next sixteen bouts, earning him a chance to fight Alberto Esteban Sicurella in a WBA title eliminator. Balbi won the fight by tenth round technical knockout, which led to a world title challenge against the French champion Julien Lorcy on October 8, 2001, in Paris. In the third round of the contest Balbi was able to open a large cut above the champion's right eye and had further success when he knocked Lorcy down in the seventh. The fight lasted the twelve round distance and Balbi was announced as the winner via a majority decision.

The first defence of Balbi's title took place on January 5, 2002, against Leonard Dorin in San Antonio, Texas. After a toe-to-toe battle which lasted the full twelve rounds, the Romanian challenger Dorin was announced the winner by split decision. After the fight a surprised Balbi claimed that he was "robbed". A rematch occurred five months later, this time in Bucharest, Romania. On this occasion Dorin won a unanimous decision with scores of: 118-111, 117-112 and 118-110.

A run of six consecutive wins earned Balbi another shot at the WBA title, this time for the vacant light welterweight belt. The fight took place in Bolton, United Kingdom on September 2, 2006, against the Frenchman Souleymane M'baye. Balbi was knocked down twice en route to a fourth round loss via technical knockout, thus handing the title to M'baye. Since his light welterweight title challenge Balbi has lost three times including against Denis Shafikov. His most recent match, a draw against Bolivian boxer Franklin Mamani, took place on May 28, 2010.