Former champ gets missing title belt back

EADT243rd August, 2010

Former British and European lightweight champion Jon Thaxton had feared the belt had been stolen at the end of a tribute night.

The former champion, from Norwich, said he noticed in the early hours of the morning that the belt, which he won in October 2008 after beating Juan Carlos Diaz Melero for the vacant European lightweight title, was missing at the Holiday Inn hotel on Cromer Road.

That sparked a frantic search and calls to the police to investigate the suspected theft.

But after news of the missing belt was revealed the boxer received calls telling him it had been picked up for safe keeping and would be returned.

The boxer said he did not believe the taking of the belt was a prank gone wrong, and he was relieved to get it back.

"Someone took it for safekeeping, but didn't tell me," he said. "I am going along with that, and when it hit the press people started to phone me and tell me where they thought it was.

"The main thing is to get my belt back."