David Starie (born 11 June 1974) is a British former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who competed from 1994 to 2003. He challenged twice for world championships; the WBO super middleweight title in 2000 and the unified

WBA (Super) The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxi ...

and

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

super middleweight titles in 2003. At regional level, he held the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

super middleweight title twice; first in 1997 and again from 1998 to 2001, and also held the Commonwealth super middleweight title from 1998 to 2002.

Professional career

Known as "Jedi", Starie won the British super middleweight title when he stopped Sam Storey in 1997. Starie was stopped three months later by Dean Francis. In March 1998, he won the Commonwealth super middleweight title, beating

Clinton Woods Clinton Woods (born 1 May 1972) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2009, and held the IBF light-heavyweight title from 2005 to 2008. At regional level he held the Commonwealth super-middleweight title from 1997 t ...

on points. Starie regained the British super middleweight title in November 1998 when he

knocked out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

Ali Forbes to win the vacant title. In January 2000, he fought

Joe Calzaghe Joseph William Calzaghe ( ; born 23 March 1972) is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, '' Ring'' magazin ...

for the WBO super middleweight title, losing on points. In 2003, he vacated the British super middleweight title and lost his Commonwealth super middleweight title on points to Andre Thysse. In June 2003, Starie fought for the

and

and super middleweight titles, losing on points, again, to

Sven Ottke Sven Ottke (born 3 June 1967) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2004. He was a unified super-middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 1998 to 2004, and the WBA (Unified) title from 2003 to 2004. ...

. This was to be Starie's last fight in the ring. He announced his retirement in August 2003.

Life after boxing

Starie is now a full-time firefighter, after doing part-time work in this capacity during his boxing career. In 2012, he was appointed fire liaison officer at

West Suffolk College West Suffolk College is a Further Education college in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The college delivers a range of courses, including vocational and technical courses, apprenticeships, and an array of higher-apprenticeships and bachelor's degree ...

, working with young males identified as needing positive role models. Outside of his work with the College, Starie participated in several challenges for charity, acted as an instructor at the Eastgate Amateur Boxing Club and also organised a running club for young people in Bury St Edmunds. Back in June 2006, Starie had talked about returning to the ring. Promoters and the British Boxing Board of Control told him that he was likely to need only two warm-up fights before being offered a shot at the British super middleweight title, which he vacated following his retirement, but no fights were made. In May 2013, he announced a comeback, hopefully during the

Prizefighter series The Prizefighter series was a professional boxing tournament created by boxing promoter Barry Hearn and aired on Sky Sports. The format has an initial eight fighters, who compete in four quarter-finals of rounds (number and length of the rounds i ...

, after discussing a deal with

Eddie Hearn Edward John Hearn (born 8 June 1979) is a British sports promoter who is chairman of Matchroom Sport and Professional Darts Corporation. Hearn is the son of promoter Barry Hearn, the founder of Matchroom Sport. Education Hearn was a student a ...

of Matchroom Promotions. In July 2014, Starie was in training, with the hope of fighting for the Commonwealth or British title, but once again the comeback didn't materialise.

Amateur accomplishments

*1993 ABA Light Middleweight Champion *1994 ABA Middleweight Champion

References

External links

* English male boxers Living people England Boxing champions 1974 births Super-middleweight boxers {{England-boxing-bio-stub