Patrick ("Pat") Cowdell (born 18 August 1953 in Smethwick, Staffordshire) is a retired boxer from Great Britain. He challenged twice for the WBC world featherweight title in 1981 and 1985.

Amateur career

Cowdell won the bronze medal in the

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. B ...

division (– 54 kg) at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Quebec, Canada. In the semi-finals he was beaten by eventual gold medalist

Gu Yong-Ju Ku Yong-jo (July 17, 1955 – March 2001) was a boxer from North Korea, who won the gold medal in the bantamweight (–54 kg) division at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In the final, he defeated American boxer ...

from

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. Two years earlier Cowdell won the gold medal, at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand. He was a bronze medalist at the

1975 European Amateur Boxing Championships The 1975 European Amateur Boxing Championships were held in Spodek, Katowice, Poland from 1 to 8 June. The 21st edition of the bi-annual competition was organised by the European governing body for amateur boxing, EABA. There were 193 fighters f ...

held in Katowice, Poland. He was also the 1973 ABA bantamweight champion, lightweight in 1975, and featherweight champion in 1976 and 1977.

1976 Olympic results

*Round of 64: bye *Round of 32: Defeated

Leszek Borkowski Leszek Borkowski (born 27 June 1952) is a Polish boxer. He competed in the men's bantamweight event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. At the 1976 Summer Olympics, he lost to Patrick Cowdell Patrick ("Pat") Cowdell (born 18 August 1953 in Smet ...

(Poland) by decision, 5–0 *Round of 16: Defeated Alejandro Silva (Puerto Rico) by decision, 5–0 *Quarterfinal: Defeated

Reynaldo Fortaleza Reynaldo "Rey" Fortaleza (born December 26, 1957) is a former Olympic boxer who represented the Philippines in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. In 1990, he immigrated to Canada where he became a community leader and media entrepreneur. Early life Bo ...

(Philippines) by decision, 4–1 *Semifinal: Lost to

(North Korea) by decision, 1–4 (was awarded bronze medal)

Professional career

Cowdell turned pro in 1977 and in 1981 took on WBC world featherweight champion Salvador Sánchez, losing a close and hard-fought split decision in which Cowdell was dropped in round 15. In 1985 Cowdell challenged

Azumah Nelson Azumah Nelson (born 19 July 1958) is a Ghanaian former professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 2008. He was a two-weight world champion, having held the WBC featherweight title from 1984 to 1987 and the WBC super-featherweight title twice ...

for the WBC featherweight title, but was caught cold by a bullet of a punch and knocked out in the first round. He fought on but retired in 1988 after being stopped by Welshman

Floyd Havard Floyd Havard (born 16 October 1965) is a Welsh former super featherweight boxer. He was twice British super featherweight champion, from 1988–1989 and 1994-1996. In 1994 he made an unsuccessful bid for the IBF super featherweight title agains ...

. He finished up with stats of 36–6–0 (18 KOs) that included spells as British, Commonwealth and European Champion.

Life After Boxing

Pat runs four professional dinner shows a year at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham's city centre. In February 2007, Cowdell returned to putting shows on at the Burlington after a three-year hiatus at the

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

– also in the centre of Birmingham. He also trains/trained a band of fighters that include Bedworth's former Midland Area super-middleweight champion Neil Tidman, Leamington Spa's Richard Mazurek, and Coventry foursome Dougie Walton, Sean McKervey, Joe McCluskey and John Ruddock. Cowdell's most famous pupil, Birmingham-based gypsy Jimmy Vincent, twice challenged for the British title before retiring in 2005.

References

databaseOlympics

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External links