# Graham Earl

Graham Earl (born 26 August 1978) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2014. He held the British lightweight title twice between 2003 and 2006, the Commonwealth lightweight title from 2005 to 2006, and challenged once for the WBO interim lightweight title in 2007.

## Amateur career

Earl began boxing at the age of eight. As an amateur boxer, he fought for England Schools and won his first eighteen fights.

## Professional career

Earl made his professional debut on 2 September 1997, scoring a second-round stoppage over Mark O'Callaghan. He would spend the next eight years undefeated, winning 21 consecutive fights. During this time Earl won the British lightweight title twice, on 17 July 2003 and 5 June 2004, both times against Bobby Vanzie. On 25 February 2005, Earl lost for the first time to Ricky Burns, who won an eight-round points decision. In Earl's next fight, on 19 June 2005, he bounced back to retain his British lightweight title and win the Commonwealth lightweight title against Kevin Bennett.
On 17 February 2007, a bout for the newly created and vacant WBO interim lightweight title was made between Earl and Michael Katsidis. In an action-packed and fast-paced fight, Earl and Katsidis went toe-to-toe and traded many heavy blows, during which Earl was knocked down twice in the opening round and again in the second. However, soon after getting back to his feet following the third knockdown and having the towel being thrown in seconds later (only for it to be thrown back out again by referee Mickey Vann), Earl managed to floor Katsidis momentarily with a heavy right hand at close quarters, rendering the latter visibly stunned and unsteady on his feet. Earl's comeback would ultimately be short-lived, as Katsidis recovered swiftly and finished the round strongly. At the very end of round three, a low blow cost Katsidis a point, but in the following rounds he went on to deliver a barrage of largely unanswered punches to Earl until the decision was made Earl's cornermen to stop the fight after the fifth round.
Earl suffered his third loss and second in a row on 8 December 2007, when he was stopped in the first round by Amir Khan. This was repeated by Henry Castle on 17 October 2008, who stopped Earl in one round. After a five-year retirement, Earl returned to the sport on 4 July 2014. He travelled to Australia to face Michael Katsidis in a rematch from their 2007 bout, this time at light-welterweight. Katsidis won a wide twelve-round unanimous decision. Earl's final professional fight was a ten-round stoppage loss to Steve Martin on 22 August 2014.

## Personal life

The youngest of three brothers, Earl grew up in the Limbury council estate of Luton and attended Icknield High School. He has two children with his ex-wife. In April 2015, Earl was sentenced to seven years in prison for illegal drug trafficking.

## Professional boxing record

| 32 fights | 26 wins | 6 losses |
| By knockout | 12 | 4 |
| By decision | 14 | 2 |
| No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
| 32 | Loss | 26–6 | Steve Martin | TKO | 10 (12), 0:51 | 22 Aug 2014 | Hilton Hotel Portomaso, St. Julian's, Malta | For vacant World Boxing Foundation welterweight title |
| 31 | Loss | 26–5 | Michael Katsidis | UD | 12 | 4 Jul 2014 | Rumours International, Toowoomba, Australia | For vacant WBU (German) light-welterweight title |
| 30 | Win | 26–4 | Karl Taylor | PTS | 6 | 28 Jun 2009 | Liquid & Envy, Luton, England | |
| 29 | Loss | 25–4 | Henry Castle | TKO | 1 (8), 1:09 | 17 Oct 2008 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 28 | Loss | 25–3 | Amir Khan | TKO | 1 (12), 1:12 | 8 Dec 2007 | Bolton Arena, Bolton, England | For Commonwealth lightweight title |
| 27 | Loss | 25–2 | Michael Katsidis | RTD | 5 (12), 3:00 | 17 Feb 2007 | Wembley Arena, London, England | For vacant WBO interim lightweight title |
| 26 | Win | 25–1 | Angel Hugo Ramirez | UD | 12 | 28 Oct 2006 | York Hall, London, England | Won vacant WBU lightweight title |
| 25 | Win | 24–1 | Yuri Ramanau | PTS | 12 | 27 Jan 2006 | Goresbrook Leisure Centre, London, England | |
| 24 | Win | 23–1 | Kevin Bennett | TKO | 9 (12), 2:10 | 19 Jun 2005 | York Hall, London, England | Retained British lightweight title; Won Commonwealth lightweight title |
| 23 | Loss | 22–1 | Ricky Burns | PTS | 8 | 25 Feb 2005 | Wembley Conference Centre, London, England | |
| 22 | Win | 22–0 | Steve Murray | TKO | 6 (12), 2:37 | 30 Jul 2004 | York Hall, London, England | Retained British lightweight title |
| 21 | Win | 21–0 | Bobby Vanzie | PTS | 12 | 5 Jun 2004 | York Hall, London, England | Won vacant British lightweight title |
| 20 | Win | 20–0 | Jon Honney | PTS | 8 | 11 Oct 2003 | Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth, England | |
| 19 | Win | 19–0 | Bobby Vanzie | PTS | 12 | 17 Jul 2003 | Goresbrook Leisure Centre, London, England | Won British lightweight title |
| 18 | Win | 18–0 | Nikolay Eremeev | PTS | 8 | 24 May 2003 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 17 | Win | 17–0 | Steve Murray | TKO | 2 (12), 2:02 | 15 Feb 2003 | Wembley Conference Centre, London, England | Retained Southern Area lightweight title |
| 16 | Win | 16–0 | Chill John | PTS | 10 | 12 Oct 2002 | York Hall, London, England | Retained Southern Area lightweight title |
| 15 | Win | 15–0 | Mark Winters | PTS | 10 | 15 Dec 2001 | Wembley Conference Centre, London, England | |
| 14 | Win | 14–0 | Liam Maltby | KO | 1 (10) | 22 Sep 2001 | York Hall, London, England | Retained Southern Area lightweight title |
| 13 | Win | 13–0 | Brian Gentry | TKO | 8 (10) | 10 Mar 2001 | York Hall, London, England | Won vacant Southern Area lightweight title |
| 12 | Win | 12–0 | Leeroy Williamson | TKO | 3 (6) | 21 Oct 2000 | Wembley Conference Centre, London, England | |
| 11 | Win | 11–0 | Marco Fattore | PTS | 6 | 29 Apr 2000 | Wembley Arena, London, England | |
| 10 | Win | 10–0 | Ivo Golakov | TKO | 1 (6) | 4 Mar 2000 | Werrington Sports Centre, Peterborough, England | |
| 9 | Win | 9–0 | Simon Chambers | KO | 6 (6), 2:48 | 15 Jul 1999 | Werrington Sports Centre, Peterborough, England | |
| 8 | Win | 8–0 | Benny Jones | PTS | 6 | 8 May 1999 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 7 | Win | 7–0 | Leeroy Williamson | TKO | 4 (4), 2:33 | 16 Jan 1999 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 6 | Win | 6–0 | Marc Smith | TKO | 1 (6), 2:02 | 10 Dec 1998 | The Broadway, London, England | |
| 5 | Win | 5–0 | Brian Coleman | PTS | 4 | 12 Sep 1998 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 4 | Win | 4–0 | David Kirk | PTS | 4 | 23 May 1998 | York Hall, London, England | |
| 3 | Win | 3–0 | Danny Lutaaya | TKO | 2 (4), 1:35 | 11 Apr 1998 | Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, London, England | |
| 2 | Win | 2–0 | Mark McGowan | PTS | 4 | 6 Dec 1997 | Wembley Arena, London, England | |
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Mark O'Callaghan | TKO | 2 (4) | 2 Sep 1997 | Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, London, England | |