[5] He was also a keen footballer as a child and represented Wales at schoolboy level before giving up the game to devote his time to his boxing career.

He defeated Scotland's Mark Hastie and Lesotho's Koloba Sehloho in the opening rounds on points before stopping Adnan Jusoh of Malaysia in the quarter-final.

[6] Arthur overcame Jusoh in two rounds after moving 15 points ahead on the judges' scorecard which results in an immediate stoppage in an amateur bout.

[5][10] Arthur turned professional in 2003 with promoter Frank Warren, having initially made plans to continue fighting as an amateur in order to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Arthur commented that the lack of funding provided by the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association (WABA) had influenced his decision, although this was rebutted by the organisation's chairman.

[12][13] Fighting out of a Penarth-based gym, he made his professional debut at lightweight in March by defeating Daniel Thorpe on a points decision over four rounds at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.

[14] Three months later he recorded his second victory by defeating James Gorman on points despite his opponent weighing more than half a stone (7 lb (3.2 kg)) heavier.

[1] He was due to fight Mger Mkrtchyan in February 2004 but was forced to withdraw after a cut he had sustained in his victory over Wallie, which had required 15 stitches, had been slow to heal.

In a bid to stop the recurring cut issues, Arthur hoped to undergo surgery to fix the problem but was told that the operation would not be a success.

[20] Arthur returned in July 2005 working under new coach Enzo Calzaghe,[21] but suffered a second consecutive defeat against Harry Ramogaodi after being knocked down three times despite breaking his opponents' jaw during the bout.

[13] In September 2005, Arthur announced his retirement from boxing at the age of 25 due to his ongoing cut issues and having struggled to support his family financially.

[26][27] During his second fight on his return, in July of the same year, Arthur stopped Dai Davies in the second round of their bout to win the Welsh super-featherweight title.

His comeback was briefly derailed when he suffered a broken finger in training shortly afterwards and was forced to pull out of a fight against Riaz Durgahed in Bristol,[28] but he returned in November to defeat Steve Gethin on points.

[30] As a warm-up bout for the contest, Arthur defeated Englishman Mickey Coveney on points at the Newport Centre, despite separating from trainer Eddie Avoth only eight days before the fight.