Nick Blackwell ('Bang Bang') pugile

Nick Blackwell (born 27 October 1990) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2016. He won the English middleweight title in 2010, at the age of twenty, becoming the youngest boxer to do so. In 2011 and 2012 he challenged for the Commonwealth middleweight title, and won the British middleweight title in 2015. Blackwell's career was cut short in 2016 after he was forced to retire due to a serious head injury sustained in the ring.Blackwell turned professional on 26 June 2009, having had no amateur experience and spending his teenage years in the sport as a white-collar boxer. He won his first regional title on 20 November 2010, scoring a ten-round unanimous decision against Harry Matthews to become the youngest ever English middleweight champion at twenty years old. On 18 June 2011, Blackwell challenged Martin Murray for his Commonwealth middleweight title, as well as the vacant British middleweight title. Murray handed Blackwell his first career defeat when the latter was pulled out by his corner at the end of round five. A successful defence of the English middleweight title came on 3 March 2012, with Blackwell stopping Martin Concepcion in four rounds.On 15 December 2012, Blackwell received a second opportunity at the Commonwealth title, this time against defending champion Billy Joe Saunders; the vacant British title was also on the line. This turned out to be a tough outing for Saunders, as Blackwell forced him to go the full twelve rounds. Saunders nonetheless won a unanimous decision on the judges' scorecards, handing Blackwell his second career defeat. Blackwell travelled to Ukraine on 21 September 2013 to fight for the vacant WBA Continental (Europe) middleweight title, but lost a twelve-round unanimous decision to Max Bursak. During the fight, Blackwell scored a knockdown in the fourth round, and the result was seen by some observers as controversial.Having begun training with former middleweight world title challenger Gary Lockett, Blackwell made a third attempt at the vacant British title on 30 May 2015 against John Ryder. Blackwell achieved his most significant win, on a prominent stage at The O2 Arena in London, by stopping Ryder in seven rounds to become the British middleweight champion. Two successful title defences were made in the remainder of 2015, against Damon Jones on 25 July (sixth-round stoppage), and Jack Arnfield on 14 November (unanimous decision).