Virgil Akins vs. Vince Martinez

Virgil Akins 147 lbs beat Vince Martinez 147 lbs by TKO at 0:52 in round 4 of 15

• Date: 1958-06-06
• Location: Arena, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
• Referee: Harry Kessler
• Judge: Fred Connell
• Judge: Howard Hess

"Virgil Akins of St. Louis gave boxing a robust shot in the arm with his dynamic performance Friday night as he won the vacant world welterweight crown by scoring a 4th round TKO over Vince Martinez of New Jersey, who had never been stopped. Many of the 9,777 fans in the St. Louis Arena cheered his victory when referee Harry Kessler stopped the fight at 52 seconds of the 4th round. Martinez hit the canvas five times in the 1st round, took trips No. 6 and 7 to the deck in the 3rd and was dropped twice in the 4th. Akins and Martinez were the finalists in a six-man tournament to provide a new champion." -United Press International

• The title became vacant when champion Carmen Basilio relinquished it upon winning the middleweight title from Sugar Ray Robinson.
• Martinez claimed to have never been down as a pro prior to this bout.

Post-fight comments

• "I don't know how many times he went down. Could be 7, 8, 9 or 10. I was surprised at how he kept gettin' up." -Virgil Akins

• "I don't remember anything after that." -Vince Martinez, stating he only remembered the first knockdown

• "We'll know in a couple of weeks whether sugar Ray Robinson will defend his middleweight title this year against Basilio again. If he doesn't, we'll try to match Akins and Basilio for a September title fight at NYC or Syracuse." -Truman Gibson, president of the IBC