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Wayne "The Great" Alexander


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Definitely one of the best British boxers never to win a world title, especially in his generation, Wayne Alexander was one of the hardest hitters at 154 and also sporadically fought at 160, but it was at the first weight he experienced his best results. Although he won the European title, his only attempt at a world one came under unfortunate circumstances and he wound up getting stopped by Harry Simon. Like most great punchers, Alexander was a bit chinny and would also get stopped twice more before the end of his career. He was rather short for a junior middleweight at 5'8 1/4 (174 cm), but his power and his ring guile made up for that, as well as his reach of 72 inches (183 cm). 

Born 17 July 1973 in Tooting, London, Wayne grew up in nearby Croydon, the largest urban area in South London. As amateur, he won the 1994 ABA light middle championship, as well as 1990 London ABA welter championship. In the 1994 final, he beat Steven Bendall by first round stoppage. Bendall would later go on to become a solid middleweight contender. He became a pro in November 1995 by stopping Andrew Jarvis by a corner retirement in 3 rounds. In May 1999, he won the British Southern Area super welter title after his opponent Ojay Abrahams was disqualified in the first round for kneeing. He beat him by TKO3 in the rematch in August. After making one defence of the title by TKO3 against Paul Samuels, he vacated the belt. On the night/early morning of 10th February 2001, at 5 AM, he received a call where he was offered to take on Harry Simon for the WBO title, after the original opponent Robert Allen had to withdraw. He accepted it, despite the fight being THAT SAME EVENING! Naturally, he came in with a disadvantage of not having enough time to prepare or even get enough sleep, but he put on a brave fight, however eventually he was overpowered by the stronger and world class Simon and stopped by TKO5. He had won one round on all scorecards before the stoppage. 

He rebounded by winning the British full title by TKO2 against Joe Townsley, in November that year. He then got to fight for the European title which was vacant, 19 January 2002 against Paolo Pizzamiglio, at York Hall in Bethnal Green. Once again, his power came to the fore and he impressively won by a TKO3 to become the European champion-unfortunately for him, the biggest title he would ever hold. He then suddenly moved up to 160 and vacated the title without defending it, but in his second fight at 160 he was shockingly stopped by 9-19-1 Delroy Mellis, by TKO8. He then came back down to 154 after winning one more easy fight at 160 and fought Mehrdud Takaloo in a great British battle, 10 September 2004 at York Hall. Alexander took Margate Rock out in the second round after catching him flush with a big left hook. That was his best win. He then went back to 160 briefly and avenged the loss to Mellis by winning on points. On 4 March 2006, he won the minor WBU title against the 27-0 Thomas McDonagh, winning by SD. In his next and last fight however, which was on 9 December same year, he got stopped in 1 minute and 2 seconds by Serge Vigne, an unheralded fighter with a record of 20-15-2. Wayne knew it was time to retire now and he ended his all too brief career, that promised more than it ultimately delivered, at the age of 33. His record is 24 wins, 18 by ko, and 3 losses, all by ko. 

He has since worked as a referee and in 2013 he joined the board of WBU Europe. Wayne Alexander was simply an entertaining fighter who had a great potential, but for some reason, he never truly fulfilled it, nor did he get much chance to. The Harry Simon fight came as unexpectedly as he could and he never had the time to properly prepare for it. He still gave it all in the ring always and was seldom in a boring fight. In 2009, he was offered a comeback fight against Jamie Moore for the European title, but declined the offer, probably a wise thing. That is the story of Wayne "the Great" Alexander. 

Wayne Alexander: On career, training with John Breen and why ...

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