Carl Thompson

Adrian Carl Thompson, better known as “The Cat”, was a British cruiserweight and occasional light-heavyweight who built a career on late surges, a spiteful right hand and a stubborn refusal to fold when the other man thought he had him finished. Born in Manchester on 26 May 1964 and later based in Bolton, he boxed orthodox, stood 6ft tall with a 75-inch reach, and finished his professional career with 40 fights, 34 wins and 6 losses, 25 by knockout. He also dipped into Muay Thai, fighting for world titles in 1987 and 1989, but it was in the cruiserweight division that he made his name, becoming British champion twice, European champion twice, WBO world champion from 1997 to 1999, and a two-time IBO title-holder in the closing stretch of his career. Thompson was not polished in the conventional sense. He could be slow to warm, sometimes clumsy early, sometimes too willing to take a look at a punch rather than get out of its way. Yet his reputation hardened over time because, once he got his timing and his feet under him, he could turn fights with one straight right hand and a sudden rise in pressure that made opponents’ legs and confidence go at the same time.

He turned professional on 6 June 1988 at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, stopping Darren McKenna in the second round of a six. Those early years carried the shape of a fighter learning in public. He ran up eight straight wins and then discovered how quickly a night can change when a title is on the line. In October 1989, he fought Crawford Ashley for the Central Area light-heavyweight title and was stopped in the sixth, the fight shaped by an eye injury after a thumb found its way in where it should not have been. In 1990, he was outpointed by Franco Wanyama in Belgium, and in April 1991, he was stopped in two by Yawe Davis in Monaco. On paper, it looked like a career taking dents before it had even gathered speed. In practice, it was Thompson being dropped into situations that forced him to fight on the road, deal with unfamiliar opponents, and learn how to survive when his best weapon, that right hand, wasn’t landing early. The turning point came later in 1991 when he stopped the unbeaten Nicky Piper in three rounds at York Hall. That win changed his standing overnight. Piper was a real domestic force, and Thompson flattened him with the kind of authority that told the division there was a puncher in Manchester who could spoil plans.

From there, the climb became more direct. In June 1992, he won the vacant British cruiserweight title by stopping Steve Lewsam in eight rounds in Cleethorpes, then in February 1993, he won the WBC International cruiserweight title at York Hall, knocking out Arthur “Stormy” Weathers in two. York Hall suited him: the ring feels tight, the crowd is close, and a man with a heavy right hand does not need to chase an opponent for long before contact is made. Thompson carried those domestic wins into Europe in 1994 and showed he could be more than a British puncher. In February, he went to Ferrara and knocked out Massimiliano Duran in eight to win the European title, then in June he travelled again and stopped Akim Tafer in six in Épernay to retain it. Those results mattered because Duran and Tafer were not there to be intimidated by a visiting Brit. Thompson beat them by doing what he did best, riding the early discomfort, keeping faith in his right hand, and turning the fight once the opponent began to tire or take risks.

His first tilt at a world title came in June 1995 at Manchester’s G-Mex Centre against Ralf Rocchigiani for the vacant WBO cruiserweight belt. It was the kind of fight that swings on moments. Both men were down in the fifth, and Thompson was still in it deep into the contest, only for a dislocated shoulder in the eleventh to ruin the night and hand Rocchigiani the stoppage. The story did not end there. Thompson rebuilt with wins, travelled to Germany, and in October 1997 took the WBO title from Rocchigiani in a rematch in Hanover, winning a split decision over twelve. It was a significant championship win for a man who had been stopped and outboxed in earlier years, because it proved he could pace himself, work through trouble and still finish a long fight with enough in reserve to persuade the judges. His title reign was defined by two nights with Chris Eubank and one bitter loss to Johnny Nelson. In April 1998 at Manchester’s NYNEX Arena, he outpointed Eubank over twelve, absorbing an early knockdown and gradually imposing his strength. Three months later, in Sheffield, he went again with Eubank and this time won when Eubank retired in the ninth, his corner deciding they had seen enough. In March 1999, Thompson lost the WBO title to Nelson in Derby, stopped in the fifth after Nelson’s speed and accuracy had him in trouble, and the referee stepped in. Thompson never accepted the ending, and the dispute fitted the rivalry, because neither man ever seemed able to speak about the other without grinding his teeth.

He did not drift after losing the world title. In December 1999, he regained the British cruiserweight championship in Peterborough with a 12th-round knockout of Terry Dunstan, a finish that was pure Thompson, patient suffering followed by a sudden collapse for the other man when the right hand finally landed clean. In May 2000, he was back as European champion too, stopping Alain Simon in six in Barnsley, and he defended the belt later that year against Alexey Ilyin. By this stage, Thompson had become what British boxing always produces and always needs, the seasoned champion who looks older than his years in the early rounds and then turns the clock back when the opponent begins to doubt. It worked again in February 2001 when he stopped Uriah Grant to win the IBO cruiserweight title, only to lose it later that year when Ezra Sellers knocked him out in four rounds in Manchester. That defeat might have finished a tidier career. Thompson’s was never tidy. He came back, won smaller fights, and then produced one of the most famous escapes of his life in February 2004 in Sheffield against Sebastiaan Rothmann for the IBO title. Thompson was being worked over, the kind of one-sided beating that prompts uncomfortable looks at ringside, then he landed a right hand late in the ninth that turned Rothmann’s legs to water and ended it. In September 2004, he defended the IBO title against the unbeaten David Haye at Wembley Arena, endured the early storm, dropped Haye with a right hand in the fifth and forced Haye’s corner to throw in the towel. It was the classic Thompson script: survive the fast start, wait for the other man to lose a fraction of control, then strike.

Thompson retired at the end of 2005 after a ten-round points win over Frédéric Serrat in Sheffield, closing a career that ran from June 1988 to November 2005. His peak years were the mid-to-late 1990s, when he was European champion, then WBO world champion, and later the early 2000s, when he reinvented himself as a late-career threat with the IBO belt and the habit of pulling fights out of the fire. He was never a man built for neat narratives. He lost fights early in his career, travelled and got hurt, lost a world title in a finish that still angers his supporters, and yet he kept coming back to collect belts that require toughness more than glamour. His legacy is that of a British cruiserweight champion in the truest sense, a fighter who could be outboxed for rounds, sometimes outsped for stretches, but who carried enough power, resilience and sheer bloody-mindedness to change the direction of a fight with one punch, and to do it often enough that even good opponents learned not to relax when they were ahead on the cards.