Richie Woodhall

James Richard "Richie" Woodhall ( born April 17, 1968 in Tamworth ) is a former British professional boxer and former world champion of the WBC Super Middleweight.

Amateur career

Richie Woodhall was born in Tamworth, near Birmingham, and trained in Telford Amateur Boxing Club in the West Midlands. He denied his amateur career at light middleweight and qualified for the 24th Olympic Summer Games in Seoul. For this he had to test tournaments among other things Marcel Yman from Sweden 5-0, the National Golden Gloves champion Ray McElroy from the United States 5-0 and Raymond Downey from Canada defeated 4-1. At the games themselves, he won in the first round against Desmond Williams from Sierra Leone 5-0 in the second round against Apolinário de Silveira from Angola 5-0 and in the quarterfinals against Rey Rivera of Puerto Rico 5-0. Only in the semi-finals he lost to Roy Jones Jr. of the USA 0-5 and was eliminated from hence with a bronze medal from the games.

In 1989 he took part in the 5th World Championships in Moscow, where he managed the Cuban José Luis Hernández 24:17 defeated in the second round, but in the quarterfinals against Rudel Obreja from Romania succumbed 8:21. In 1990, he won the gold medal at the 14th Commonwealth Games in Auckland. He suggested the two-time Olympian Rival Cadeau from the Seychelles 4:1, the Olympian Sililo Figota from Samoa 5-0 and again Raymond Downey from Canada 4:1.

Professional career

Woodhall joined in 1990 turned professional and won 21 consecutive fights, including 13 early. On March 26, 1992, he won by whacked in the first round against the Australian champion Vito Gaudiosi ( Record: 12-3 ), the Commonwealth champion middleweight title. In addition to four successful title defenses, he suggested on March 1, 1994, the American Heath Todd ( 23-3 ) by TKO in the seventh round.

On February 22, 1995 he was European champion of the EBU middleweight; he defeated while the later WBU and WBA champion Silvio Branco (24-1 ) by TKO in the ninth round. On October 25, 1995, he defended the title by unanimous decision against undefeated Zdravko Kostic ( 19-0 ) from Montenegro and on 31 January 1996 by TKO in the tenth round against Derek Wormald (20-1 ).

In the fight for the WBC World Championship on 19 October 1996 in Maryland, USA, he was defeated early in the twelfth round of the title holder Keith Holmes ( 29-1 ). For this he won on 27 March 1998 for the WBC world title in the next higher weight class, the super middleweight division, by a unanimous points win over Thulani Malinga ( 42-10 ). In September 1998, he won on points against the eventual WBC champion Glenn Catley ( 22-2 ) and in February 1999 by TKO in the sixth round against former WBC champion Vincenzo Nardiello ( 33-6 ).

In his third title defense on October 23, 1999 against Markus Beyer ( 16-0 ), Woodhall was defeated by unanimous decision. In addition, he had against his German opponent down three times. After a premature victory against Errol McDonald ( 29-9 ), he pushed on December 16, 2000 against Joe Calzaghe ( 29-0 ) for the WBO Super Middleweight Championship, but lost by TKO in the tenth round.

Others

After his boxing career, he worked as a sports commentator, among other things, for the BBC and Setanta Sports. As a double of Brad Pitt, he took a fight scene in the film Snatch - Pigs and diamonds. He also had several appearances in British television productions.

He is the owner of the Box -A Circuit Gym in Amblecote.