Del Bryan

Delroy “Del” Bryan, known as “Delroy”, campaigned mainly at welterweight and later at super-welterweight. A Nottingham man who boxed out of Birmingham, Bryan was a compact 5ft 8in southpaw who made a career out of awkward angles, persistence, and a willingness to take hard nights on the road. He finished with a professional record of 32 wins, 19 losses and 1 draw, with 9 victories by knockout.

Bryan turned professional on 21 April 1986, and the early results were uneven, as they often are when a fighter is learning on the job. George Collins beat him, but he also collected the sort of wins that kept doors open, including a points success over Daren Dyer in 1987. In October of that year, he picked up his first belt, taking the Midlands Area welterweight title from Gary Sommerville, and from there he began to look like a man who could trouble the domestic class above him.

The run-up to his British title shot was built on activity and the odd calculated gamble. He beat Lloyd Christie and, on his travels, outpointed a young Javier Castillejo in Benidorm in 1989, a result that reads better with the passing years. There were setbacks, too, including a loss to Gary Jacobs. Still, Bryan kept moving, defended his area title, and in April 1990, he beat Damien Denny in a British title eliminator, putting him in position for the Lonsdale belt.

That chance came against Kirkland Laing at the Royal Albert Hall on 16 January 1991, and Bryan took the British welterweight title on points. It was the peak of his best years, a period when he mixed ambition with steady work, and he followed it with a successful defence over Mickey Hughes at York Hall in November 1991, forcing a stoppage on a cut. The belt did not stay with him, though. In February 1992, he was outpointed by Jacobs in Glasgow, and later that year Dyer took his own revenge when he stopped Bryan in the tenth at Crystal Palace.

Bryan’s second reign as British champion began at York Hall on 22 September 1993 when he outpointed Pat Barrett for the vacant title. He defended it with authority, knocking out Derek Grainger in Dagenham in February 1994 and outpointing Lyndon Scarlett in Birmingham later that year. In December 1994, he stepped onto the European stage in Córdoba for the vacant EBU welterweight title against the unbeaten José Luis Navarro. Still, he was stopped in the tenth, a reminder of the thin margin between British champion and continental level.

He was still British champion when he beat the unbeaten Gary Logan in June 1995 at York Hall, stopping him late in the eleventh. Then the title changed hands again in Mansfield that September when Chris Saunders dropped Bryan repeatedly and took the decision. From there, the form line became harder to hold. Bryan boxed on, took risks abroad and at home, and moved up to super-welterweight, but a March 1997 challenge for the British super-welterweight title ended in a seventh-round stoppage defeat to the rising Ryan Rhodes.

His last fight came on 6 November 1998 at the Hilton in Mayfair, where he met the unbeaten Derek Roche for the IBO Inter-Continental super-welterweight title. Bryan was stopped in the tenth and retired afterwards, closing a twelve-year professional run that included two spells as British welterweight champion and a European title challenge. Managed during his career by former British welterweight champion Wally Swift, Bryan stayed close to the sport after boxing, including work as a sparring partner, while getting on with life beyond the ropes.