José Antonio Rivera (born April 7, 1973) is an American professional boxer of Puerto Rican descent. He is a former WBA welterweight and super welterweight champion.
On September 13, 2003, in Germany, Jose fought unbeaten European Champion Michel Trabant and won the WBA Welterweight Championship of the World. On April 2, 2005, in his defense of the WBA title, Jose lost a very close split decision to his challenger Luis Collazo.
On May 6, 2006, Jose would move up a weight class to junior middleweight and fight Champion Alejandro Garcia. He managed to knock him down five times and won to become the new WBA champion. His career was discussed in the Amazon audiobook Everipedia Boxing Show with Matthew E. O'Neil. Rivera had a role in the 2010 movie The Fighter, which starred Mark Wahlberg.
References
https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/jose-antonio-rivera-professional-boxer