Alex Arthur

Alex Arthur
Arthur in 2012
Statistics
Nickname(s)	Amazing
Rated at	Light welterweight Super featherweight
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Reach	69 in (175 cm)
Born	(1978-06-26) 26 June 1978 Edinburgh, Scotland
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	34
Wins	31
Wins by KO	21
Losses	3

Alex Arthur, MBE (born 26 June 1978) is a Scottish former professional boxer. He is a former British, Commonwealth, European and WBO super featherweight champion.^[1] On 26 June 2013, on his 35th birthday and following a twelve-year career, Arthur officially retired from boxing.^[2]

Early professional career

Arthur had his first professional contest in November 2000 when he defeated fellow debutant Richmond Asante at the Wythenshawe forum in Manchester. Also on the card that day were fighters of the quality of Anthony Farnell, Junior Witter, Matthew Hatton, Michael Jennings and Jamie Moore.^[3]

After winning 11 fights in a row and picking up a couple of fringe titles on the way, Arthur managed to get a crack at the vacant British Super Featherweight title when he challenged Dewsbury's Steven Conway at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow on 19 October 2002. The win established Arthur as a force on the domestic scene and he followed up the victory with two defences against Carl Greaves and fellow Scot Willie Limond. One more victory would have given him the Lonsdale belt for keeps and that was when the undefeated prospect with a record of 16–0 ran into Longford's Michael Gomez.

Michael Gomez fight

Michael Gomez fought Arthur for the British and WBA International super featherweight titles in front of a sold out Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland in October 2003. This was the first professional boxing card in the city for almost 20 years.^[4]

A war of words was waged between the two fighters prior to the fight, Arthur had stirred up the animosity between the pair stating in an interview that Gomez "gets involved in wars with journeymen" and that "looking deep into Gomez's eyes at the press conference, I'm not sure even he believes he can win. He'll be so fired up I expect it'll take me eight or nine rounds but, if his resistance has gone as people are saying, it could be a lot sooner" and "I see about 20 ways to beat him. I'm just looking forward to shutting him up.".^[4][5]

Arthur, who was looking to retain the Lonsdale Belt, was seen as a rising star in British boxing and was being groomed to be a future world champion. Arthur was a strong favourite to defeat Gomez and this fight was seen as a stepping stone against a Gomez how had been through too many battles and abused his body too much.^[6][7][8]

Gomez proved his critics wrong when on the night of the fight Gomez arrived in prime condition and with aggression, determination and desire.^[7][9] Eventually, Gomez won this bad tempered contested fight with an explosive knock out of Arthur in the fifth round.^[10] Arthur's performance in the early rounds and his resilience before the KO saw the bout hailed as one of the best fights in Britain for a decade. Boxing promoter Frank Warren called the fight "the greatest contest seen on these shores since Nigel Benn beat Gerald McClellan in 1995".^[11]

Comeback

Alex Arthur in 2008

He made his comeback the next year on 27 March 2004 by stopping Michael Kizza in the first round for the IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title. He made two defences of that fringe title before lining himself up for a shot at Commonwealth Super-Featherweight champion Craig Docherty. To make matters more interesting the British title was now vacant again meaning that the Docherty fight would be for the British and Commonwealth Super-Featherweight titles. The fight took place at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh and ended with Arthur knocking Docherty out in the 9th round. Arthur was once again a force to be reckoned with.^[12]

European Champion

To fully seal his comeback Arthur's next fight was against the reigning European champion at super feather Boris Sinitsin. He managed to defeat the experienced Russian with a wide 12 round decision and so held the British, Commonwealth and European title belts at the same time.^[13] He put all three of them on the line in his next fight against fellow Scot Ricky Burns winning another 12 round decision.^[14] It was however the only time he would defend all three at once, his next two fights saw him only defend the European title against mandatory challenger Sergey Gulyakevich and Spain's Sergio Palomo.

WBO Champion

On 21 July 2007, he stopped Koba Gogoladze in the tenth round to win the interim WBO super-featherweight title recognised as one of the 4 main 'World' belts. He made his first defence on 15 December 2007 against fellow Brit Steve Foster Jr. In what was supposed to be an easy tune up fight, Arthur struggled to win a close unanimous decision. It was a terrible start from the champion, for the first four rounds he was getting beaten to the punch and taking heavy blows from Foster. He regained his composure in the middle rounds and even knocked down his opponent in the 9th with a body shot. However two rounds later in round 11 Arthur got floored himself after taking a right hand that knocked him straight through the ropes. He managed to regain his composure and won a close decision.^[15]

Following the Foster win Arthur geared himself up to take on Dominican Joan Guzmán who held the full version of the title. However, Guzmán decided that he wanted to move up a weight division and chose not to compete against Arthur. This decision by Guzmán meant that the interim titleholder was now recognised as the organisation's world champion.^[16]

Arthur however surrendered the title in his very next fight, losing a unanimous points decision to England's Nicky Cook at the MEN Arena in Manchester on 9 September 2008. Arthur claimed that he had been "robbed" he also added "It was three English judges – in England. A fighter knows in his heart if he has won or lost a fight and I really thought I had won",^[17] Other observers however thought that the decision was fair and that Cook fully deserved his win. .^{[18] [19]}

Second comeback

Since losing to Nicky Cook in 2008 Arthur went on to win against Mohamed Benbiou on 19 June 2009 via TKO in Round 1 at the Bellahouston Sports Centre in Glasgow, Arthur then lost on points to Nigel Wright on 5 December 2009 at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle. In 2010 Arthur had 2 back to back wins against Peter McDonagh on 4 September 2010 and Jay Morris on 4 December 2010 both in Glasgow.

Arthur was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to boxing.^[20]

Amazing Alex Arthur Promotions and Retirement

In 2011 Arthur went into promoting with his own AAA Promotions. His first event took place at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh on 27 August 2011 where Arthur fought Aleksander Vakhtangashvili and won via TKO in the fourth round. On 14 April 2012 AAA Promotions staged their second and final event again at the Meadowbank Stadium where Arthur faced Michael Frontin and won via points after 8 rounds.

On 26 June 2013 Arthur officially retired from boxing after 14 months without a fight.

Professional boxing record

31 Wins (21 knockouts, 10 decisions), 3 loss(s) (1 knockout), 0 Draw, 0 No Contest
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Win	31–3	Michael Frontin	PTS	8	14 April 2012	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Second, and final, self promoted fight also final fight before 2013 retirement
Win	30–3	Aleksander Vakhtangashvili	TKO	4 (10)	27 August 2011	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	First self promoted fight
Win	29–3	Jay Morris	PTS	8	4 December 2010	Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland
Win	28–3	Peter McDonagh	PTS	8	4 September 2010	Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
Loss	27–3	Nigel Wright	PTS	8	5 December 2009	Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, England
Win	27–2	Mohamed Benbiou	TKO	1 (8)	19 June 2009	Bellahouston Sports Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
Loss	26–2	Nicky Cook	UD	12	6 September 2008	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England	Lost WBO super featherweight title
Win	26–1	Stephen Foster	UD	12	15 December 2007	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Retained interim WBO super featherweight title
Win	25–1	Koba Gogoladze	TKO	10 (12)	21 July 2007	International Arena, Cardiff, Wales	Won interim WBO super featherweight title
Win	24–1	Sergio Palomo	TKO	5 (12)	4 November 2006	Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland	Retained EBU (European) super featherweight title
Win	23–1	Sergey Gulyakevich	TD	7 (12)	29 April 2006	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Retained EBU (European) super featherweight title
Win	22–1	Ricky Burns	UD	12	18 February 2006	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Retained British, EBU (European) and Commonwealth super featherweight titles
Win	21–1	Boris Sinitsin	UD	12	23 July 2005	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Won EBU (European) super featherweight title
Win	20–1	Craig Docherty	KO	9 (12)	8 April 2005	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Won vacant British and Commonwealth super featherweight titles
Win	19–1	Nazareno Gaston Ruiz	UD	12	3 December 2004	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Retained IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Win	18–1	Eric Odumase	RTD	6 (12)	22 October 2004	Royal Highland Showground, Edinburgh, Scotland	Retained IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Win	17–1	Michael Kizza	KO	1 (12)	27 March 2004	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Won vacant IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Loss	16–1	Michael Gomez	TKO	5 (12)	25 October 2003	Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Lost British and WBA Inter-Continental super featherweight titles
Win	16–0	Willie Limond	TKO	8 (12)	12 July 2003	Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Retained British super featherweight title
Win	15–0	Patrick Malinga	TKO	6 (12)	22 March 2003	Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Won vacant WBA Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Win	14–0	Carl Greaves	TKO	6 (12)	14 December 2002	Telewest Arena, Newcastle, England	Retained British super featherweight title
Win	13–0	Steven Conway	KO	4 (12)	19 October 2002	Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Won vacant British super featherweight title
Win	12–0	Pavel Patipko	KO	1 (6)	17 August 2002	Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, Wales
Win	11–0	Nikolay Eremeev	RTD	5 (12)	8 June 2002	Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Won vacant WBO Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Win	10–0	Dariusz Snarski	TKO	10 (12)	11 March 2002	Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland	Won IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Win	9–0	Wladimir Borov	TKO	2 (8)	19 January 2002	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, England
Win	8–0	Laszlo Bognar	TKO	3 (8)	17 November 2001	Bellahouston Sports Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
Win	7–0	Alexey Slyauchin	TKO	1 (6)	27 October 2001	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
Win	6–0	Dmitry Gorodetsky	TKO	1 (4)	15 September 2001	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England
Win	5–0	Rakhim Mingaleyev	PTS	4	21 July 2001	Ponds Forge Arena, Sheffield, England
Win	4–0	Dafydd Carlin	PTS	4	28 April 2001	International Arena, Cardiff, Wales
Win	3–0	Woody Greenway	RTD	2 (4)	26 March 2001	Conference Centre, Wembley, London, England
Win	2–0	Eddie Nevins	TKO	1 (4)	10 February 2001	Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, England
Win	1–0	Richmond Asante	TKO	1 (4)	25 November 2000	Wythenshawe Forum, Manchester, England	Professional debut

References

External links

• Alex Arthur Promotions
• Alex Arthur Twitter Page
• Alex Arthur Facebook Page
• BoxRec Alex Arthur Boxer – Global ID 32930
• BoxRec Amazing Alex Arthur Promotions – Global ID 575672