12 Things You Didn’t Know About Shakan Pitters
Who is Shakan Pitters? Facts you need to know below
Ahead of the biggest fight of his career, BBN decided to dig up some interesting facts about the tall Thomas Hearns-esque fighter:
1. He was born in Solihull, Birmingham on July 31, 1989.
2. Pitters is 6ft 6in tall and counts the similarly statured Thomas Hearns as his favourite boxer of all-time.
3. He works for a parcel delivery company and has done for several years to support his partner and young daughter, Leilana.
4. Shak was a talented footballer growing up, spending years on the books at West Brom FC. He was in the Albion Academy for over five years, as a kid of 10 right up to being a teenager at 15, but when it became clear he wasn’t going to get the senior career he had dreamed of, especially with a broken toe injury hindering him, he hung up his boots and laced up a pair of gloves instead.
5. He initially started boxing at the age of six because his father and uncle were both professional boxers before him. As an amateur, he won two Midland titles, a Birmingham title, a Redditch Box Cup gold medal, and was a two-time National ABA semi-finalist. His amateur boxing career begun at Second City ABC with trainer Paddy Farrell.
6. His father, Colin Pitters, was a professional boxer during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Nicknamed ‘Shaka Dan’, he operated at middleweight and once took fellow Brummie and WBC World champion Richie Woodhall the distance over eight rounds, with just two points in it. Colin is also a respected trainer, who taught Matthew Macklin and Frankie Gavin out of Small Heath ABC. His uncle Rob was also a pro boxer, who won 10 from 21 bouts during 1990-2000.
7. Managed by Jon Pegg and trained by Paul Counihan, Shak plies his trade out of the East Side Boxing Gym in Birmingham – named after Oscar De La Hoya’s first boxing gym in America – alongside other professional boxers such as Sam Eggington; Steed Woodall; Jordan Cooke; Dan Breeze; Ryan Kelly; Antonio Counihan.
8. Shakan reached 6-0 on the small hall circuit in his local area and chose his seventh professional contest to score a stunning second-round knockout over Lithuanian ‘Giant’ Imantas Davidaitis (6-29-1), who stands at over 6ft 8in tall, on the undercard of Matchroom Boxing’s Amir Khan vs Samuel Vargas event at the Arena Birmingham, live on Sky Sports.
9. That breakout performance then led to the biggest achievement in his career when he took on three opponents in one night – Sam Smith (5-1); Georgii Bacon (2-1); Dec Spelman (13-1) – knocking each one of them down – five knockdowns in total – to win the Ultimate Boxxer 2 light-heavyweight tournament.
10. His latest fight, in September 2019, saw the rising prospect defeat English light-heavyweight champion Dec Spelman (16-2) for the second time, this time over 10-rounds, to claim his first professional title.
11. Now signed to Hennessy Sports, Shakan is currently unbeaten in 13 fights with an English light-heavyweight title in his trophy cabinet.
12. His favourite food is Caribbean, so much so that he recently created his own red-hot jerk sauce called ‘Shak Atak’.
I'll be tuning in !
(jk jk, I'm sure it's a bitch of an injury for a footballer)
