Derrick Osazemwinde (born 11 October 1993) is a British professional boxer. He became Ultimate Boxxer III

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 ...

champion in 2019. Osaze was born and raised in

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

, London, but is now based in Nottingham where he also preaches at the God's Vineyard Ministry where he was ordained as a minister in 2018.

Early life

Osaze was born and raised in

, South East London, and is the fifth born of six children. Aged 15, having been excluded from school thirteen times and on the verge of being permanently expelled due to anger management issues, he turned to Boxing in 2009 after it was recommended to him by a friend who said it would be a great way to channel his energy positively. He quickly fell in love with the sport and repeatedly states "God led to me Boxing which ultimately saved my life, the sport has taught me so much, the biggest lesson being self-discipline, it's positively shaped my character and kept me out of trouble". He states, "Boxing went from a hobby, to a passion and now it's a lifestyle". Convinced by his parents to focus on finishing his GCSEs and A-Levels first. He would wait four years to have his first competitive bout aged 19 in 2013 for Phoenix ABC in Nottingham. He attended

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

, where he gained a

BA (Hons) Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Business Management and a Master's in

Sport Psychology Sport psychology was defined by the European Federation of Sport in 1996, as the study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport. Otherwise, sport is considered as any physical activity where the individuals engage for competi ...

Amateur career

As an amateur Osaze won two national titles and one regional title in the process. He narrowly missed out on becoming a member of the England squad due to injury and was also in contention to represent Nigeria and attempt to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after receiving a call up from the national head coach. He entered the professional ranks with 19 amateur fights.

Professional career

Osaze turned professional in 2017 under the tutelage of his coaches, former professional boxers; Barrington Brown, Mark Howell, and boxing manager Jimmy Gill who all believed that his fighting style was better suited to the pro ranks. He would make his professional debut on 16 December 2017 when he fought Callum Ide at the Bingham Leisure Centre. Osaze won the fight via

points decision A points decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. Unlike normal decisions where there are three judges that agree on whic ...

. Osaze won the Ultimate Boxxer III tournament on 10 May 2019 at The O2 in London. He defeated Tey Lynn Jones in his first bout, dropping Jones in the second round to secure a unanimous decision (UD) victory. He then followed that up by defeating pre-tournament favourite Kieron Conway via

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

(SD) in the semi-final. He then overcame Grant Dennis in the final, securing a majority decision (MD) helped by a third-round knockdown.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osaze, Derrick Living people 1993 births Boxers from Greater London Middleweight boxers British people of Nigerian descent People from Peckham Black British sportspeople