Gary Thornhill (born 11 February 1968) is a former

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 fought at

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

and

super featherweight Super featherweight, also known as junior lightweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight division in professional boxing, contested between and . The super featherweight division was established by the New York Walker Law in 1920, although firs ...

. He is a former

World Boxing Organization 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 Boxing ...

( WBO) Intercontinental super featherweight champion, as well as a BBBofC super featherweight central area champion. Thornhill also held the

Lonsdale belt The Lord Lonsdale Challenge Belt, commonly known as the Lonsdale Belt, is the oldest championship belt in British professional boxing. Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, introduced the prize on behalf of the National Sporting Club (NSC), inten ...

before being stripped after failing a drugs test.

Amateur career

Thornhill started boxing at the age of 12, he went on to be an England international at the age of 18. Thornhill had 80 bouts as an amateur, winning 71 of them. He boxed for Higherside A.B.C, St Helens Star A.B.C, then Transport A.B.C where he met his trainer, George Vaughan, who carried his career through to the paid ranks when Thornhill turned 24.

Professional career

Thornhill turned professional in February 1993 at the Epic Leisure Centre,

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south of ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In his debut Thornhill defeated

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

's Brian Hickey with a fourth round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

. Thornhill fought five world champions during his career:

Justin Juuko Justin "The Destroyer" Juuko (born 26 December 1972 in Masaka) is a Ugandan amateur light flyweight and professional boxer who was active between the 1990s and the 2010s. In 1990, he won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New ...

- WBO World title holder (for the Commonwealth title),

Michael Gomez Michael Gomez (born Michael Armstrong; 21 June 1977) is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to London and l ...

WBU The World Boxing Union (WBU) was a boxing sanctioning body. The original WBU was founded in January 1995 by IBF European representative, boxing journalist, actor and former holder of the title of Britain's heaviest man Jon W. Robinson. It sa ...

World title holder (for the British title), Scott Harrison- WBO & WBC World title holder,Fighting Harrison 'like facing a brick wall'
, ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'', 6 December 2006. Retrieved 21 february 2016 Nicky Cook- WBA World title holder,

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

World title holder. At super-featherweight Thornhill was central area champion, WBO Intercontinental champion, and he also went on to win a British featherweight title fight with a 9th round stoppage against fellow Liverpudlian Richie Wenton in May 2000, but was stripped of the title after testing positive for

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...

s after the fight and banned for six months.Mee, Bob (2000)
Boxing Ban Hits Thornhill
, ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', 15 September 2000. Retrieved 1 January 2016

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornhill, Gary English male boxers Living people 1968 births Featherweight boxers