Damien Hooper

Damien Hooper
Statistics
Nickname(s)	Super Hooper
Rated at	80 kg (180 lb) Light Heavyweight
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Nationality	Australian
Born	5 February 1992 Toowoomba, Queensland Australia
Boxing record
Total fights	9
Wins	9
Wins by KO	8
Losses	1
Draws	0
Medal record Summer Youth Olympics 2010 Singapore Middleweight

Damien Hooper (born 5 February 1992) in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Indigenous Australian professional boxer. Selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the light heavyweight division.^[1]

Early life

Hooper was raised by his grandmother, Lillian Weribone, in a Dalby Queensland, Australia. Hooper began boxing at the age of eleven with older brother Troy Hooper, His early career was nurtured by Dalby policeman Chris Seng, a former top pro boxer who saw the fight game as a way of keeping local youngsters in the gym and out of strife. .^[2] By the age of 11 hooper had his first boxing match weighing 42 kg

Amateur

In 2010, he became the first Indigenous Australian to win a junior world title when he won the 75 kg category at the Youth Olympics in Singapore. In the same year, he won a silver medal at the Youth World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, and was selected in the Australian team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He was an Australian Institute of Sport boxing scholarship holder.

The following year, Hooper stepped up a weight division and into open competition. He returned to Baku for the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships – Light heavyweight 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, where he made the quarter finals, being edged out by Julio Cesar la Cruz 13:14 and earned direct qualification for the London Olympics. In the last of his 180 amateur fights,

2012 London Summer Olympics

At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, he beat Marcus Browne then he lost on points to 81 kg gold medallist Egor Mekhontsev of Russia.

Professional boxing

Before he made his debut in 2013, Hooper signed with Ricky Hatton's Hatton Promotions.

Professional record

Personal life

Hooper's older brother Troy died in 2012 in a workplace accident, two months after he fought at the London Olympics. He traces his Indigenous family ancestry to the Kamilaroi people. He is recognized in the Australian Olympic Committee list of Australian Indigenous Olympians.^[3]

Controversy

On 30 July, in London at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Hooper stepped into the ring for his Olympic bout wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Australian Aboriginal flag: the same flag now approved to fly on public buildings in Australia. The Australian Olympic Committee demanded he make a public apology. Wearing the shirt was said to have breached the Olympic Charter. "I'm representing my culture, not only my country", said Hooper. "I'm proud of what I did."^[4]

On August 2013, Magistrate Damian Carroll fined him $1500 and recorded a conviction against him after the 21-year-old became so aggressive with police after a night of drinking in Toowoomba that he had to be put in a padded cell.^[5]

References

1. LONDON TIME (1992-02-05). "London 2012 - Damien Hooper". London2012.olympics.com.au. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
2. "Indigenous Newslines" (PDF). Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. January–March 2011: 24. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
3. "Australian Indigenous Olympians" (PDF). Australian Olympic Committee website. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
4. "How the chosen ones ended Australia's sporting prowess and revealed its secret past". 9 August 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
5. "Boxer Damien Hooper honours his brother, Troy, by working hard". couriermail.