Patrick ("Pat") Cowdell (born 18 August 1953 in
Smethwick, Staffordshire) is a retired
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 eel ...
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. Braz ...
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 Phil ...
in
Montreal, 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.
Two years earlier Cowdell won the gold medal, at the
1974 Commonwealth Games
The 1974 British Commonwealth Games ( mi, 1974 Taumāhekeheke Commonwealth) were held in Christchurch, New Zealand from 24 January to 2 February 1974. The bid vote was held in Edinburgh at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games. The Games were off ...
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 River ...
, 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, People's Republic of Poland, Poland from 1 to 8 June. The 21st edition of the bi-annual competition was organised by the European governing body for amateur boxing, EA ...
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 (Poland) by decision, 5–0
*Round of 16: Defeated
Alejandro Silva (Puerto Rico) by decision, 5–0
*Quarterfinal: Defeated
Reynaldo Fortaleza (Philippines) by decision, 4–1
*Semifinal: Lost to
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 ...
(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
Salvador "Sal" Sánchez Narváez (January 26, 1959 – August 12, 1982) was a Mexican professional boxer born in the town of Santiago Tianguistenco, Estado de México. Sanchez was the WBC and ''The Ring featherweight champion from 1980 to 19 ...
, 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 tw ...
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. 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 – 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.
See also
*
List of British featherweight boxing champions
List of British featherweight boxing champions is a table showing the boxers who have won the British featherweight title. The title has been sanctioned by the National Sporting Club since 1909, and later by its replacement British Boxing Board of ...
References
databaseOlympics*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdell, Patrick
1953 births
Living people
English male boxers
Bantamweight boxers
Boxers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Olympic boxers of Great Britain
Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain
Sportspeople from Smethwick
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England
Boxers at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games
Olympic medalists in boxing
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games medallists in boxing