On June 24, 1996, the 24-year-old WBA middleweight world champion, Shinji Takehara (24-0, 18 KOs), faced a 25-year-old American boxer William Joppy (21-0-1, 17 KOs), in a title defense fight.
Takehara came in to the fight on a 24-fight win streak with a 75% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 6 months and 5 days. Joppy was on a 2-fight win streak with a 77% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 4 months and 14 days.
William Joppy stopped the champion via TKO in the 9th round of the 12-round world-title fight, winning the first world title of his career, and is crowned the new WBA middleweight champion. Joppy improves his record to 22-0-1 (18 KOs), while Takehara adds a loss to his record at 24-1.