Gary Buckland (born 12 June 1986) is a Welsh 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 competed from 2005 to 2016. 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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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 from 2011 to 2013. He also challenged for the British and

EBU The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

European

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

titles in 2010; the British super featherweight title in 2013; and the Commonwealth lightweight title in 2014.

Professional career

Buckland's professional debut came on 5 March 2005 with a four-round points win over Warren Dunkley at the Goresbrook Leisure Centre in

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...

. He fought three more times that year scoring wins on each occasion and fighting in London,

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

and

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. Five fights the following year in 2006 resulted in five more wins including two victories over Judex Meema and a trip to Spain for a points win over Ubadel Soto. On 3 March 2007 in his first fight of the year and now boasting an unbeaten record of 9–0 Buckland defeated Stuart Phillips at the Newport Leisure Centre to win the Welsh Area title. A win over journeyman Carl Allen followed before on 5 October 2007 Buckland defeated Martin Watson over 10 rounds to lift the Celtic version of the lightweight title.Gary Buckland record
. Boxrec. Retrieved 18 November 2012.

Defeat and regroup

Now with a record of 11–0, Buckland begun 2008 with wins over journeymen Alex Spitko and Ali Wyatt before on 13 June 2008 losing for the first time to

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

Ben Murphy Ben Murphy (born March 6, 1942) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Kid Curry in the ABC television series '' Alias Smith and Jones''. Early life Murphy was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Benjamin R. Castleberry and Nadi ...

in a six-round points defeat. Buckland bounced back from the defeat on 27 February 2009 travelling to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

and scoring a 10-round shut out against

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 ...

in another Celtic title fight. His next contest was to be an eliminator for the full British title with England's Henry Castle his opponent. The fight in Newport resulted in another 10 round points win for Buckland against a man who had recently impressed with wins over Graham Earl, Ryan Barrett and Kevin O'Hara. A first round win over Hungarian Istvan Nagy on 13 November 2009 topped off a successful year for the Welshman.

British and European title challenge

On 19 February 2010 Buckland scored possibly his biggest win to date with a 12-round victory in a Commonwealth title eliminator against Uganda's Sam Rukundo. Rukundo, based in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, was undefeated with 15 wins and only one draw before losing that record to Buckland at a fight in

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. Already in contention for a shot at the British title, the win had put him in the frame for a shot at the European title too. His opponent for both titles on 7 May 2010 was the current European number one contender and British champion, John Murray. The fight took place at the Kingsway Leisure Center in

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and ended with a second career defeat for Buckland with Murray proving to be just too strong, winning in the 11th round.

Prizefighter win

On 20 November 2010 Buckland moved down to super featherweight and competed in the 15th prizefighter competition shown 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 ...

. The

Barry Hearn Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sports promoter who is founder and president of Matchroom Sport. Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including boxing, snooker, darts, pool, tenpin bowling, gol ...

promoted tournament pitched 8 fighters in a knock out style competition over one evening with the winner walking away with prize money of £32,000. In the quarter finals Buckland was matched against former amateur star Steven Bell winning over 3 rounds on all the judges scorecards. In the semi-final Buckland pulled off one of the upsets of the year with a first-round knockout of the pre-tournament favourite and reigning British champion

Gary Sykes Gary Sykes (born 13 February 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2016. He held the British super-featherweight title twice between 2010 and 2014, and challenged for the Commonwealth super-featherweight and lig ...

. In the final Buckland met Derry Mathews the former WBU champion and former young boxer of the year. Mathews had beaten Gary McArthur by stoppage in the quarters and then engaged in a gruelling contest with Choi Tseveenpurev in the semis to book his place in the final. The fight resulted in another stoppage win for Buckland with a devastating punch to the solar plexus in the 2nd round proving too much for Mathews to recover from. Of his win Buckland said "I'm feeling on top of the world". He added "I'd done a good 10 weeks of training and I knew it was going to be a hard competition. This is the best thing that has ever happened to me, so far."

British champion

Buckland followed up his Prizefighter win with a victory over Oscar Chacin at the MEN Arena on 16 April 2011 and travelling to Mexico to beat Jose Roberto Gonzalez on 18 June 2011. His opportunity to fight for the super featherweight version of the British title came on 24 September 2011, with Buckland beating reigning champion

in a close back and forth contest over 12 rounds.Gary Buckland dethrones Gary Sykes for British title
Wales Online (25 September 2011). Retrieved 18 November 2012.

Professional boxing record

, - , 38 , Win , 31–7 , align=left, Matty Fagan , PTS , 6 , N/a , 16 Jul 2016 , align=left, , , - , 37 , Loss , 30–7 , align=left,

Sean Dodd Sean "Masher" Dodd is a British professional boxer. He held the Commonwealth lightweight title from 2017 to 2018 and challenged twice for the British lightweight title in 2015 and 2016. Dodd fought out of the Birkenhead Venture Boxing Gym in Bir ...

, PTS , 10 , N/a , 19 Sep 2015 , align=left, , , - , 36 , Win , 30–6 , align=left, Giorgi Gachechiladze , TKO , 3 (8) , 2:46 , 19 Jun 2015 , align=left, , , - , 35 , Loss , 29–6 , align=left, Jono Carroll , SD , 3 , N/a , 6 Dec 2014 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 34 , Win , 29–5 , align=left, Floyd Moore , UD , 3 , N/a , 6 Dec 2014 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 33 , Loss , 28–5 , align=left,

Richard Commey Richard Oblitey Commey (born 10 March 1987) is a Ghanaian professional boxer who held the IBF lightweight title in 2019. He previously held multiple regional lightweight titles including; the Ghanaian title in 2011; the ABU title in 2013; and t ...

, UD , 12 , N/a , 12 Jul 2014 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 32 , Loss , 28–4 , align=left,

Gavin Rees Gavin Rees (born 10 May 1980) is a boxing trainer and retired Welsh former professional boxing world champion who competed from 1998 to 2014. He held the WBA (Regular) super lightweight title from 2007 to 2008. At regional level, he held the ...

, SD , 12 , N/a , 17 May 2014 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 31 , Win , 28–3 , align=left,

, SD , 12 , N/a , 1 Feb 2014 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 30 , Loss , 27–3 , align=left, Stephen Smith , KO , 5 (12) , 1:14 , 17 Aug 2013 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 29 , Win , 27–2 , align=left,

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Folk music, folk music during the Romantic music, Romantic period. He wr ...

, RTD , 8 (12) , 3:00 , 24 Nov 2012 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 28 , Win , 26–2 , align=left, Innocent Anyanwu , PTS , 8 , N/a , 21 Jul 2012 , align=left, , , - , 27 , Win , 25–2 , align=left, Paul Truscott , UD , 12 , N/a , 24 Mar 2012 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 26 , Win , 24–2 , align=left,

, UD , 12 , N/a , 24 Sep 2011 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 25 , Win , 23–2 , align=left, Jose Gonzalez Ayala , UD , 6 , N/a , 18 Jun 2011 , align=left, , , - , 24 , Win , 22–2 , align=left, Oscar Chacin , PTS , 8 , N/a , 16 Apr 2011 , align=left, , , - , 23 , Win , 21–2 , align=left, Derry Mathews , KO , 2 (3) , 1:28 , 20 Nov 2010 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 22 , Win , 20–2 , align=left,

, KO , 1 (3) , 0:45 , 20 Nov 2010 , align=left, , align=left, , - , 21 , Win , 19–2 , align=left, Stevie Bell , UD , 3 , N/a , 20 Nov 2010 , align=left, , align=left,

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckland, Gary 1986 births Living people Boxers from Cardiff Lightweight boxers People from Rumney, Cardiff Prizefighter contestants Romani sportspeople Super-featherweight boxers Welsh male boxers Welsh Romani people 21st-century British sportsmen