Known as “The Cat,” Carl Thompson was a former boxing champion who won several national, continental, and world cruiserweight titles. He would dip into the light-heavyweight ranks and picked up titles in that class, but most of his accolades came as a cruiser.

Early Career

Thompson began his career in 1988, a month after his 24th birthday. He spent his early career undefeated before running into Crawford “Chilling” Ashley at the end of 1989 for the British Central Area Light Heavyweight belt. Several months later, he suffered another loss. He would sit out the rest of the year and return in early 1991 with a victory of Terry Dixon. Thompson took on another match a month later in April where he lost.

For the bulk of the early 1990s, Carl Thompson was successful in his matches as he picked up the British, European and WBC International Cruiserweight belts.

World Championship Run

In his first challenge for the WBO World Cruiserweight title, he would lose to Ralf Rocchigiani on June 10, 1995. This encounter was an absolute war between the two. In the end, Thompson lost after dislocating his shoulder following 11 rounds. Over the next two years, Thompson rebuilt his momentum before meeting Rocchigiani a second time in October 1997. He would defeat him following 12 rounds via decision.

Thompson made two successful defenses of the belt—both against Chris Eubank—before suffering a stoppage loss to Johnny Nelson in the spring of 1999. He would close out 1999 by taking British Cruiserweight title from Terry Dunstan. In May 2000, Alain Simon fell to The Cat and lost the European Cruiserweight belt.

IBO World Cruiserweight Champion Uriah Grant was coming off an upset victory over “Hitman” Tommy Hearns in early 2000. He lost the title to Carl Thompson in February 2001 via TKO. This would mark the end of his winning streak after Ezra Sellers knocked him out in November 2001 for the title.

In the conclusion of “Ring Legends: Carl Thompson” we’ll go into a late-career come back and the end of his career.

REFERENCES
-https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing-thompson-produces-one-punch-to-capture-title-569307.html
-http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/1259