Career
Born in Ashton-under-Lyne and based in Manchester, Holden began his professional career in October 1994 with a 4th round stoppage of Gary Williams. After a win and two defeats from his next three fights he fought Julius Francis in July 1996, losing on points. He also did some acting work, including as an extra in Coronation Street . [1] He won five of his next six fights, earning him a shot at the British title in March 2000 that was then held by Francis; Holden won on points to become British champion. [2] Only two months earlier Holden had acted as bodyguard for Francis during the latter's fight against Mike Tyson and acted as a sparring partner for Francis. [1] After being forced to relinquish his title, he fought Francis again in April 2001 in a fight for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title that was also a final eliminator for the British title; [3] This time Francis got the points decision. In September Holden fought Keith Long in another eliminator for the British title but again lost on points. [4] Holden won only two more fights and lost three of his last five fights, including defeats to Michael Sprott and Matt Skelton, the latter a fight for the vacant English title in 2003, after which he retired.
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, 6.2 miles (10.0 km) east of Manchester.
Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 545,500 as of 2017. It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.7 million, and third-most populous metropolitan area, with a population of 3.3 million. It is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority for the city is Manchester City Council.
Julius Francis is a British retired heavyweight champion boxer who participated in many noteworthy boxing matches in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2007, he also participated in a mixed martial arts bout. During his boxing career, he fought the likes of Mike Tyson, Oleg Maskayev, Vitali Klitschko, Axel Schulz, Alexander Dimitrenko, and John Ruiz.
After retiring from boxing, Holden joined the police force. [1] In 2008 he began training for a comeback and sparred with Tyson Fury. [1] He made his return to the ring in September 2009 against Tomáš Mrázek, a boxer who had lost 22 of 28 fights. The 4-round fight ended in a draw. In 2010 Holden was scheduled to compete in television knockout series but was omitted at the last minute Prizefighter . [5] Holden returned again in 2012 to fight the undefeated Dillian Whyte, with Whyte winning by a TKO in the third round after putting Holden down three times.
Tyson Luke Fury is a British professional boxer. In 2015, he won the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring magazine, and lineal heavyweight titles by defeating long-reigning world champion Wladimir Klitschko in Germany. The victory earned him Fighter of the Year and Upset of the Year awards by The Ring. As of June 2019, Fury is ranked as the world's best active heavyweight by The Ring, second by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and fourth by BoxRec.
The Prizefighter series was a professional boxing tournament created by boxing promoter Barry Hearn and aired on Sky Sports. The format has an initial eight fighters, who compete in four quarter-finals of 3 x 3 minute rounds followed by two semi-finals and one final all on the same night. The total prize money of the tournament is £80,000 with the winner of the tournament taking home £32,000, a figure that has increased from the initial top prize of £25,000 when the tournament first aired in April 2008. There have been 34 Prizefighter tournaments so far featuring 14 different weight divisions. The last tournament was held in 2015.
Dillian Whyte is a British professional boxer. He won the interim WBC heavyweight title in July 2019, but was provisionally suspended on 30 July pending an investigation by the WBC for an alleged failed drug test prior to his fight with Óscar Rivas. He has held multiple regional heavyweight championships, including the WBC Silver title from 2017 to 2019, the WBO International title from 2018 to 2019, and the British title from 2016 to 2017. As of June 2019, Whyte is ranked as the world's fifth best active heavyweight by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and sixth by BoxRec. His knockout-to-win ratio stands at 72%.
