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Billy Costello is a former professional boxer in
the United States.

During his career, he was managed by Mike Jones,
who was also famous for managing Gerry Cooney and
Wilford Scypion. Costello fought a lot of his
early professional bouts around the Hudson
Valley-New York City|NYC area, after a successful
amateur career that culminated in a Golden Gloves
award.  Kingston, New York (about 90 miles north
of NYC) eventually became his home, at least while
he was champion.  But before winning a title, he
put together an early undefeated streak, which
included a 10-round decision over Willie Rodriguez
on CBS television in November 1982.  He and his
management then became closely associated with the
CBS network, which aired several of his fights.

The one and only title he held in his career, the
World Boxing Council|WBC junior welterweight
title, was won by knocking out Bruce Curry in the
10th round in January 1984 in front of a pro-Curry
crowd in Beaumont, Texas.  He would then make
three defenses of the belt, all in Kingston, and
all by 12-round unanimous decision.  His first foe
as champion was Ronnie Shields, with whom he
traded first-round knockdowns before eventually
securing the points win.  Next was former WBC
140-lb. champion and veteran Saoul Mamby, who
replaced Leroy Haley, another former possessor of
Costello's belt, on five days notice.  This caused
concern for Costello's group, but Billy steadily
erased such concerns, defeating the challenger on
points en route to a unanimous decision.

His next fight was finally against Leroy Haley. 
The result was an unanimous win over 12 rounds for
Costello. Next, a Denver, Colorado fighter named
Lonnie Smith|Lonnie 'Lightning' Smith defeated
him,  knocking down and cutting the defending
champion en route to an eighth-round stoppage in
New York City to claim the title in August 1985.

Billy came back, though, albeit briefly.  He
fought three-time champion and living legend
Alexis Arguello in February 1986. Arguello beat
Costello in Round 4, to inflict Costello his
second loss in a row.  Costello then took some
time off from the ring, fighting on a sporadic
'here-and-there' basis until the early 1990s. In
his last bout, in 1998, he defeated former world
champion Juan Laporte by a decision in ten in a
Pay Per View fight.
category:American boxers|Costello, Billy