Gustavo Ballas (born February 10, 1958) is an Argentine retired super flyweight boxer who fought from 1976 until 1990. He retired with a record of 105 wins (29 KOs), 9 losses and 6 draws.
Ballas fought mainly in Argentina. In 1979 he managed to outpoint future multi champion Santos Benigno Laciar in what is a still remembered fight in Argentina[1]
On September 12, 1981 he became the first ever WBA world super flyweight championship by defeating Sok-Chul Bae by TKO 7 in Estadio Luna Park, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ballas lost the title on his next fight against Rafael Pedroza in Panama. He was unsuccessful on two other attempts at winning the super flyweight title, one from the WBA and another one for the WBC.
Although he fought as much as 120 times in his career, only 4 of those fights were outside of Argentina, losing all of those fights, 3 of them for a world title.
Ballas has had troubles after boxing with alcoholism and drug addiction. He was jailed once for robbery. After that he started recovering and has taken part of anti-drugs campaigns.[2]
