Ryan Rhodes (born 20 November 1976) 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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 1995 to 2012. 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 welterweight title twice, from 1996 to 1997 and in 2008, and the

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 super welterweight title from 2009 to 2010. Additionally he challenged for the

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 ...

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

title in 1997, and the WBC super welterweight title in 2011.

Professional career

Rhodes took up boxing at a young age, training at Brendan Ingle's gym in the Wincobank district of Sheffield. At the age of 20, he defeated another Sheffield boxer Paul "Silky" Jones with a technical knock out in the eighth round to become the youngest post-war holder of the

title. He went on to win the belt outright in a record time of 90 days with wins over Peter Waudby and Del Bryan. On 13 December 1997, Rhodes stepped up a weight division to middleweight to challenge the Canadian Otis Grant for the vacant

title but was defeated by a unanimous decision. On 18 April 2008, Rhodes knocked out Gary Woolcombe 37 seconds into the 9th round to regain the British light middleweight title, 11 years after he first won it. He defended his title for the first time as the main event on the Hayemaker Promotions boxing show in Sheffield. His opponent was Jamie Coyle, whom he defeated by a unanimous decision. Since then he has defeated Vincent Vuma of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

to win the WBC International light middleweight title and in doing so obtained a ranking in the top ten in the world. Rhodes was due to defend his British light middleweight title against the Londoner

Anthony Small Anthony Small (also known as Abdul Haq) is a retired professional boxer and Islamic political activist who was born 20 June 1981 in Lewisham, London, England. He held both the British and Commonwealth belts at light middleweight. He was also re ...

at the

Echo Arena Liverpool Arena, known for sponsorship reasons as the M&S Bank Arena and previously the Echo Arena, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the city centre of Liverpool, England. The venue hosts live music, comedy performances and sporting events, ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

on 28 March 2008, but withdrew because of an illness during his training camp. He defeated Jamie Moore in the seventh round of their European title fight on 23 October 2009. He defended the title again on 21 May 2010 at home against the Italian Luca Messi, with a technical knock out in the sixth round. Rhodes lost his WBC light middleweight challenge bout against

Canelo Álvarez Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán (; born 18 July 1990), commonly known as Canelo or Saúl Álvarez, is a Mexican professional boxer. He has held multiple quadruple champion#Boxing, world championships in four weight classes, from light middlewe ...

with a technical knockout in the twelfth round on 18 June 2011 in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Rhodes announced his retirement from professional boxing on 4 September 2012.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, Ryan 1976 births Living people Boxers from Sheffield English male boxers European Boxing Union champions Light-middleweight boxers Middleweight boxers Southpaw boxers British Boxing Board of Control champions