{"id":68632,"date":"2025-08-15T10:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/68632\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T10:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:14:07","slug":"holme-wood-boxer-darren-tetley-retires-after-unique-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/68632\/","title":{"rendered":"Holme Wood boxer Darren Tetley retires after unique journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n But the Holme Wood native finally decided to officially hang up his gloves this week at the age of 32, having not fought since suffering a gruesome facial injury in a defeat to Elliot Whale back in December 2023.\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked by the T&A how he felt about calling it a day, Tetley said: \u201cI think I\u2019ve known all along since that last fight.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut it\u2019s always been in the back of my mind that there may have still been a chance of a comeback.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019d not put out a statement before this, but the more I thought about it, I realised I hadn\u2019t been dying to get back in the ring<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s been nice to spar if I\u2019ve wanted to and do some coaching but even in the exhibition I did recently, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t get\u00a0a huge buzz out of it as such, so it\u2019s probably the right time to retire.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n It was boxing as a teenager that slowly help Tetley turn away from trouble, as he recalled: \u201cI was in police stations after getting arrested when I was younger.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cObviously, Holme Wood doesn\u2019t get the best name, and I was still doing dodgy stuff I shouldn\u2019t have been while I was boxing in those early years.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m proud to have overcome that, got away from it, and really focused on my boxing<\/a>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Getting national recognition aged 17 as a young amateur was a key moment, Tetley saying: \u201cI\u2019d always wanted to box for England.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI didn\u2019t get the call-up even after winning a national title, but I eventually managed it.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think it was that that made me realise I might actually be okay if I knuckle down.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was going to call it a day after fighting for England, but my trainer persuaded me to see out the season.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI won two more national titles between January and May 2011, then fought at the Three Nations in the June, where I medalled, and the Europeans that August.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI got beat at the latter, said I was done, but then I got to go to the Commonwealth Youth Games, where I won silver.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cFrom there, I realised I might have something and I stuck to it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n As for his highlights after turning professional in 2013, Tetley said: \u201cWinning my first title at Elland Road was special, especially as the weigh-in was the day of my grandad\u2019s funeral<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"DarrenDarren Tetley, just after the death of his grandad Ernie, taking down Mason Cartwright to win a European WBO title at Elland Road in May 2018. (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cHaving fights in Bradford was a highlight, then Wembley in 2022, boxing for the British title, was the icing on the cake.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBeing at Wembley Stadium, on the undercard of the main event (Tyson Fury versus Dillian Whyte), that was quality.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n As for what comes next, Tetley said: \u201cI\u2019ve got my qualifications, so I\u2019m coaching the amateurs at Trident Boxing Club in Morley.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI can pass on what I know to them and I\u2019ve started playing a bit of rugby league as well.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be normal again, because I\u2019ve always liked rugby league for example, but you couldn\u2019t exactly go to your fight sponsors and tell them you couldn\u2019t box because you\u2019d broken your leg playing another sport.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe best thing about retiring, I think, is just being able to do normal stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the Holme Wood native finally decided to officially hang up his gloves this week at the age…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-68632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}