Tragic Champions: Paul Ingle

[BoztheMadman]

This time I got a story to tell you about a former champion that is still alive, but who since losing his last fight has been confined to a wheelchair: the former IBF featherweight champion Paul Ingle. Ingle is one of very few world champions from North Yorkshire and he had a very good career, defeating people like Junior Jones and Manuel Medina, both world class material. He also gave Naseem Hamed a very good fight in his first attempt at the world title. Here is the story of both triumph and tragedy, the story of Paul Ingle.

Paul Andrew Ingle was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, on 22 June 1972. He is 5’5 tall and has a reach of 66 inches and he fought from the orthodox stance. As amateur, he participated in the 1992 Olympics as a flyweight. After winning the first fight, he lost the second one on points, 12-13, to the eventual gold medalist from North Korea, Choe Chol-su. The year before, he won the British title, boxing for his local club Scarborough ABC. He made his pro debut in March 1994, fighting as a featherweight. He won his first fight by KO3. On 11 January ‘97, he defeated the solid and seasoned Colin McMillan by TKO8 to win the British title in York Hall, Bethnal Green. In his second defense against Jon Jo Irwin in October same year, he also won the Commonwealth title when he halted Irwin by a corner retirement after 8 rounds. 
 

In March next year, he defended the Commonwealth title against South African Trust Ndlovu in Hull and won by a shutout UD. On 8 August that year, he also won the IBF Intercontinental title by KO4 against Rakhim Mingaleyev, at home in Scarborough. He also won the European title on 26 September, only a month later, when he beat Billy Hardy by TKO8. He was now ready for a world title challenge and got to fight the best British featherweight and one of the best in the world at the time- Naseem Hamed, who held the WBO title. That fight happened on 10 April ‘99 at the Manchester Arena and he had a bad start as he got knocked down in the first round and barely made it out of it after a follow up onslaught by Hamed. However, he recuperated and came back. In the sixth round, he was again put down by a body shot, but came back in rounds nine and ten, winning them and bloodying Hamed’s nose in the tenth. In the eleventh round he got knocked down for the third time and got up but the referee stopped it as Ingle was on shaky legs.

Despite losing, he had been one of very few to last into the championship rounds against Hamed and gave him a good fight. That landed him another world title fight, this time against the IBF champion Manuel Medina, who had also gone eleven rounds vs Hamed previously. The fight took place on 13 November at Sports Arena in Hull and Ingle would emerge victorious this time, despite suffering a knockdown in the final round. He also put Medina down twice in round two and once in round ten and won by the scores of 118-107, 114-111 and 113-111. He then went for the first time to the United States to fight his first defense, at Madison Square Garden. His opponent was the former bantamweight and super bantamweight champ Junior Jones, a dangerous puncher. The date was 29 April 2000, on the undercard of Lennox Lewis-Michael Grant fight and Ingle dominated much of the fight but was down in the ninth round before rallying back to stop Jones in the eleventh by TKO.

Just as it seemed like nothing could go wrong and a wonderful career was ahead of him, the tragedy struck. He defended for the second time against the former bantamweight world champion Mbulelo Botile of South Africa, in the Sheffield Arena, on 16 December 2000. Ingle had to postpone the fight due to injury and problems making the weight, which very likely contributed to the tragedy that would happen in Sheffield that night. Botile was also known as a dangerous puncher and was no slouch, having reigned as the IBF bantamweight champ for a few years. The fight was competitive but Ingle looked somewhat weakened and Botile’s punches had an effect on him from the start. In round eleven, he was first hurt by a left hook and then dropped by another left at the end of the round. Botile went all out in the beginning of the twelfth and nailed him with a huge left hook which put the champion down, unable to beat the count. 
 

He was taken out on a stretcher and then hospitalized after a blood clot was found on his brain. He was taken to the intensive care unit, where he then suffered a brain stroke that left him paralyzed. He has since recovered but it took many years and as a result of his condition, he gained a lot of weight. He left the boxing ring very brutally, with a record of 23 wins, 16 by ko, and 2 losses. The main tragedy here, one might say in hindsight, is that the boxing world and especially British boxing, was robbed of a fine fighter and champion. Paul Ingle could box, punch and moved well, fast on his feet. He never had a bad fight and competed with some outstanding boxers, going 2-2. But his brutal and dark ending to his career qualifies him for the title of a TRAGIC CHAMPION!