The WBC and Commonwealth Boxing Council are reporting that former European and British super middleweight champion James Cook MBE has lost his battle with cancer. According to Wikipedia, Cook was 66 year old. Cook turned pro in 1982 and won the British super middleweight title in 1990 away from home against Belfast's Sam Storey. He won the European championship, also away from home in Germany against Pierre Frank Winterstein in 1991. His final career record was 25-10. More importantly, Cook was a fine human being. After his career ended in 1994, Cook formed a boxing club, the Pedro Club, in Hackney that worked with disadvantaged youngsters. It was for that work that Cook was honored with a well-deserved MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. He was also a member of the ‘Legends of Boxing’ choir which recorded the song, ‘Never Give Up. Never Give In’ at Abbey Road Studios in 2019 in aid of the boxing Charity, the Ringside Charitable Trust. 

 

Boxingtalk joins Simon Block of the Commonwealth Boxing Council, as well as the WBC, in sending its deepest sympathies to the firends and family of James Cook.