Former junior featherweight titleholder Thierry Jacob has died at the age of 59 after losing his battle with lung cancer.
France's Jacob came from a fine boxing family and was trained and managed by his father Jacques.
He was a good amateur boxer and turned professional in 1984. He challenged for the IBF bantamweight title in 1987 but lost to Kelvin Seabrooks. There were further setbacks against Fabrice Benichou in another challenge for the European title, and to Jose Sanabria in a fight for the IBF junior featherweight title.
However, on his fourth attempt, Thierry won the European bantamweight title by beating Duke McKenzie in 1990. He retained that title against Vincenzo Picardo and then beat Mexico's great Daniel Zaragoza to win the WBC junior featherweight title in March 1993.
Just three months later, Jacob was back in the ring again, when he lost the title to Tracy Harris Patterson. Two tough losses to Wilfredo Vazquez followed; he closed out his career in 1994 with a win against Edgar Ballen. His record read 39-6.
Jacob’s brothers Bruno and Hervé were also fighters, and won national and European titles with a fourth brother, Jacky, as coach. Thierry Jacob later trained his sons Romain and Joffrey, who both were good professional fighters. Romain won the European junior lightweight title and Joffrey the French title.