Sang-Ho Lee in two rounds on 7 May 1988. After beating Lee, he would win four non-title bouts in his country, including two ten-round decisions over Jorge Tejada, who later became a contender in the welterweight division. For his second defense, Coggi returned to Italy, where he defeated perennial contender Harold Brazier of the United States by a twelve-round unanimous decision on 21 January 1989. His third defense, on 29 April 1989, was also held in Italy. He defeated future world champion Akinobu Hiranaka by a twelve-round decision. However, this match was controversial for the decision which gave Italian-Argentine boxer Coggi excessive favor, while Coggi was knocked down by Hiranaka twice at 3rd round, and he has been inferior to Hiranaka at performance throughout 12 rounds. Among many boxing fans, there have been the strong voice that the victory should have been given to Hiranaka, since the match was owned by him. After two non title wins, Coggi had four fights in France, beginning with a fourth-round knockout victory over Jesse Williams in another non-title bout. On 24 March 1990, Coggi beat the former lightweight champion José Luis Ramírez by a twelve-round unanimous decision to retain the title. After beating Danilo Cabrera by knockout in round five, Coggi defended his title in Nice against the relatively unheralded Loreto Garza of Sacramento, California, on 17 August. This time around, it was Coggi's turn to lose in a mild upset, as Garza became the champion by outpointing Coggi over twelve rounds. On his next fight, held on 11 November at Buenos Aires, Coggi once again outpointed Tejada over ten rounds. His next fight happened under extremely unlikely circumstances: he was in Sacramento to watch Garza defend his world title and, at the same time, challenge him to a rematch, when one of the boxers to be featured as part of the night's undercard suffered a car accident at the ARCO Arena parking lot and broke his wrist. Coggi took on the role of substitute fighter, and he beat Alberto Alcaraz by a knockout in round seven, 1 December. Coggi went on to win his next eleven fights, six of them by knockout, before challenging Morris East for the WBA title on 12 January 1993, in Mar del Plata. Coggi became a light welterweight champion for the second time that night when he knocked East out in eight rounds. On 10 April 1993,