Billy Costello, ex-WBC champ, dies at 55

Former World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Billy Costello, winner of his first 30 professional fights, has died of lung cancer. He was 55.

Costello died Wednesday at a hospital in his hometown, Kingston, N.Y., longtime friend Joe LaLima said Thursday.

Costello was 40-2 over a 20-year career that began in 1979. He won the WBC light welterweight championship in 1984 with a 10th-round technical knockout of Bruce Curry, then defended the title three times over the next year.

Costello lost the title to ''Lightning'' Lonnie Smith in an eighth-round technical knockout in 1985. His only other loss as a pro came to Alexis Arguello in 1986.

After retiring from fighting, he worked in building and road construction, as a boxing judge and with young people in his hometown.

LaLima said Costello could afford to live anywhere after his career, but stayed in Kingston.

''He chose to buy a home in his neighborhood, where he was needed to help kids stay straight,'' said LaLima, a friend of Costello's father who had known the fighter since he was a child.

Costello spent recent years helping run the city Police Athletic League boxing club, which sometimes hosts bouts in a neighborhood gym named for him.

LaLima said a pedestal and plaque are already in place and the money has been raised to put a 6-foot-tall statue of Costello at one of the main streets leading into the city.

There was no immediate information on funeral arrangements.