Brian Anderson (boxer)

Brian Anderson
Statistics
Rated at Middleweight
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nationality British
Born 9 July 1961
Sheffield, England
Boxing record
Total fights 39
Wins 27
Wins by KO 14
Losses 9
Draws 3

Brian Anderson (born 9 July 1961) is a British former boxer who was British middleweight champion between 1986 and 1987. Since retiring from boxing he has worked in Her Majesty's Prison Service.

Career

Born in Sheffield in 1961 to Jamaican-born parents, Anderson took up boxing after getting into trouble as a child and being taken at the age of 13 by a social worker to the Croft House youth club, which had a boxing gym.[1][2] At school he was taught PE by Howard Wilkinson and ran in the same cross-country running team as Sebastian Coe.[1] Realising he had a talent for boxing he focused his energies on the sport and represented England at amateur level four years later.[1] On a trip to Germany with the England team he met Brendan Ingle and later joined Ingle's St. Thomas's gym in Wincobank.[1]

He began his professional career in 1980. He fought for his first title in March 1983 when he faced Prince Rodney for the vacant BBBofC Central Area super welterweight title, also a final eliminator for the British light middleweight title; Rodney stopped Anderson in the fifth round.[3]

Anderson moved up to middleweight and in May 1983 beat Jimmy Ellis to win the Central Area middleweight title. He made a successful defence of the title in May 1984 against Sammy Brennan.

In November 1984 he again dropped down to light middleweight to face Chris Pyatt in a final eliminator for the British title; Pyatt won on points.

He made a second defence of his Central Area title in February 1986 against Steve Johnson, and in October got his first shot at a British title when he face Tony Burke for the vacant middleweight title; Anderson stopped Burke in the eighth round to take the title. In September 1987 Anderson defended the British title against Tony Sibson at the Royal Albert Hall with Sibson's commonwealth title also at stake. Sibson stopped Anderson in the seventh round.[1] This proved to be Anderson's final fight.[1]

After retiring from boxing, Anderson became a referee and went on to train as a probation officer and study at Huddersfield Polytechnic, qualifying in 1988.[1][4] He went on to work in the Prison Service as the country's first anti-bullying officer in 1994 and in 1997 joined a graduate scheme to train to become a prison governor.[1] In 2006 he became only the second black prison chief in the UK, taking charge of the Serco-run HM Prison Doncaster.[1][2][5][6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Hubbard, Alan (2006) "Boxing: Jailhouse Rocky: Ex-champion Anderson breaks new ground as first black prison chief", The Independent, 31 December 2006. Retrieved 16 March 2015
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Boxing champ takes helm at prison", BBC, 4 January 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2015
  3. ↑ Thomson, Doug (2004) "Rodney's Return", Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 4 August 2004. Retrieved 16 March 2015
  4. ↑ "Brian Anderson, Doncaster Prison", Ethos, August 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2015
  5. ↑ "First black prison governors speak on Respect anniversary", Warrington Guardian, 28 January 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2015
  6. ↑ Some sources state he was the first but he clarified in 2010 that Mike Poselay was the first.

External links