Tyan Booth was a British YouTuber and former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2017. He challenged once for the European Union middleweight title against Grzegorz Proksa in 2010, and at national level competed for Midlands Area welterweight and super-welterweight titles in 2007 and 2009, and the English super-welterweight title in 2013, respectively.
Early life
Tyan Booth was born in Nottingham, England. Booth's father is Black British, while his mother is White British, making him mixed-race. Booth had high ambitions for himself after moving from Nottingham to be based in Sheffield, to which Booth stated: "I've made a few sacrifices for my boxing to get where I am [...] I gave up a nice home in Nottingham to sleep on a few floors in Sheffield so I could be close to the [Wincobank gym]." When Booth was growing up, he admired Naseem Hamed and Johnny Nelson.
Amateur career
Booth began boxing at the Phoenix Amateur Boxing Club in Gedling, Nottingham, before transferring to the Wincobank gym in Sheffield, under the tutelage of Brendan Ingle and his sons John and Dominic.
Professional career
Early career
Booth made his professional debut on 29 October 2005 at the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen, Scotland, with him going the full six-rounds, defeating Donvill Hendricks via a points decision. Referee Paul Graham scored the fight 59–56 in favour of Booth. On 8 November 2005, Booth rematched Hendricks at the Leeds United FC Banqueting Suite, which resulted in referee Mickey Vann scoring the fight 59–56 in Booth's favour. On 27 February 2006, Booth fought Jason Welborn in this third professional fight, with the fighter being a push too far for Welborn and after a tough fight became the first person to stop Welborn, whom was knocked out by a clubbing right-hook in the third round. Welborn later stated that "Booth who was about a stone heavier than me on the night, way too big [...] Shortly after, I took a break from boxing [...]." Following his destruction of Welborn, Booth won a unanimous decision against Slovakian Richard Turba at Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool. For his fifth-fight, Booth travelled to Lanzarote, Spain, where he lost a close points decision to future Spanish super-middleweight champion, Alexis Callero.
Rise up the ranks
On 22 September 2006, after his loss against Callero, Booth returned with a points victory against highly touted George Hillyard at York Hall. In the following month, in what was described as the fight of the night, Booth skilfully outpointed Dawid Kowalski in what was described as "six thrilling rounds" at Afan Lido. He then had three more fights in the space of three months, defeating Chris Black (4-1-1), Peter Dunn (11-61-3), and Nathan Graham (6-0) all via unanimous points decisions. On his fight with Dunn, Booth admitted that he was unhappy with his performance, to which he stated "I didn’t get a good reaction from the crowd that night because I dropped down to the level of my opponent, but there will be no holding me back this time."
Booth vs. Gethin
After his defeat of Nathan Graham, on 21 February 2007, it was announced that he would face Darren Gethin, on the undercard of Carl Froch against Sergey Tatevosyan, at the Nottingham Arena in Nottingham for the Midlands Area welterweight title on 23 March 2007. On 23 March 2007, at Nottingham Arena, Graham defeated Booth via knockout in the tenth-round to secure the Midlands Area welterweight title. As Booth boxed well early on, Gethin, a crude pressure fighter, threw lots of punches, though Booth jabbed and moved, with him ultimately winning the first three rounds fairly comfortably. As the rounds wore on, Gethin began to make his pressure pay a little more, particularly with his overhand right, which kept catching Booth due to his low left hand. Booth boxed with the style of the Ingle gym, but it began to cost him, as he was caught with the right several times. Both began to tire, but Gethin's higher workrate began to tell, winning him rounds and, eventually, the tenth-round knockout win. Booth never saw the punch coming, a big right hand, and was out before he hit the floor. On 14 November, Booth was scheduled to face Kreshnik Qato on the undercard of Darren Barker and Ben Crampton for the vacant Commonwealth middleweight title at York Hall, however, the fight was cancelled. Another two losses followed: close points decisions over British fighters Chris Black (5-2-1) and Matthew Hall (16-1-0) in a 6-round and 8-round match, respectively. He returned, after his loss to Hall, to secure a knockout of Colin McNeil (11-2-1) in the first round. Several months later, Booth lost a points decision to Kevin Concepcion (11-0-0).