Michael Sprott

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Michael Sprott

Real name	Michael Sprott
Rated at	Heavyweight
Nationality	British
Birth date	January 16, 1975 (1975-01-16) (age 33)
Birth place	Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	40
Wins	30
Wins by KO	15
Losses	10
Draws	0
No contests	0

Michael Sprott, (born January 16, 1975) is a professional heavyweight boxer from Reading, Berkshire, England who briefly held the British heavyweight title.

[edit] Career

After a quiet amateur career, Sprott turned pro in November 1996 under the old Frank Bruno trainer, Terry Lawless. He won 11 fights, including a points win over veteran Michael Murray before taking on Harry Senior in September 1998 for the Southern Area Heavyweight title. Senior, a respected sparring partner, had recently dedicated himself to being a full-time professional, and took Sprott out in 6 rounds with body shots. Sprott would come back with 3 wins before falling apart in 3 rounds versus British contender Wayne Llewelyn in October 2000.

Seemingly relegated to journeyman status, In February 2001 in London Sprott scored an upset when he outpointed the once-beaten German Timo Hoffmann, who had lost only to Vitali Klitschko. He travelled to Germany for the rematch, controversially outpointed by Hoffman in a result that was jeered loudly by the German crowd.

In November 2001 he travelled to South Africa to face hard hitting fringe contender Corrie Sanders. In a brief and entertaining fight, Sprott rocked the southpaw before being decked himself, and suffering a controversial stoppage by the referee when it appeared he wanted to continue.

In February 2002 Keith Long pulled out from a British and Commonwealth title fight with Danny Williams, and Sprott flew in from a holiday in Jamaica on only a few days notice. After a few rounds he ran out of gas and was stopped in 7 but showed he could compete at naional level.

After this challenge, Sprott went on a successful run of form, winning 8 fights, including knockouts of hard hitting Pele Reid (KO7), ex-British champ Michael Holden (KO4), puncher Mark Potter (KO3), and Colin Kenna (KO1), setting up a rematch with Williams.

In September 2003 Sprott qualified for another shot at Williams and his titles, but after a far more competitive fight, Sprott was the victim of several low blows. When he complained to the referee he was controversially knocked out by a Williams left hook.

In January 2004 Sprott narrowly outpointed Williams in their third and final fight (115-114), lifting the British and Commonwealth titles. A few months later Williams would knockout Mike Tyson, however Sprott would lose his titles in his first defense, matched with fastundefeated Matt Skelton (12-0), Sprott was mauled and stopped in the 12th.

In 2005 Sprott would take the first of many trips abroad fighting top prospects, usually at short notice. In April he beat the German amateur star Cengiz Koc, but in October was outpointed by Olympian Paolo Vidoz in a European title fight, both fights in Germany. In December he fought future European champ Vladimir Virchis in Austria, but was once-again the victim of a controversial decision loss.

In February 2006 he outboxed veteran Antoine Palatis in Scotland, but in a WBO Eliminator in July was hammered in 8 one-sided rounds by undefeated Ruslan Chagaev. Despite the loss he went back to Germany and beat a third German prospect when he upset undefeated southpaw Rene Dettweiller in November.

During his travels in Germany Sprott had picked up the second-tier European Heavyweight title, the "EU" title, which he defended against 2000 Olympic Gold medallist Audley Harrison in London, February 2007. Harrison had demolished Danny Williams in his last fight and was on course to face Matt Skelton in a world title eliminator. A 9/2 underdog with most bookies, Sprott came off the floor in the 1st round to score a rare stoppage win by knocking Harrison clean out in the 3rd with a left hook; and seemingly ending his career.^[1]

On July 14, 2007. Sprott lost to Matt Skelton in a 12-round contest. The fight was of a very poor standard with Skelton winning on points.

On 31 May 2008 Sprott travelled to Germany to face hot prospect Taras Bidenko, the WBA's #4 ranked contender. Sprott was outpointed in a 10 round unanimous decision, with 2 judges scoring the bout 97-93, and the other seeing it 97-94.