Ringside Report Looks Back at World Champion Paul Ingle

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona did not herald a golden age of British boxing. It was not like now where an Olympic appearance would bring suitors to your door named Eddie Hearn or Ben Shalom or Frank Warren. It was a tough old time for the Boxing Brits I Barcelona as they came out of that Olympics with a pedigree but when they turned over, they did not have the fanfare they have now.

That worked both ways.

They may not have had the platform, but they also did not carry the burden of expectation. For featherweight Paul Ingle, 23-2, 16 KOs, the Yorkshire Hunter, it may have been less expected but boy, did he go on and achieve. He managed the British, Commonwealth and European titles before he then won the IBF and IBO titles.

His amateur and professional career was brought to a close after a final fight that saw him hospitalized and the career which might have continued had that hospitalization not happened could have led to more world level opportunities– as it stands it was a fortuitous calamity that stopped a more serious injury sometime down the line.

Hailing from Scarborough in the north of England, Ingle was the 1991 Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) national flyweight champion before representing the UK in that division at the Olympics. He was one of ten boxers sent by Great Britain and of the 10 only Robin Reid medaled. Ingle got through the first round against Ghana’s Alexander Baba before his progress was stopped in the second round to the future 1992 gold medalist, Choe Choi-su of North Korea – losing on points.

Returning from the Olympics, it took a wee while before he made his professional debut which he did on the 23rd of March 1994 in Cardiff where he knocked out Darren Noble in the 3rd round. The British title was to follow in 1997 when he beat Colin McMillan, at featherweight, in York Hall in the 11th of January, stopping him over 8 rounds. Following a defense in Hull against Michael Aldis when Aldis retired in the 11th round, the Commonwealth title followed on the 11th of October 1997 when he saw Jon Jo Irwin also retire on his stool after eight rounds in Sheffield.

1998 saw a successful defense of the Commonwealth belt when he beat Trust Ndlovu on points, back in Hull on the 28th of March before a Scarborough meeting on the 8th of August saw the IBF intercontinental featherweight title become his when he knocked out Rakhim Mingaleyev in the fourth round.

The full sweep of trophies just below world title level was completed on the 26th of September 1998 when he stopped Billy Hardy on the 26th of September 1988 in York, once more gaining a stoppage in the eighth round. At stake was also his Commonwealth belt.

Then came world title opportunities. His first world title fight was for the WBO featherweight and having won 21 fights on the spin he must have been a favorite surely? There must have been few out there who could match him and given his record, anyone who managed seven rounds against him would have been nervous if it lasted until the eighth…
But who was he going to face?

Prince Naseem Hamed…

On the 10th of April in the MEN Arena, Manchester, Ingle went in the ring, paced for six minutes got out of it as Hamed had not yet arrived, returned to his dressing room, let Hamed enter and then went back. Both he and his trainer, angered by the disrespect they obviously felt was being shown to them did not quite manage to channel that aggression into their fight strategy. Hamed floored Ingle in the first, Ingle staggered to the end of the round but hung on. He was then floored again in the sixth and this fight was only going one way. But in the ninth and tenth Ingle managed some success, reminding Hamed that he had his own pedigree – until in the eleventh it was curtains as he was floored for the final time, got up, staggered but the referee, Joe Cortez was clear – Ingle was in no shape to continue and called a halt to the fight – Ingle was well behind on all three scorecards.

Ingle did not take time to recover. His next world title fight came straight afterwards.

On the 13th of November 1999 in Hull, Ingle went in the ring against Manuel Medina, there was no hanging around and despite hitting the canvas in the twelfth round, came away with a points win for the IBF title – Medina had himself been floored thrice, twice in the second and once in the tenth!

Ingle’s first defense saw him go in against IBO world title holder, and former two-weight world champion, Junior Jones. This was Ingle’s first fight in the USA and he stopped Jones in the eleventh. It had been a grueling encounter, but Ingle was now both the IBF and IBO world title holder at featherweight.

Defending both titles came back home in Sheffield, on the 16th of December 2000 where he took on Mbulelo Botile. By now Ingle was believed to be struggling at the weight and having had a few tough battles was starting to pick up injuries. This would appear to have led to several postponements of this fight. In the end it went ahead, and Ingle was knocked down in both the eleventh and twelfth rounds. It was the latter which led to him being taken out of the ring on a stretcher and hospitalized for a blood clot on his brain. He was in intensive care for some time before he recovered.

Having left the ring behind him, and in his honor, there is a Paul Ingle Academy in Hull named after him. There is also a room in the Ship Inn, in Scarborough in his honor. The new owners had renovated and found a whole host of memorabilia and pictures of his career and decided to ask him to cut the ribbon when they reopened. There are plenty of boxers whose names get mentioned when the Hall of Fame is looking for recruits, but perhaps the greatest accolade comes from your people, those at home who value you and treasure your memory in such personal ways and this would appear to be the greatest esteem with which this Yorkshire battler is held.

It does not, however, pay the bills and the last interview I could find was over 10 years old. Due to the injuries he suffered, Paul contributed to significant changes to weights for fights and medical support, and received £50,000 in compensation for what happened to him that final night in the ring. At the time of his interview he was living on state benefits and was reported as suffering the physical consequences of time in the ring. It has always been the case that many feel there should be a percentage of every purse that goes to a fund to support former boxers. This for the likes of Paul Ingle seems so pressing and easy to make the case. I wonder if ever there shall be the type of progress some have called for, for decades…

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