Jeff Thomas (born 30 October 1981) is a British

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 ...

. Thomas fought at

light welterweight Light welterweight, also known as junior welterweight or super lightweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional boxing In professional boxing, light welterweight is contested between the lightweight and welterweight divisions, ...

and was a challenger for the Irish light welterweight title and the

British Masters The Betfred British Masters is a professional golf tournament. It was founded in 1946 as the Dunlop Masters and was held every year up to 2008, except for 1984. Dunlop's sponsorship ended in 1982, and the name sponsor changed frequently there ...

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 ...

and

titles.

Background

Thomas was born in Dordrecht but was raised in

Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston (UK Parliament constituency), Felt ...

, London where he attended St Laurence's RC Primary, Feltham and St Edmunds RC Primary, Whitton. He moved from London aged 12 to St Annes-on-Sea near

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England where he attended Our Lady Star of the Sea Primary, St Anne's and St Bede's RC High School, Lytham. After leaving school Thomas worked as a travel agent before moving into professional boxing and subsidising his wage working as a door supervisor in Blackpool. Thomas now works as a personal trainer and boxing coach at Fightworks ABC in Blackpool.

Amateur career

At amateur level, Thomas won a

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

novice title and reached the

quarterfinals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the senior

Amateur Boxing Association of England England Boxing, known until 2013 as the Amateur Boxing Association of England, is the leading Sports governing body, governing body of amateur boxing clubs in England. There are separate organisations for Scotland and Wales with boxing in North ...

championship's in 2001 where he was beaten by eventual finalist Steven Mathews. He also lost a close majority decision to double ABA champion and future WBU World Champion Steve Foster jnr and scored a good first round stoppage win over James Lee. Thomas finished his amateur career with aN 8-8 junior and 19-4 senior record with 7 stoppages.

Professional career

Debut

Thomas turned professional in December 2001 in

. On his debut he defeated

Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...

's Peter Allen on points over six rounds (59/55). Allen would go on to beat Central Area Champion Eddie Nevins and draw with Commonwealth Super Bantamweight Champion Isaac Ward.

British Masters title fights

Thomas was undefeated in his first seven fights including decision wins over Midland Area Champion Peter Buckley and Central Area Champion Daniel Thorpe plus a draw with the then highly rated Carl Allen (who had Ko'd British Champion Dazzo Williams and drawn with future British Champion Lee Meager in recent fights). Then, in September 2003, Thomas fought against Scot

Lee McAllister Lee "Aberdeen Assassin" McAllister (born 5 October 1982) is a Scottish professional boxer nicknamed the "Aberdeen Assassin". McAllister held the Commonwealth lightweight and light-welterweight titles, the IBO International light-welterweight t ...

for the British Masters light welterweight title in the Scot's hometown,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. McAllister, the Scottish Champion and future WBU Double World Champion won the title by close decision on points over ten rounds by a margin 95-97. Thomas was devastated by the verdict having floored the Scot twice and largely dominated most of the contest. Three months later in Thomas next fight he faced

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

's Martin Hardcastle again on his opponent's home turf in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

. This time Thomas had shed 8 lb, as the fight was for the British Masters super featherweight title, but again Thomas having floored his opponent lost on points over ten rounds (96/95). Thomas felt with some justification he had been the victor in both contests. Hardcastle and McAllister then faced each other in their next bout. McAllister came out the eventual victor, after which Hardcastle retired from boxing. McAllister went from strength to strength, winning WBU World Titles at Lightweight and Light Welterweight.

Missed opportunity

Over the following three years Thomas' interest in the sport waned. Thomas, trying to score an upset, took bouts on short notice against Ricky Burns and Steve Murray, troubling both before losing each fight conclusively. However, he also gained a points victory, over former British Title Challenger, British Masters and Midlands Area Champion Anthony Hanna, and then went on to beat Wales' Anthony Christopher. This led Thomas to get a chance to fight for the biggest pay day of his career, against

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

silver medalist Amir Khan. Thomas was approached to fight Khan in December 2005 on the

undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

of the Williams v. Harrison but he had contracted to fight Baz Carey, whom Khan had beaten three months previous to that in only his second professional fight. An alternate date in the beginning of 2006 was suggested for the pair to fight but it was imperative that Thomas defeat Baz Carey during their scheduled contest in Blackpool. Unfortunately for Thomas he lost on points to Carey and lost his chance to fight Khan. Again some felt that Thomas had been unfortunate, though not Thomas himself.

Irish light welterweight title

Following a win over Nuneaton Veteran Kristean Laight, Thomas got the opportunity to fight for the vacant Irish light welterweight title in June 2006. The Irish title had been vacated by unbeaten

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

er Robbie Murray to allow

Oisin Fagan Oisín Fagan, (born 24 December 1973) nicknamed ''"Gael Force"'', is an Irish former professional boxer based in Dublin, Ireland. He fought in the light welterweight and lightweight divisions. Background Although a native Dubliner from Tallagh ...

and Peter McDonagh to fight for the title. However, McDonagh pulled out of the fight which allowed Thomas the chance to step in and fight for the vacant title at the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

, Dublin. Fagan won the Irish title in front of his friends and family after he stopped Thomas in the seventh round. Fagan would go on to lose a split decision to unbeaten Former IBF World Lightweight Champion Paul Spadafora and had already gone the distance with Julio Cesar Chavez Junior before being stopped by British prospect Amir Khan in 2008. Thomas decided to return to the ring in March 2011 and featured on Prizefighter light middleweights 2. He scored draws against Rick Boultor and Kris Agei-Dua, and wins over Mousad Wali and Andrew Patterson. A loss in between the Wali and Patterson fights to Nathan Weise put paid to any real progress in his comeback but Thomas was very pleased to have returned after so long away. The draw with Agei-Dua was the first in prizefighter history and came on the back of a famous Twitter campaign leading to his inclusion. Fairly uniquely, as a pro Thomas campaigned as a Super Featherweight, Lightweight, Light-Welterweight, Welterweight, Light-Middleweight, Middleweight and had his final fight at Super Middleweight.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Jeff 1981 births Living people English male boxers Sportspeople from Lytham St Annes Super-featherweight boxers 21st-century English sportsmen