HE was one of the best in the North-East and backed by an amazing army of fans, but Peter Cope has decided to hang up his gloves.
Hartlepool’s talented former Northern Area champion and English title challenger had not boxed since November 2017 when he lost to Andy Townsend and has now announced his time is up.
Peter Cope was the first of the brothers to turn pro, ahead of Daniel (also a Northern Area title winner), Adam and Luke, the only one of the quartet currently active.
And the 28-year-old leaves with a very creditable 15 wins and five defeats, all the losses coming in title fights or title-standard bouts.
He loved a ‘tear-up’ and was supported in huge numbers wherever he boxed by the ‘Barmy Army’, a loud, proud and colourful following with a 50-50 split between males and females.
That Peter took up boxing was no shock – the sport was in his blood thanks to his dad, Peter Snr, a top amateur and professional trainer, and head coach at Gus Robinson Developments.
Peter Jnr had a cracking amateur career under GRD coaches Tony Martin and Wayne Short, winning the Junior ABA title while losing to current pro, Sean McGoldrick, for the NABC crown in London.
This reporter thought he was very unlucky to miss out at senior level, losing on a very close split decision to Ryan Farrag in the 2010 ABA Championship quarter-finals.
He followed in the tradition of fine Gus Robinson southpaws, Alan Temple and Nigel Wright, and made a superb start to pro life with nine straight wins, including a notable success against former British title challenger Seam Hughes.
That set him up with a challenge for the English super-featherweight championship at the famous York Hall where he had the misfortune to come up against the very gifted Londoner, Mitchell Smith, who won via a unanimous decision.
He bounced back by beating Middlesbrough’s John Green for the Northern Area title just three months later, only to be stopped by the big-hitting Townend in an English title eliminator in Doncaster later that year.
Copey relinquished his Northern crown on points in a re-match with Green at the 2015 Summer Rumble but did win a Masters belt in 2016 by defeating former Olympian, Abdon Caeser, in Gateshead.
That would be his final bout for his dad and Gus Robinson Developments as after a family disagreement, he switched trainer to Neil Fannan.
He boxed four times for Hartlepool legend Michael Hunter’s coach, including arguably his best performance, an eight-round cracker on Matchroom’s first-ever NXTGEN show a couple of years back when he fought Paul Hyland Jnr at the York Hall.
Fannan felt Cope boxed “out of his skin” but the nod went by two points to the Irishman who would go on to challenge for the British and European lightweight titles.
This reporter also had Hyland two points up on his very unofficial card but some observers had Cope (pictured left on the attack against Paul) winning and some scored it a draw.
Nights like that might prompt a few ‘if only’ thoughts from Cope, but it shouldn’t – he leaves the sport with the proud record of having won titles at amateur and professional level and having entertained the fans wherever he boxed.
From a personal perspective, it was a privilege to have covered his career and punch-lines wishes Copey well in work and in life, with his fiancée Vanessa.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Lawrence Lustig/ Matchroom
