Boxing Bournemouth - Short History of Cornelius Carr

John Carr was born on April 9 1969 and quickly learned to look after himself on some of the toughest streets in Teeside. He first put on the boxing gloves at Grangetown Amateur Boxing Club and gym founder Martin Turner soon spotted his potential and took the punching prodigy under his wing. Carr became one of the nation's leading schoolboy boxers before bursting into the senior scene in 1987. He won his England vest in a multi-nations tournament in Sardinia and took the gold against tough opposition.

Then he blasted his way to the ABA middleweight final when he was barely 18 and gave experienced international Rod Douglas a scare in a furious bout that many thought Carr had won. With an impressive 40 wins and just 3 defeats he turned pro.

He signed to Frank Warren, moved to London with the new name of Cornelius to train under Ernie Fossey.

Cornelius trimmed down to Light Middleweight and made a terrific start of 9 unbeaten bouts, his tenth fight to African Bocco George in reading was his first professional loss, but he was soon back on track, back at Middleweight and picking up the tricks of the trade, not least from a spell in the US that included some tough sparring sessions inside Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Cornelius then left the Warren Camp and went to the States for 4 months, he then came back home and teamed up with one of the best trainers in the Country Howard Rainey and went on to win British Super-Middleweight Championship and after a series of convincing wins his big chance came as he stepped back up at Super-Middleweight and was pitched in against WBO world champ Steve Collins in front of a 7000 crowd at the Point Dublin in November 1995.
After a furious bout Collins just edged out the Teesider on points but the Irishman knew it had been close and afterwards prophetically said; "Carr has got a lot of heart. He could be World Champion."

Carr had a series of of set backs with 1 opponent pulling out of a World Title fight due to injury and then an unfortunate loss. But dogged Carr bounced back, worked his way back into contention with London based trainer Chris Hall then earned another chance with a crack at former double world welterweight champ Simon Brown for the vacant WBF crown.

But disaster struck as Brown withdrew through injury. A hasty replacement was found in Steve Foster, an experienced scrapper delighted to get the chance and determined to take it, but Carrs hunger was greater and he battled his way to the ultimate prize in a memorable night of fighting passion.

Carr sucessfully defended his crown against Dingaan Thobela, beating the South African legend on a majority decision. Unfortunately due to injury, at the top of his career Cornelius had to hang up his gloves and retire from the ring.