Daniel Geale (born 26 February 1981) is an Australian 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 2004 to 2016. He held the unified

WBA (Super) The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxi ...

and

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

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 be ...

titles between 2011 and 2013, and the IBO middleweight title from 2007 to 2009. As an

amateur boxer Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

, Geale won a

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 ...

gold medal at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...

Early life

Born in

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () or () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, Launceston has a population of 87,645. Material was copied ...

, Geale is of mixed

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, ...

and

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

ancestry.

Amateur career

Other than winning the 2002 Commonwealth Games at welterweight, Geale also represented his native country at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. He lost in the first round to Italy's

Leonard Bundu Leonard Bundu (born 21 November 1974) is a Sierra Leone-born Italian former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2016. He held multiple regional welterweight championships, including the European title twice between 2011 and 2016; the Eur ...

. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder.

Amateur highlights

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

in Sydney, Australia as a welterweight: **Lost to

(Italy) 2:4 *

2001 East Asian Games The 3rd East Asian Games were held in Osaka, Japan from May 19, 2001, to May 27, 2001. Sports The 2001 East Asian Games featured events in 15 sports, which was a new high for the competition. *Aquatic sports, Aquatics () ** Swimming (sport), S ...

in Osaka, Japan: **Defeated Naoki Hirata (Japan) +12-12 **Lost to

Gennady Golovkin Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin (Cyrillic: ; also spelled Gennady; born 8 April 1982), often known by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G", is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time ...

(Kazakhstan) 3-15 *

in Manchester, won Gold Medal: **Defeated Tsetsi Davis (Jamaica) rsf **Defeated Tony Cesay (Sle) 25-13 **Defeated Daniel Codling (New Zealand) 27-13 **Defeated Kwanele Zulu (South Africa) * 2002 Boxing World Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan: **Lost to Mustafa Karagollu (Turkey) **Lost to

Yudel Jhonson Yudel Johnson Cedeno (born 6 June 1981) is a Cuban welterweight professional boxer, who is best known for winning an Olympic Light-Welterweight silver 2004 as an amateur. Some sources write the family name Jhonson. Amateur career S ...

(Cuba) RSC 2 *2003 World Championships in Bangkok, Thailand **Lost to

Bakhtiyar Artayev Bakhtiyar Garifollauly Artayev ( kk, Бақтияр Ғарифоллаұлы Артаев, ''Baqtiiar Ğarifollaūly Artaev''; born 14 March 1983) is a Kazakh amateur boxer who won the gold medal for Kazakhstan at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He w ...

(Kazakhstan) 8-30

Professional career

Geale turned pro in 2004, knocking out Danny Bellert in the third round. He then went on to build a record of 17 bouts for 17 wins with 12 KO's. On 14 December 2007, Geale fought for the IBO Middleweight Championship of the world against another undefeated Australian,

Daniel Dawson Daniel "The Rock" Dawson (born 15 October 1977) is an Australian super welterweight kickboxer and boxer, fighting out of Perth, Western Australia. Boxing career Daniel Dawson has a boxing record of 40 wins, 5 losses, and 1 draw. Dawson made hi ...

, who was 29-0-0 with 20 KO's coming into the fight. Geale outclassed Dawson over 12 rounds to win the IBO Middleweight title with the judges scoring the bout 120-110, 120-110 and 119-109. In June 2008, Geale defended his IBO Middleweight Championship with another 12 round unanimous decision over

Geard Ajetovic Geard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Geard Ajetović (born 1981), Serbian boxer * Leonard Geard (born 1934), English football player * Rex Geard (1927–1982), Australian Australian rules football ...

. In December 2008, Geale faced

Daniel MacKinnon Colonel Daniel Mackinnon (1791 – 22 June 1836) was a Scottish Colonel of the Coldstream Guards who played an important part at the Battle of Waterloo. Family Daniel was the younger son of William Mackinnon, eldest son of the Clan MacKinnon C ...

in a non-title bout. Geale was down in the 8th, McKinnon was down in the 4th, 6th & twice in the 8th, Geale won a unanimous decision with judges scoring the bout 100-87, 100-87, 100-88. In March 2009 Geale defeated Ian MacKillop with a first-round knockout but in May of that year he lost his next fight in a controversial split decision to former WBA super middleweight champion

Anthony Mundine Anthony Mundine Jr. (born 21 May 1975) is an Australian former professional boxer and rugby league footballer. In boxing he competed from 2000 to 2021, and held the WBA super-middleweight title twice between 2003 and 2008. He also held the I ...

to lose his IBO middleweight title. Mundine later stated that he hardly studied Geale during his training camp for the fight. Geale however, would rebound from the controversial defeat with 3 wins including an IBF Eliminator setting himself up for a world title shot.

IBF middleweight champion

In May 2011, Geale defeated

Sebastian Sylvester Sebastian Sylvester (born 9 July 1980) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2011 and held the IBF middleweight title from 2009 to 2011. Professional career In March 2007 Sylvester retained the WBA Inter-Continental ...

in Germany by split decision (scores of 118-110, 118-112, 110-118) to become the new

middleweight world champion. In August 2011, he made his first successful title defense against contender Eromosele Albert, winning by unanimous decision. Geale made his second successful IBF title defense by defeating Ghana's Osumanu Adama via unanimous decision (scores of 118-110, 117-111, 115-113) on 7 March 2012.

Unified middleweight champion

On 1 September 2012 Geale defeated long time WBA champion

Felix Sturm Adnan Ćatić (born 31 January 1979), known as Felix Sturm, is a Bosnian-German professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2003 to 2004, the WBA middleweight ti ...

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

, Germany via split decision (scores of 116-112, 116-112, 112-116), thus unifying the WBA title with his already held IBF title . Geale's reign as unified champion was short-lived, as two months after winning the WBA title, he was stripped of it for choosing to fight

in a rematch over

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 ...

. Geale was punished for Sturm's refusal to fight mandatory challengers when he was champion. When Geale won the title, the WBA gave him four-and-a-half months instead of the regular nine to defend against the mandatory - in this case Golovkin. Their reasoning was that their mandatory challengers had been ignored for too long.

Geale vs. Mundine II

On 30 January 2013 Geale beat Anthony Mundine in a unanimous points decision (scores of 116-112, 117-111, 117-111) at the Sydney Entertainment Centre to retain his IBF middleweight world title. Immediately after ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. read out the result, Mundine and his entourage stormed out of the ring and left the arena.

Geale vs. Barker

On 17 August 2013, Geale fought British fighter

Darren Barker Darren Barker (born 19 May 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2013. He held multiple titles at middleweight, including the IBF title in 2013; the Commonwealth title from 2007 to 2009; the British title in 2 ...

for Geale's

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 be ...

world title in Atlantic City. Despite knocking down Barker in the sixth round, Geale lost in a split-decision.

Geale vs. Golovkin

In what was billed as the biggest night of his career and taking place in the legendary

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

, Geale lost by TKO in the third round to the Kazakh

. Entering the fight as the clear underdog with Golovkin listed by most bookmakers as the 14 to 1 favourite and despite having fought, according to Golovkin "like a champion", Geale was clearly outclassed by Golovkin when during the final exchange Golovkin counterpunched Geale after Geale had connected with a right to the Kazakh's head.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* * *
Daniel Geale - Bujutsu Martial Arts Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geale, Daniel 1981 births Living people Indigenous Australian boxers Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Olympic boxers of Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Sportspeople from Launceston, Tasmania Australian Institute of Sport boxers Indigenous Australian Olympians International Boxing Federation champions World Boxing Association champions International Boxing Organization champions Indigenous Tasmanian people Australian male boxers Commonwealth Games medallists in boxing Light-middleweight boxers Super-middleweight boxers World middleweight boxing champions Welterweight boxers