Craig Watson (born 7 February 1983) 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 2005 to 2013. He held the Commonwealth

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

title from 2007 to 2009; the Commonwealth

super welterweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA a ...

title in 2010; and 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 ...

welterweight title in 2011.

Amateur boxing career

Watson first gained TV exposure after taking on Amir Khan. Going into the bout as an unknown he was heavily written off by many as Khan was the Olympic silver medalist at the time however Watson managed to score a knock down and only lost on a close points defeat.

Professional boxing career

Early professional career

Watson had his first professional contest in May 2005 when he scored a 2nd round tko over Willie Valentine at the Elephant and Castle Centre in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. He won his next six fights in a row before stepping up to fight fellow prospect John Fewkes (13–0) at the

Leeds Town Hall Leeds Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building on The Headrow (formerly Park Lane), Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built b ...

. The fight gave Watson his first pro defeat as Fewkes scored a points victory over 8 rounds. Following that first loss Watson regrouped and scored wins over Robert Lloyd-Taylor (twice) and fellow prospect

Michael Lomax Michael Lucius Lomax (born October 2, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) has, since 2004, served as the president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund of the United States. Biography Lomax taught literature at Morehouse Col ...

. The victories set him up for a shot at the Commonwealth Welterweight title held by tough Namibian

Ali Nuumbembe Paulus Ali Nuumbembe (born 24 June 1978 in Oshakati, Oshana Region, Namibia) is a Namibian welterweight boxer. Nicknamed "The Silent Assassin", Nuumbembe is a former Commonwealth champion who represented Namibia at the 2000 Summer Olympics and ...

in a fight to be held on 8 December 2007 at the Robin Park Centre in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

.Boxrec , Craig Watson record
/ref>

Commonwealth welterweight champion

Watson produced the performance of his career so far in Wigan, beating Nuumbembe to win the Commonwealth title when the fight was stopped in the 8th round. An early clash of heads had caused a cut above Nuumbembe's left eye which eventually got so bad that the corner could not stem the flow of blood and so handed Watson victory. The newly crowned champion then travelled to Italy for his next fight to contest the vacant European Union belt against unbeaten Italian Daniele Petrucci. The fight on 8 March 2008 ended in bitter disappointment for Watson when the referee stopped it in the 3rd round with Watson saying that he was neither "mentally or physically prepared" for the fight having taken the match at short notice. Redemption came only a few months later on 24 May 2008 when Watson found himself sharing a ring with

Matthew Hatton Matthew James "Matty" Hatton (born 15 May 1981) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2013. He held the European welterweight title from 2010 to 2011, and challenged once for the WBC light-middleweight title in the ...

at the

City of Manchester Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the List of Engli ...

. The fight for Watson's Commonwealth title was on the undercard to

Ricky Hatton Richard John Hatton (born 6 October 1978) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships at lig ...

's fight with

Juan Lazcano Juan Lazcano (born March 23, 1975) is a Mexican-born American professional boxer currently based in Sacramento, California. He fights at light welterweight and is a former World Boxing Foundation (WBF), NABF and IBA lightweight champion, as wel ...

in what was widely dubbed as the Hitman's homecoming following his defeat to

Floyd Mayweather Floyd may refer to: As a name * Floyd (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Floyd (surname), a list of people and fictional characters Places in the United States * Floyd, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Floyd, Io ...

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. Watson ended up winning the fight on points over 12 rounds prompting Hatton to say afterwards that Watson was the first man who had legitimately beaten him in the ring. On 11 April 2009 Watson lost the title in his second defence to

John O'Donnell John O'Donnell may refer to: Sportsmen * John O'Donnell (baseball), 19th-century Major League Baseball player * John O'Donnell (boxer) (born 1985), Irish boxer * John O'Donnell (Australian footballer) (born 1947), Australian footballer for St Kil ...

in a close fought contest at the

York Hall The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex in Bethnal Green, London, and is situated on Old Ford Road. The building opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200 and is now an inter ...

to register the third defeat of his career. The contest shown live on

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classi ...

was described as scintillating as well as a 'classic bout' by observers sitting ringside.

Commonwealth light middleweight champion

Watson rebounded from the defeat to O'Donnell with a points win over journeyman Matt Scriven 21 August 2009 and a second round stoppage of Swiss boxer Riad Menasria on 27 November 2009. Prior to the fight with Menasria, Watson had said that he was looking to compete at light welterweight in the future and wanted to meet reigning British champion Lenny Daws. On 19 February 2010 in his first fight of the new year, Watson travelled to Stoke and stopped former British title challenger , Barrie Jones in 4 rounds. His chance to regain a championship belt came just over one full year since his defeat to O'Donnell. Given just two days notice Watson stepped in to fight Ugandan boxer Badru Lusambya on 16 April 2010 for the light middleweight version of the Commonwealth belt. Despite having never fought at the higher weight before, Watson put his opponent down 4 times in the second round to win a convincing victory. Despite the victory and the title Watson chose to move back down to welterweight for his next contest on 16 July 2010 after deciding that light middleweight was perhaps not his ideal weight. His opponent, the Ghanain journeyman Stephen Okine was stopped in the fifth round on the undercard of a bill that saw former victim

retain his

European title European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...

with a victory over his

mandatory challenger In professional boxing and some other combat sports, a mandatory challenger is an opponent whom a champion must either fight or be forced to vacate their title as champion. A mandatory defence is the opposite of a voluntary defence, where the champi ...

Yuriy Nuzhnenko Yuriy Nuzhnenko (Юрій Нужненко, born June 2, 1976) is a Ukrainian boxer who captured the vacant WBA Interim Welterweight belt on December 8, 2007 in Le Cannet, France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a c ...

. On 6 November 2010 Watson moved back up to light middleweight at the Castle Leisure Center in Bury to register a win against Romanian journeyman Vasile Surcica, putting him down in the 8th round but failing to stop him inside the distance and scoring an 8 round points win.

British welterweight champion

Watson won the British title on 19 February 2011 with a revenge win against

, the man he had previously lost his old Commonwealth title to. Prior to the fight Watson referred to some of the pre-fight talk between the two fighters saying "He says he will shut me up, but it's all right saying that ... we'll see what happens in the ring". Watson said that following the close nature of the result against O'Donnell last time he had been consumed by bitterness and said that he was the victim of a home town decision as the fight took place in London, O'Donnells home.Manchester Evening News , Craig Watson dreaming of Boundary Park showdown
/ref> This time however there was to be no mistake. The return against O'Donnell once again took place in London, this time at the Wembley Arena, but the judges scored 116–113, 116–112 and 117–112 all to Watson over the 12 rounds. On 16 April 2011, in his first defence of the title, Watson lost to Lee Purdy. The fight, on the undercard of Amir Khan's contest with

Paul McCloskey Paul McCloskey (born 3 August 1979) is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 2005 to 2013. He held the British super-lightweight title from 2008 to 2009; the European super-lightweight title from 2009 to 2011; a ...

was stopped in the fifth round when Purdy caught Watson with a right hand to the jaw to win the British title. Watson attempted to retain the title on 16 July 2011 with a bout in his home town of Oldham but was once again stopped in the fifth as Purdy made a successful first defence.East Anglian Daily Times , Colchester boxer Lee Purdy wins British title defence
/ref>

Professional Boxing record

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="8", 22 Wins (9 knockouts, 13 decisions), 5 Losses, 0 DrawsCraig Watson – Boxer
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Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

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M.E.N. Arena Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. The arena has th ...

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Wembley Arena Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-se ...

Wembley, London Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

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Bolton Arena Bolton Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena, located at Middlebrook on the boundary between Horwich and Lostock in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It has a seating capacity of 6,000 people and hosts indoor sport ...

Bolton, Greater Manchester Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th centu ...

, England , align=left, , -align=center , Win , 17–3 , align=left,

Badru Lusambya Badru Lusambya (born 28 October 1982, in Kampala) is a super welterweight Ugandan }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republ ...

, TKO , 2 , 2010-04-16 , align=left, Robin Park Centre,

Wigan, Greater Manchester Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

, England , align=left, , -align=center , Win , 16–3 , align=left, Barrie Jones , TKO , 4 , 2010-02-19 , align=left, Fenton Manor Sports Complex,

Stoke, Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

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Bethnal Green, London Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

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, England , align=left, , -align=center , Win , 10–1 , align=left, Robert Lloyd-Taylor , TKO , 1 , 2007-09-21 , align=left,

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, England , align=left, , -align=center , Loss , 7–1 , align=left, John Fewkes , PTS , 8 , 2007-02-09 , align=left, Town Hall,

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TKO TKO may refer to: Sports * Technical knockout, a professional fighting term * Total Knock Out, a professional wrestling move Music Artists * TKO (band), a rock band from Seattle, Washington * TKO, a pop group led by Katie White Albums * ''TKO ...

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Davyhulme Davyhulme is an area of Greater Manchester, England, historically in Lancashire. The population at the 2011 census was 19,634. Davyhulme Sewage Works The area is notable for Davyhulme Sewage Works, one of the largest wastewater treatment p ...

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, England , align=left, , -align=center , Win , 1–0 , align=left, Willie Valentine , RTD , 2 , 2005-06-19 , align=left, Elephant & Castle Centre , Southwark, London, England , align=left, , -align=center

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Craig English male boxers Welterweight boxers Sportspeople from Oldham 1983 births Living people