Dean Pithie (born 18 January 1974) is a male 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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who fought in the

super featherweight Super featherweight, also known as junior lightweight, is a weight division in professional boxing, contested between and . The super featherweight division was established by the New York Walker Law in 1920, although first founded by the New ...

division. He is a former

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

and

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

Inter-Continental super featherweight champion.

Boxing career

Hailing from Willenhall ABC in

Willenhall, Coventry Willenhall is a suburb of Coventry, in the county of the West Midlands, England. Willenhall is in the south-east of the city adjacent to the suburbs of Binley, Ernesford Grange and Whitley. It covers the area bounded by the Rugby to Covent ...

Pithie won the 1994 ABA featherweight title. Highlights in his amateur career included defeating future world champion

Prince Naseem Hamed Naseem Hamed (Arabic: نسيم حميد; born 12 February 1974), nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002.Davies, Gareth A (8 June 2015)"Prince Naseem Hamed: 'I always thought they w ...

. He represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the 57 kg division, at the

1994 Commonwealth Games The 1994 Commonwealth Games ( French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, between 18 and 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, box ...

in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Pithie turned professional in February 1995 at the Tryst Sports Centre,

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

, Scotland. In his debut Pithie defeated

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

's Colin McAuley with a third round

knockout 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 striking, ...

and knocked out McAuley again in his second fight. Dean Pithie won 12 of his next 13 fights, drawing the other with Kelton McKenzie. He avenged this draw in his next fight. This brought his record to 15-0-1 (7 KO). He fought Steffy Bull in his next fight for the

Intercontinental Championship, disposing of Bull by the way of TKO. Pithie made one defence of his title before being beaten by Gary Thornhill to record his first professional defeat. Pithie managed to put himself back into contention for minor belts with two successive wins after this defeat, and earned at shot at Andrew Matabola for his WBC international title. However Pithie was defeated by way of 8th Round

TKO A technical knockout (TKO) is a professional fighting term. TKO may also refer to: Sports * TKO, the name of a professional wrestling move referring to either the cutter or stunner variant * TKO Group Holdings, a combat sports company Music Ar ...

. Pithie claimed the WBC International title in his next fight however, avenging his loss at the hands of Matabola by 2nd round

. Pithie was rated alongside the best featherweights in the country, and was tipped in some circles for British, European, and possibly world honours eventually. After 2 defences, Pithie fought

Michael Gomez Michael Gomez (born Michael Armstrong; 21 June 1977) is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to London and l ...

for the British

Super Featherweight Super featherweight, also known as junior lightweight, is a weight division in professional boxing, contested between and . The super featherweight division was established by the New York Walker Law in 1920, although first founded by the New ...

title, losing on points. After a draw with Jim Wiseman at Skydome, Coventry, Dean fought a

Frenchman French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from nort ...

by the name of Afif Djelti for the IBO super featherweight world title. Pithie was knocked out in 6 rounds. Pithie went on to win the

title, defeating Liverpudlian Alex Moon in front of a capacity crowd in his hometown of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, Pithie called on former Coventry boxer

Steve Early Steve Early (born 7 May 1956) is a professional boxer, who fought out of Coventry, England. Early started his career in 1977 with a TKO win over Kevin Sheehan. Early marched on to thirteen consecutive wins in three years, in November 1979 E ...

to train him for the bout which was live on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. This was to be a career highpoint. Pithie came out punching in the 12th round just like the first. Pithie only managed to hold the bout for one defence, a reign which would be co-terminus with the end of his career, losing his final fight to Glaswegian

Craig Docherty Craig Docherty (born 27 September 1979) is a Scottish former professional boxer. Competing from 1998 to 2017, he held the Commonwealth super-featherweight title from 2003 to 2005. Life and career Docherty became a professional boxer in 1998 ...

. Pithie's Final Record was 25 won, 5 lost, 2 draw.

Personal life

Pithie lives in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pithie, Dean English male boxers 1974 births Living people Boxers at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Super-featherweight boxers Commonwealth Games boxers for England Boxers from Coventry