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Alex Arthur

About Me


I was born in my grandparents’ house in the Dumbiedykes district of Edinburgh and my parents and I lived with them for about three years, until we moved to a nearby flat in Drummond Street.It was one of these really old-fashioned flats, with high ceilings and plenty of space. It’s a great street, with a pub and a barber's — Stewart’s Bar though it has a different name now, and Wood’s — that are really well-known. It’s an A1 of a street, lots of people use it to get to various places. JK Rowling wrote a lot of her first Harry Potter book in Nicholson’s cafe at the end of the street.I figured out I wanted to be a boxer from a very young age, at about eight or nine, and my dad would wake me up in the middle of the night so I could watch fights on the television. It’s ironic because, when I got older, my dad wanted me to stay on at school and also to concentrate on football — which I was quite good at — and didn’t really want me to become a boxer.It’s even more ironic, because he fitted a punchbag on the door frame of the bedroom I shared with my brother, Mark. It meant that, to get into my bedroom, you had to negotiate your way around this swinging punchbag. My dad also erected, next to my bed, a floor-to-ceiling ball, which, when you hit it, moves very fast. I’d hit the ball before I had my Frosties, for breakfast.So, I’d work out in my bedroom, if I couldn’t get down to the gym. The beds you could easily move to one side, to create the space needed to train hard. We lived on the third floor, and in the flat below lived this larger-than-life woman, Elsie O’Neill. She had lived close to my father when he was a young boy, and she was fine about me training. You would always see her, leaning out of her window and watching was what happening in the street.For a while, though, the house became quite lonely, because my dad served three years in prison. I was 10 years old and I do remember feeling that I had to become the “man of the house”. Actually, not long after my dad started his prison sentence, Mark and I would take to sleeping in my mum, Corrine’s, bed — one on either side of her — because we felt so protective of her.I was very shy as a young boy — the last person you’d think would want to become a boxer. But I knew I had ability and I was focused from a very early age. I was very determined. Once I started living like that, in such a single-minded way, there was no way out. It was the only thing I wanted to do. It was my job.I first trained at the Sparta boxing club, in Leith, and then moved, after a couple of years, to Leith Victoria. Leith was about a half-hour’s run from Drummond Street and if I missed my bus, that’s what I’d do: stick my bag on my back and run.Being near Dumbiedykes also meant I was still able to play with my friends from there, and across the road was a brilliant playground, where we’d play football.My mum didn’t work when my dad was in prison, so we lived on benefits, and it was very tough. But Mark and I felt very much loved throughout the whole of that time. Soon enough, as I got more into boxing, I needed to start thinking about my diet, which put an extra pressure on the family budget. My grandparents in Dumbiedykes were also really important to us at that time. We sat tight and waited for my dad to come back.But for all that my dad — who is also called Alex, as was his father — had wanted me to pursue my school work instead of boxing, once he was released and realised what my ambition was, he became my No 1 fan. And he insisted I train pretty much full-time, even though the temptation would have been to try and find work.My wife, Debbie, and I met when we were 15, and she would be asking why I couldn’t get a job — because I couldn’t even afford to take her to the movies — and I would say it was because I am going to become the world champion. Trust me, I’d say.From around that time, I also started travelling around the world, boxing for Scotland, so Drummond Street I also associate with happy memories of coming home. My bedroom was a bit of a sanctuary. My dad built this huge bookcase, and I started collecting videotapes of fights. I’d say I have about a thousand tapes now.I turned professional when I was 21 and Debbie and I were able to buy a flat. By then, I was receiving funding from the government, to allow me to train, which I am so grateful for. I hope I repaid them. As a sign of how good Drummond Street is, after winning a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, when I came back I was met by all these banners, welcoming me home. It was amazing. The banner across Stewart’s Bar was almost as big as the pub.

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Alex Arthur Statistics Nickname Amazing Rated at Super featherweight Nationality British Birth date June 26, 1978 (1978-06-26) (age 29) Birth place Edinburgh, Scotland Stance Orthodox Boxing record Total fights 26 Wins 25 Wins by KO 18 Losses 1 Draws 0 No contests 0Arthur is a professional boxer from Edinburgh, Scotland. He is currently the British, Commonwealth, European (EBU) Super Featherweight champion and interim WBO world champion.ALEX ARTHUR was at loggerheads with his manager today after losing his WBO super-featherweight title to challenger Nicky Cook on Saturday.The Edinburgh boxer crashed on points to Essex-based fighter Cook over 12 rounds in Manchester.Now, in the wake of that loss, Arthur is failing to see eye to eye with promoter Frank Warren over which weight he should now box and also the questionADVERTISEMENTof whether he should seek a rematch with Cook on December 6 this year.At a post-fight press conference, Warren called for Arthur to forget boxing at super-featherweight and step up to lightweight, saying: "I really think that Arthur should box from now at lightweight."He is a talented ring performer and could do very well in the future in that division."In contrast, Arthur, who was adamant – wrongly – that he was robbed by the judges' verdict against Cook, claimed: "Frank Warren has said that the winner of Cook and myself could fight either Marco Antonio Barrera or Kevin Mitchell on December 6 but I think that I should get a rematch with Cook on that date instead."In fact, I feel that given my defence against Nicky Cook was a first voluntary defence I think in fairness to me I should be re-matched with Cook."Indeed, I feel so strongly about this issue that I might have to consider if I wanted to carry on boxing if I didn't get a rematch with Cook – and I also have no intention of moving up to lightweight."In contrast to earlier claims that he "controlled the fight and should have won," Arthur admitted: "I was nowhere near as effective or sharp as I was when I beat Koba Gogoladze in Cardiff last year for the Interim WBO title but that's because I was ring rusty. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have had an eight-round warm-up bout before defending against Cook."However, Warren received strong backing for his viewpoint that Arthur should go up to lightweight from former WBC lightweight champion Jim Watt, who said: "It's foolish to write off Arthur because he was outpointed by Nicky Cook and lost his world crown."Cook won because the real Alex Arthur with his devastating body punches and tremendous left jab simply didn't turn up in Manchester."Although you could argue that Arthur won a couple of rounds, Cook had an edge as well over Arthur in the second half of the bout but there is no way that Arthur ever looked like retaining his world title."I gave Cook at least the first five rounds but my advice to Arthur is forget the super-featherweights and go up to lightweight."He should have three fights to see how it goes and if it goes fine then go for the world title but I agree with Frank Warren that Arthur should ditch the super-featherweight division."Cook deserved to win because he was in charge and dominated the exchanges. Alex has fought much, much better in past fights than he did against Cook."And even newly-crowned champion Cook backed Warren's call for Capital ace Arthur to abandon the 9st 4lbs division.He said: "Arthur is in the same situation that I was when trying to win the world featherweight title from Steve Louveano."Stepping up to super-featherweight I felt much stronger although I never realised just how strong Arthur was until the fight. As Frank Warren has said, Alex Arthur could be just as successful as I have proved to be at the bigger weight by switching to lightweight."Meanwhile, Cook's coach – dad Paul Cook – explained how the ring gameplan he and his son had devised was the key to his son's unanimous points verdict win. He revealed: "Our strategy was to have Nicky keep on the outside jabbing and deliberately staying well away from Arthur inside where his left hook to the body could cause my son grief."It worked and Nicky is the new world champion!"Warren, meanwhile, agreed with ex-world champion Watt's view that Cook had "won the first five or six rounds handily to build up an unassailable points lead".Said Warren: "I don't agree with Arthur's view that he won the bout – he lost the early rounds to Cook, who was impressive overall and rightly deserved to win."Two of the three English ringside judges – Roy Francis and Dave Parris had Cook ahead by nine rounds to three and eight to three respectively and my scorecard coincided more or less with both these post-fight scorelines rather than the narrow six rounds to five of judge Terry O' Connor.One can quibble about the different points awarded margins of the three ringside officials but what is undisputed is that the ferociously competitive and effective ring warrior Arthur, who so impressively beat Gogoladze last year was conspicuously missing on Saturday.THANK YOU TO ALL MY FANS FOR THE SUPPORT!

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