Frankie Raymond Gavin (born 28 September 1985) is a British professional boxer. He held the British and

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 ...

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

titles between 2012 and 2015, and has challenged once for the IBF welterweight title in 2015. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History ...

, Gavin won a gold medal in the

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

division at the 2007 World Championships, becoming England's first ever winner of that event. He also won lightweight gold at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

Amateur career

Domestically as an amateur, Gavin represented the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Hall Green Hall Green is an area in southeast Birmingham, England, synonymous with the B28 postcode. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Historically it lay within the county of Worcestershire. Politics Hall Green ...

boxing club with whom he won the English ABA championship in 2005 and 2007 and a Four Nations championship in 2005. Internationally, Gavin defeated Giovanni Frontin of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

to win a

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

at the

in the lightweight (60 kg) division. That year, he won bronze at the European Union Championships losing to Domenico Valentino in the semi-final. Gavin has beaten him twice since. At the European Championships 2006 he lost to

Olexandr Klyuchko Oleksandr Klyuchko (Ukrainian: Олександр Ключко) (born July 11, 1984 in Mykolaiv) is an amateur boxer from Ukraine who won a bronze medal in the lightweight division at the 2006 European Amateur Boxing Championships. He has quali ...

2007 World Championships

At the 2007 World Championships, he first beat reigning world silver medallist and fellow southpaw

Romal Amanov Ramal Amanov ( az, Ramal Rəsul oğlu Amanov, russian: Рамал Аманов; born 13 September 1984) is an Azerbaijani boxer competing at lightweight. Career highlights In the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships, Amanov won silver at l ...

of Azerbaijan scoring a knockdown. Frankie then caused a huge upset by defeating Russian superstar

Aleksei Tishchenko Aleksei Viktorovich Tishchenko (russian: Алексей Викторович Тищенко; born 29 May 1984) is a former Russian Olympic boxer best known to dominate the lower weight classes in the last years winning numerous tit ...

, unbeaten in four years, to reach the final where he beat Italian Domenico Valentino 19:10.

2007 AIBA World Amateur championships held in Chicago

*Defeated Omar Ward (Barbados) RSC 3 (0:50) *Defeated Ramal Amanov (Azerbaijan) 21–10 *Defeated Onur Sipal (Turkey) 16–7 *Defeated Alexei Tichtchenko (Russia) 19–10 *Defeated Domenico Valentino (Italy) 18–10 He stepped up in weight and won the 2008 EU tournament in Poland receiving boxer of the tournament as well. As of 2007, he has won 100 of his 121 amateur contests.

2008 Summer Olympics

Gavin was Great Britain's best hope of a boxing medal at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, but was unable to make the weight and was therefore unable to compete.

Professional career

In October 2008, Gavin announced that he would turn professional. He signed a contract with promoter Frank Warren and agreed to be trained by

Anthony Farnell Anthony Farnell (born 1978), known as the Woodhouse Warrior, was born in Manchester and grew up in Failsworth, Greater Manchester. He is a former WBU middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In prof ...

in Manchester. He made his debut with Olympians

James Degale James Frederick DeGale (born 3 February 1986) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2019. He held the IBF super-middleweight title twice between 2015 and 2018, and regionally the European and British super-middlewe ...

and

Billy Joe Saunders Billy Joe Saunders (born 30 August 1989) is a British professional boxer. He is the first fighter from the Travelling community to win world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2015 to 2018 and the W ...

which he won with a 4th round stoppage. In 2010, he won his first professional title by defeating Sheffield's Michael Kelly in the fifth round for the Irish light welterweight title. He qualified for the title as his parents are Irish. In June 2013, Gavin defeated the previously unbeaten Denton Vassell by 7th-round TKO, having broken Vassell's jaw. In doing so he retained his BBBofC British welterweight title and captured Vassell's Commonwealth title.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gavin, Frankie 1985 births Living people Boxers from Birmingham, West Midlands English male boxers English people of Irish descent Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Boxers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Lightweight boxers Light-welterweight boxers Welterweight boxers Commonwealth Boxing Council champions Commonwealth Games medallists in boxing British Boxing Board of Control champions