Nigel Wright (born 22 June 1979 in

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

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 ...

) is a professional

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, fighting out of

Crook, County Durham Crook is a market town in the County Durham (district), district and County Durham, ceremonial county of County Durham, Northern England. The town is located on the edge of Weardale, therefore is sometimes referred to as the "Gateway to Wearda ...

. He is a southpaw fighter standing at , with a record of 24-6-1, with 10 KOs and is a three-time English light welterweight champion and a two-time challenger for both the British and the Commonwealth titles. Prior to his professional career he beat M. Lomax on 30 March 2000 in the National ABA

Championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

at the

Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League' ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, to become ABA (light welterweight) Champion.2000 – 113th National ABAE Championships

Professional boxing career

Early professional career

Nigel made his professional debut on 10 February 2001 defeating Keith Jones at the Kingway Leisure Centre in

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

. He won his next four fights establishing an unbeaten record of 5-0 before suffering a first career defeat at the hands of future British champion Kevin McIntyre. Wright rebounded from the setback to score a string of seven further victories and so setting up a challenge for the English light welterweight title having established a record of 12-1.

English champion

The fight for the English belt on 11 March 2005 took place at the Doncaster Dome and saw the unbeaten Dean Hickman (12-0) in the opposite corner. Wright won the contest with a knock out in the 7th round and so claimed a first career title. One successful defence followed against

Alan Bosworth Alan Bosworth (born 31 December 1967 in Northampton, England), is a professional boxer, using the nickname "Bozzy". He is a light welterweight, and a former British and European title challenger at the weight. A Former Champion Of England & IBF ...

on 27 May 2005 and this was followed up by a revenge win over Scotsman Kevin McIntyre on 5 November 2005, stopping him in the first round. One more win followed before Wright challenged

Lenny Daws Lenny Daws (born 29 December 1978) is a British professional boxer. He held the British super lightweight title twice between 2006 and 2011, and the EBU European Union super lightweight title between 2012 and 2014. Boxing career Early professi ...

for the vacant British title on 12 May 2006 at the

York Hall The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex in Bethnal Green, London, and is situated on Old Ford Road. The building opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200 and is now an inter ...

in Bethnal Green. The challenge was to end in disappointment with Wright suffering a second career defeat, losing over 12 rounds. Compensation for the defeat came in his very next fight on 4 November 2006, picking up the now vacant English belt, beating Gary Reid to become a two-time English champion.

Tournaments

Wright followed up the Reid win with a victory over American Jonathon Nelson as part of the UK vs USA Contender challenge at the Metro Arena in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

and then fought former British champion

for his English belt, this time keeping hold of the belt by scoring a draw. On 8 February 2008 he challenged Ajose Olusegun for the Commonwealth belt only to lose for the third time in his career. A further defeat followed in his very next fight, travelling to Limerick and losing to

Paul McCloskey Paul McCloskey (born 3 August 1979) is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 2005 to 2013. He held the British super-lightweight title from 2008 to 2009; the European super-lightweight title from 2009 to 2011; an ...

over 10 rounds. On 24 October 2008, Wright moved up a weight division to take part in the Prizefighter tournament featuring the welterweights. He defeated another former English champion,

Ross Minter Ross Minter (born 10 November 1978) is a former professional boxer. He is the son of Alan Minter, the former undisputed World Middleweight Champion. Ross "The Boss" won 125 amateur boxing matches before turning professional in 2001 at the age ...

, in the quarter-finals only to lose to eventual tournament winner

Michael Lomax Michael Lucius Lomax (born October 2, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) has, since 2004, served as the president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund of the United States. Biography Lomax taught literature at Morehouse Col ...

in a controversial semi. Wright rebounded from the defeat to Lomax with a victory over journeyman Arek Malek. The fight set him up for a further crack at the British and Commonwealth titles now both held by former opponent Ajose Olusegun on 12 June 2009 at the Olympia in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, only to lose once again via a points decision.

Win against Arthur and English title

On 5 December 2009 Wright returned to action and bounced back from the defeat to Olusegan with his biggest win to date, beating former WBO super-featherweight champion

Alex Arthur Alex Arthur, (born 26 June 1978) is a Scottish former professional boxer and political candidate for the Alba Party. Competing from 2000 to 2012, he held the WBO and WBO interim super featherweight titles in 2007. At regional level, he held ...

in an 8-round points decision. The fight, on the undercard of Amir Khan's WBA world title defence against

Dmitriy Salita Dmitry Salita (russian: Дмитрий Салита; uk, Дмитро Саліта), Dmitry Aleksandrovich Lekhtman, is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer. Born in Ukraine, he grew up in New York City from the age of nin ...

was a step up for Wright who rose to the challenge to cause a major upset and have Arthur questioning his future in the sport. On 23 July 2010 Wright claimed the English title, for the third time beating

Dean Harrison Dean Harrison (born 24 January 1989) is an English professional motorcycle racer. He has won 3 Isle of Man TT Races, and has 26 podium finishes as of July 2023. Harrison also competes in the Southern 100, Oliver's Mount, North West 200, and Ulst ...

over 10 rounds and despite being given a count in the 7th round after touching down. Wright had stated before the fight that should he win the contest with Harrison, another shot at the British title would be his main aim, a title which at the time was held by old rival

. On 12 February 2011 Wright beat the undefeated Jamie Speight in a six-round contest at the Olympia in Liverpool, winning by stoppage in the 5th round.This is Plymouth , Speight stopped in fifth round by Wright
On 28 May 2011 he defeated Nicki Smedley over 10 rounds in Hillsborough Leisure Centre, Sheffield to defend his English title.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Nigel English male boxers 1979 births Living people England Boxing champions Sportspeople from Bishop Auckland Prizefighter contestants Light-welterweight boxers