Bouaita in the 9th round. He defended his title once again against Frederick Bonifai (this will be his last win on points). On September 13, 2002 he acquired the European title against the Franco- Turkish Tuncay Kaya in just 6 rounds. He retains this title two times against Mustapha Hame (KO in the 6th round) and Germán Guartos (KO in the 3rd round). World championships On July 4, 2003, Mahyar Monshipour applied for a first world title match. He faces a friend, the world champion super bantamweight WBA Salim Medjkoune at Futuroscope in Poitiers. True to his promise, Monshipour put up a fight from the very beginning, The fight was transforming rapidly into a real war, between two men going blow for blow. In the last round, the challenger Mahyar Monshipour (leading Salim Medjkoune to two of the three judges, 107-102 and 106-104 to 104-104) continues the pace. With a right hook to the chin that abruptly ended the fight after 1 minute and 27 seconds, Medjkoune heavily collapses to the ground and remained there for several minutes before getting up to the cheers of 4,300 spectators that were relieved for his well being. Monshipour became the new world champion WBA. Soon after his story inspired television and he becomes one of the few French boxers to be invited to boxing debates. He created in 2003 the association France-Bam to help the Iranians to Bam. On December 16, 2003, he defended his title for the first time against Jairo Tagliaferro, a hard to fight Venezuelan, Monshipour forced him down in the 8th recovery. He later faces Medjkoune for a second time. After a good start to the fight, Salim Medjkoune was gradually worn down by the wide hooks of the titleholder. Having proved himself once in the 5th round, he resumed the 7th round exhausted. But the end was coming as a right hook to the body sends down Salim Medjkoune in the 8th round. After an eight count by the referee, Medjkoune continues the battle to later return to the ground and his corner threw in the towel. Monshipour still defends his title two more times before facing Shigeru Nakazato, a boxer who had unsuccessfully tried twice to take a world title. From the initial sound of the bell, Nakazato suddenly advanced on the defending champion. Both boxers had similar attributes but the power, vitality and precision of the