Reece Bellotti is an English professional boxer. He held the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

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 ...

title from 2017 to 2018, and challenged once for the British featherweight title in 2018. As an amateur, he won two ABA national championships, one at

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 mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

in 2012 and the 2013 featherweight title.

Early life

Reece Bellotti was born on 7 December 1990 in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. His father, like himself, is an electrician working in lighting in the film-industry, while his mother is a manager at a pre-school. Bellotti started boxing at age 15 as a means to keep fit at the South Oxhey Boxing Club in Watford. He had his first amateur fight at the age of 17, and under the tutelage of amateur trainer Mick Courtney, Bellotti went on to win the ABA

championships in 2012, and again at

in 2013.

Professional career

Bellotti made his professional debut on 28 May 2015, 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 ...

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, beating Joe Beeden by

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 ...

(KO) in the first-round. After winning his first nine fights, eight by stoppage, Bellotti's first title shot came against Jamie Speight on 1 July 2017, at the

O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to: *The O2 Arena (London) *O2 Arena (Prague) *The 3Arena The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decemb ...

, London, on the undercard of the

Frank Buglioni Frank Buglioni (born 18 April 1989)Frank Buglioni
", ''Box Nation''. Retrieved 28 March 2016 is a ...

vs. Ricky Summers British

light-heavyweight Light heavyweight, also referred to as junior cruiserweight or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruiserw ...

title fight. Bellotti defeated Speight by

technical 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 ...

(TKO) in the eighth-round to capture the

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International Silver featherweight title. On 13 October 2017, he challenged

Jason Cunningham Jason Cunningham (born 26 September 1989) is a British professional boxer. He held the Lonsdale Belt, British, Commonwealth Boxing Council, Commonwealth and European Boxing Union, European super-bantamweight titles from 2021 to 2022, the Common ...

for the

featherweight title at the York Hall, London. The fight was the main event on a card televised on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. In a back and forth contest, Bellotti dropped Cunningham in the fifth-round with a right hook to the head. Cunningham made it to his feet and saw out the remainder of the round, only to be stopped by a barrage of punches in the sixth, giving Bellotti the TKO win and Commonwealth featherweight title. He would defend his Commonwealth title against Ben Jones on 2 February 2018, at the O2 Arena, London, again winning by sixth-round TKO, only to lose the title in his second defence against

Ryan Doyle Ryan Doyle (born 22 September 1984) is a freerunner, martial artist, coach, and actor from Liverpool, England, and is a founding athlete of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation. Freerunning and parkour interests In his teenage years, ...

on 6 June 2018, suffering his first professional defeat via TKO in the fifth-round. On 22 December 2018, Bellotti challenged British featherweight champion

Ryan Walsh Ryan Walsh (born 18 May 1986) is a British professional boxer. He has held the British featherweight title since 2015, having previously held the English super-bantamweight title in 2011, and has challenged once for the European featherweight t ...

at The O2 Arena. Bellotti went the distance for the third time in his career, losing by

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), with one judge scoring the bout 116–113 in Bellotti's favour, while the other two scored it 116–112 to Walsh. Bellotti once again fought for the vacant WBC International Silver featherweight title on 11 October 2019, against Italian Francesco Grandelli at the

PalaTrento BLM Group Arena (formerly known as PalaTrento) is an indoor arena that is located in Trento, Italy. The arena is mainly used to host volleyball, basketball, futsal, and concerts. The capacity of the arena is 4,360, with 3,569 of the seats be ...

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

, Italy. Bellotti lost the fight via SD over ten rounds. One judge had Bellotti winning with 96–95, while the other two scored the bout 96–95 and 96–94 for Grandelli.

Professional boxing record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellotti, Reece England Boxing champions Year of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) Living people English male boxers Commonwealth Boxing Council champions Sportspeople from Watford Featherweight boxers English people of Italian descent