Charles Shepherd (boxer)

Charles "The Bull" Shepherd (also known as Charlie) is the former British, Commonwealth and World Super Featherweight boxing champion.^[1]

Born in Burnley, Lancashire on 28 June 1970, Shepherd began boxing at the age of twelve, becoming a British ABA champion aged fifteen. Shepherd moved to Cumbria when he was sixteen and made a winning professional debut in 1991.

After several impressive performances, Shepherd earned a crack at the British Super Featherweight title in 1996 against the Defending champion PJ Gallagher And after a very close contact, PJ Gallagher successfully defended his title over 12 rounds, points decision.

Championship

In 1997, Shepherd defeated Dave McHale to finally claim the British Super Featherweight title and at the same time become Cumbria's first ever boxing champion.

Shepherd successfully defended the title against Matt Brown only two months later. Shepherd then went on to successfully defend the title a third time in 1998 against Peter Judson at The Royal Albert Hall in London, winning a Lonsdale Belt in the process. A year later, Shepherd claimed the Commonwealth Super Featherweight title in his adopted home city of Carlisle after knocking out Zimbabwe's Trust Ndlovu in the sixth round. Shepherd defended the title in the same year against the Ghanaian Smith Odoom and was again victorious, winning comprehensively on points.

In July 1999, Shepherd fought the American boxer Tom "Boom Boom" Johnson for the vacant International Boxing Organization (IBO) World Super Featherweight title but claimed a victory on points against his opponent. Around that time, Shepherd dropped a weight to featherweight and fought Affif Djelti in February 2000. Despite knocking the Frenchman out of the ring in the first round, Shepherd suffered a shock loss, losing by way of TKO in round six. Shepherd later acknowledged that "trying to show I could make featherweight was a big mistake and cost me my title".

Comeback

Although he made a successful comeback four months later when he beat the Ukrainian Rakhim Mingaleev on points to claim the IBO Inter-Continental Super Featherweight title, Shepherd decided to retire after failing to get the rematch he craved against Djelti.

After six months out of boxing, Shepherd decided to make a comeback as a lightweight and after winning a couple of warm-up fights he challenged Barry Hughes for the WBU International title in Hughes's home city of Glasgow. The fight ended controversially in a majority draw even though one of the judges had Shepherd winning by six rounds. This was to be Shepherd's last fight as he finally decided to call it a day after failing to get a rematch with Hughes.

References