2004, K1 UK
Well, he may not have had everything his own way, but he did it - Gary retained his K1 UK title! First person in Britain to retain this title. 

In the first fight Gary met a very tough Steve Jones. Coached by very good friends of Gary's, Steve Reeves and Steve Speers, Steve had a good inside track into how Gary performs. Unfortunately experience was not on his side, and after backing off a couple of times, Gary finally went in for the kill to finish the fight with a KO in the second round, following a prolonged and heavy pounding of punches.

The second fight against Jamie Zikic is surrounded in controversy, being very close, and could have gone either way. Gary won the first round, the second was scored as a draw, the third went to Jamie. With the fight scored as a draw, it went to a fourth round, which was again scored as a draw. This left the decisive fifth round to produce a winner. Both fighters, as in the fourth, were warned that clinching would be scored down. This would be a hard task for the two rapidly tiring fighters. Gary clinched less in the final round and scored cleaner shots, to take the decision on all the judges scorecards. 

The final against Nick Shepperd saw Gary back to form. He totally dominated the fight, and as soon as he felt a weakness in Nick's left leg threw kick after kick into it. Nick went down, managed to get up, only to be put down twice more for Gary to win by KO, after less than two minutes of the 1st round. 

This left Gary victorious again - K1 UK Champion 2004.