By Nate Anderson: In a bit of sad news that will surely upset the boxing world, the talented former WBU middleweight champion Gary Lockett (30-2, 21 KOs) has announced his retirement. A devastating puncher who recently was stopped in three brutal rounds by WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in June, Lockett, only 31, said “the desire isn’t there anymore” in terms of his career. A very talented fighter, Lockett had wins over Ryan Rhodes, Lee Blundell and Yuri Tsarenko.
However, he seemed to undercut his career by ending it so suddenly. With knockout power in each fist, Lockett was one of the hardest punchers in the middleweight division. And although he waited until the end of his career to finally compete at the world stage, he gave a good account of himself in his fight with Pavlik, hitting the American fighter with some good shots before being taken out. With as much talent and power that Lockett possessed, he could have very easily have continued fighting for three to four more years and picked up a title or two in the UK, and very possibly a title in one of the weaker divisions like the super middleweight class if he chose to.
It’s disappointing to see him bow out of the sport with so much of his talent still intact. With his incredible one-punch knockout power, I would have given him an excellent chance at beating one of the top middleweight champions like Felix Sturm or the IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get to see how he would have done against other good fighters in the middleweight class, because he was a lot better fighter than he got to show against Pavlik.
Hopefully, Lockett doesn’t stay retired because he still has a lot left and could mount a challenge for a title if he put his mind into it. His defense has always been his weak point, but with trainer Enzo Calzaghe guiding him, I wouldn’t doubt that he could fix this problem and become a threat in the middleweight division. He’s still ranked high at number #11 in the WBO middleweight class, so it would only take two or three fights against top quality opponents before he would be in line for another title shot.
It seems very doable to me because he matches up well the other top fighters ranked above him like Joe Greene, Marco Rubio, and Sebastian Zbik. I think he would be more than a handful for any of them to tangle with, and I would also pick him over other top middleweights like John Duddy, Sebastian Sylvester and Daniel Geale. Lockett is a much harder puncher than any of them, and would probably be too much for any of them to handle. Sylvester, Rubio and Duddy seem tailor made for Lockett’s slugging style of fighting.
In his retirement, Lockett, 31, will focus on his business career where he plans on dabbling in real estate and continuing with his personal training career. In his final bout of his career against Pavlik, Lockett got a good payday, and hopefully enough for him to help him succeed in other endeavors.
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