Colin Lynes

Colin Lynes (born 26 November 1977) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1998 to 2017. He held the International Boxing Organization super lightweight title from 2004 to 2005. At regional level, he held the British super lightweight title in 2007; the European Boxing Union European super lightweight title from 2007 to 2008; and the British welterweight title from 2011 to 2012.

Boxing career

Early professional career Lynes begun his pro career in June 1998 with a 1st-round knockout of Lee Frost at the Broadway Theatre in Barking, London. He continued with 3 more quick victories over Ram Singh, Brian Coleman and Trevor Smith before finally completing the distance against Marc Smith. However hand problems in his next fight against Dennis Griffin forced him to develop an effective counter punching style. After compiling an unbeaten ledger of 20–0 he found himself in December 2002 competing for the IBO inter-continental light welterweight title, winning by 9th round tko against American Richard Kiley. He lost the title however in his next fight, when at the York Hall he was stopped in the 8th round by South African Samuel Malinga.

Championship fights Following the defeat Lynes regrouped by winning his next three fights setting himself up for a shot at the full IBO light welterweight champion Argentinian Daniel Sarmiento. The fight at the Goresbrook Leisure Center in Dagenham in May 2005 ended with a split decision victory for the Englishman. This time he made his first defence a successful one when in Brentwood, Essex he met American Juaquin Gallardo winning by majority decision.

In October 2005 Lynes met fellow Brit Junior Witter for the British, Commonwealth and European titles losing a 12-round decision. He followed this defeat by losing again, this time to Lenny Daws still a 12–0 prospect for the English Southern Area title. The fight which ended with Lynes being stopped in the 9th round also doubled as an eliminator for the full British title with Daws going on to win the full crown.

British and European Champion Lynes regrouped from his back to back defeats with two wins before in June 2007 he met Scotsman Barry Morrison for the full British title. The fight which took place at the Civic Center in Motherwell ended with Lynes claiming victory after 12 rounds. He defended the title in his next fight which also saw Lynes compete for the vacant European title. The opponent was Wolverhampton's Young Mutley, the former British Welterweight champion, the fight ended with an 8th round win for Lynes who was now a double champion. The Finnish fighter Juho Tolppola was next in line for Lynes for his first defence of his European crown with the fight ending in another 12 round win for the Englishman.

An Italian job was next for Lynes as he met mandatory challenger Gianluca Branco in Italy for his next defence. To defend against the Italian he had to give up his British belt which was subsequently won by Manchester's David Barnes. The fight itself ended in disappointment for Lynes as he lost a close split decision to the former World title challenger despite putting his opponent down in the 2nd round. Following the loss to Branco, Lynes was next in line to fight for his old British title against David Barnes. With one week to go Barnes pulled out of the fight and was stripped of the title leaving Lynes to fight for the now vacant title against Northern Irishman Paul McCloskey. McCloskey ended up winning the fight when Lynes retired in the 9th round.

The victory for McCloskey over Lynes meant that he became the mandatory challenger for Lynes' old European belt which was now vacant, only for a hand injury to rule the Irishman out only two weeks before the fight. McCloskeys lost opportunity was Lynes gain as he was drafted in to fight for the title against Frenchman Souleymane M'baye, a former WBA world champion in Paris on 3 July 2009. The fight was another close one for the former champion as he lost via split decision.

Prizefighter and Commonwealth title challenge On 4 December 2009 Lynes competed in Sky's Prizefighter knock out style tournament. The competition included a number of successful British light welterweight boxers from recent years with Lynes winning two contests to reach the final. The draw for the competition which had been made by Floyd Mayweather pitted Lynes against David Barnes, the man who had succeeded Lynes as British champion in the quarter-finals. A split decision win over Barnes moved Lynes into the semi's to meet former victim Young Mutley and emerge victorious for the second time against the man from Wolverhampton via another split decision. The final saw Lynes compete with Newbridge's Gavin Rees, a man who had briefly held the World WBA light welterweight championship in 2007 and who was supported at ringside by former stablemate Joe Calzaghe. Rees, who had knocked out former European champions Ted Bami and Jason Cook on the way the final, won with a unanimous decision over Lynes, himself a former European champion.

Lynes return to the ring following the Prizefighter tournament saw him compete on the undercard of David Hayes world heavyweight title defence against John Ruiz at the MEN Arena in Manchester. His opponent, Ajose Olusegun, a Nigerian with British nationality was undefeated in 27 fights and was ranked at number 2 by the WBC. The fight, on 3 April 2010, resulted in Olusegun retaining his title after a stomach problem caused by a series of body shots had Lynes gasping for breath and him been counted out in the 8th round. Following the fight Lynes blamed the problems recovering from the shots on problems he had making the weight for the fight and said he would consider moving up a weight.

Move to Welterweight Lynes moved up a weight division in his next fight on 12 February 2012 against Bradley Pryce, defeating the Welshman in a close 8 round contest in Liverpool with the referee handing victory to Lynes 78–77. On 7 June 2011 Lynes once again took part in the Prizefighter tournament although this time it was the welterweight version at the York Hall in Bethnal Green. He reached the semi-finals beating his stablemate Bobby Gladman in the quarter-finals but losing to eventual winner Yassine El Maachi with a controversial split decision in the semi's. On 9 November 2011 Lynes challenged Lee Purdy for the British welterweight championship, winning after 12 rounds via majority decision.

Professional boxing record

NoResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes 51 Loss 39–12 Michael McKinson TKO 6 (10) 25 November 2017 Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth, England For vacant WBC International Silver welterweight title 50 Win 39–11 Mario Petrov PTS 8 (8) 19 May 2017 Brentwood Centre, Essex, England 49 Win 38–11 Nathan Hardy PTS 6 (6) 17 March 2017 Brentwood Centre, Essex, England 48 Loss 37–11 Bradley Skeete UD 10 (10) 30 November 2013 Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, England For vacant English welterweight title 47 Win 37–10 Beka Sutidze DQ 6 (8) 1 June 2013 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England Sutidze disqualified for repeated head clashes 46 Loss 36–10 Junior Witter UD 12 (12) 12 May 2012 Hillsborough Leisure Centre, Sheffield, England Lost British welterweight title 45 Win 36–9 Lee Purdy MD 12 (12) 9 November 2011 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England Won British welterweight title 44 Loss 35–9 Yassine El Maachi SD 3 (3) 7 June 2011 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England Prizefighter welterweight semi-final 43 Win 35–8 Bobby Gladman UD 3 (3) 7 June 2011 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England Prizefighter welterweight quarter-final 42 Win 34–8 Bradley Pryce PTS 8 (8) 12 February 2011 Olympia, Liverpool, England 41 Loss 33–8 Ajose Olusegun KO 8 (12) 3 April 2010 M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England For Commonwealth super-lightweight title 40 Loss 33–7 Gavin Rees UD 3 (3) 4 December 2009 Olympia, Kensington, England Prizefighter light-welterweight final 39 Win 33–6 Young Mutley SD 3 (3) 4 December 2009 Olympia, Kensington, England Prizefighter light-welterweight semi-final 38 Win 32–6 David Barnes SD 3 (3) 4 December 2009 Olympia, Kensington, England Prizefighter light-welterweight quarter-final 37 Loss 31–6 Souleymane M'Baye SD 12 (12) 3 July 2009 Palais des Sport Marcel Cerdan, Levallois-Perret, France For European super-lightweight title 36 Loss 31–5 Paul McCloskey RTD 9 (12) 5 December 2008 Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, England For vacant British super-lightweight title 35 Loss 31–4 Gianluca Branco SD 12 (12) 16 May 2008 PalaRuffini, Torino, Italy Lost European super-lightweight title 34 Win 31–3 Juho Tolppola UD 12 (12) 25 January 2008 Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, England Retained European super-lightweight title 33 Win 30–3 Young Mutley TKO 8 (12) 20 July 2007 Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, England Retained British super-lightweight title; won vacant European super-lightweight title 32 Win 29–3 Barry Morrison UD 12 (12) 8 June 2007 Civic Centre, Motherwell, Scotland Won British super-lightweight title 31 Win 28–3 Arek Malek RTD 2 (6) 30 March 2007 K2 Leisure Centre, Crawley, England 30 Win 27–3 Janos Petrovics TKO 6 (6) 15 December 2006 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England 29 Loss 26–3 Lenny Daws TKO 9 (12) 20 January 2006 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England For Southern Area super-lightweight title 28 Loss 26–2 Junior Witter UD 12 (12) 21 October 2005 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England For British, Commonwealth & European super-lightweight titles 27 Win 26–1 Juaquin Gallardo MD 12 (12) 13 February 2005 Brentwood Centre, Essex, England Retained IBO super-lightweight title 26 Win 25–1 Pablo Daniel Sarmiento SD 12 (12) 8 May 2004 Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, England Won IBO super-lightweight title 25 Win 24–1 Cesar Alberto Leiva PTS 8 (8) 31 January 2004 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England 24 Win 23–1 Fabrice Colombel PTS 6 (6) 22 November 2003 Kings Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland 23 Win 22–1 Brian Coleman PTS 4 (4) 18 October 2003 M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England 22 Loss 21–1 Samuel Malinga RTD 8 (12) 8 March 2003 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England Lost IBO Intercontinental super-lightweight title 21 Win 21–0 Richard Kiley TKO 9 (12) 7 December 2002 Brentwood Centre, Essex, England Won IBO Intercontinental super-lightweight title 20 Win 20–0 Abdelilah Touil KO 7 (8) 21 September 2002 Brentwood Centre, Essex, England 19 Win 19–0 Ian Smith TKO 7 (8) 29 June 2002 Brentwood Centre, Essex, England 18 Win 18–0 Kevin Bennett TKO 4 (8) 18 May 2002 London Arena, Millwall, England 17 Win 17–0 Peter Dunn PTS 4 (4) 23 March 2002 Elephant & Castle Centre, Southwark, England 16 Win 16–0 David Kirk PTS 6 (6) 26 January 2002 Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, England 15 Win 15–0 Leonti Vorontsuk PTS 6 (6) 1 December 2001 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England 14 Win 14–0 Keith Jones PTS 6 (6) 10 November 2001 Wembley Conference Centre, London, England 13 Win 13–0 David Kirk PTS 6 (6) 10 April 2001 Wembley Conference Centre, London, England 12 Win 12–0 Mark Ramsey PTS 6 (6) 17 February 2001 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England 11 Win 11–0 Jimmy Phelan PTS 6 (6) 9 December 2000 Elephant & Castle Centre, Southwark, England 10 Win 10–0 Brian Coleman PTS 6 (6) 14 October 2000 Wembley Conference Centre, London, England 9 Win 9–0 Karl Taylor PTS 6 (6) 16 September 2000 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England 8 Win 8–0 Jason Vlasman KO 2 (6) 18 May 2000 York Hall, Bethnal Green, England 7 Win 7–0 Mark Haslam PTS 4 (4) 20 May 1999 Broadway Theatre, Barking, England 6 Win 6–0 Dennis Griffin PTS 6 (6) 25 February 1999 The Forum, Kentish Town, England 5 Win 5–0 Trevor Smith TKO 1 (6) 10 December 1998 Broadway Theatre, Barking, England 4 Win 4–0 Marc Smith PTS 4 (4) 31 October 1998 Ice Rink, Basingstoke, England 3 Win 3–0 Brian Coleman TKO 2 (4) 22 October 1998 Broadway Theatre, Barking, England 2 Win 2–0 Ram Singh KO 1 (6) 23 July 1998 Broadway Theatre, Barking, England 1 Win 1–0 Les Frost KO 1 (6) 4 June 1998 Broadway Theatre, Barking, England