Ask everyone who attends meetings of former boxers’ associations in northern England, and everyone will tell you that Alan Richardson is one of the nicest people you can meet. For the first time I met Alan about 12 years ago, when I went to EBA meetings of the Leeds Association. I was immediately hit by how modest this man is. The photo on these pages shows a man with a real warrior, cool eyes, a steel expression and a challenging man’s appearance. Alan was all in the ring, but outside the ropes he is a tranquil, worthy and popular man. He is another of these masters from the 70s who are threatened with forgetfulness and shame.

IN Boxing news“The last series in the 50 best competitions in Great Britain, in the ranking of Alan’s war with Lesem Pickett at 31. It was not the only challenging scrap in which Alan took part, and I especially remember his dust with Vernon Sollas and Evan Armstrong, both in terms of the British featherweight title.
The Wakefield Alan, Alan white rose product created great waves as an amateur. He was beaten in the semi -final of both the European Championships in 1969 and the Games of the Nations Community in 1970. He won the championship in the featherweight in 1969, increasing his victory in 1965 as a junior. He is related to Jimmy Kid Richardson, a veteran of 65 professional competitions in the 1930s, and he was born and raised in Fitzwilliam, located strongly on Coalfield Yorkshire, perhaps inevitable that he would start working as an mining engineer.

Alan has never been a single -pound finisher, but the cumulative effects of the very number of challenging, true and speedy blows he threw often wore his opponent. A good example is his victory in 1973 over Billy Hardacre for the central featherweight title in the competition fighting at the Adelphi Hotel in the hometown of Hardacre, Liverpool. Billy twice defeated the developing Richardson in challenging fights, but using the exact left stab and maintaining relentless pressure during a full ten rounds, Alan won his first title in this third meeting.

The council made the match an eliminator of the British title, and in the following year Alan had a chance. Evan Armstrong, one of the best masters in this weight, appeared after 11 rounds of titanic fight. Alan had a great advantage of 10, but Evan turned him with a huge left hook. In the real style of Richardson, Alan left the wardrobe after the fight to find Armstrong, tired and stretched on several chairs, trying to recover after his attempt. Alan told him: “If I had to lose, I am glad that I lost to such a great warrior and a good athlete like you.”

Evan told the press that the fight against Richardson was “the most challenging fight I’ve ever had. Richardson is man. About nine and 10. I started to think that he could be too sturdy for me. He just came back to me. He has so much heart!”

Armstrong gave Richardson a ladbroke trophy, which was awarded with the Lonsdale belt after the competition, because he did not think that Alan should leave empty -handed. They both showed such great respect. Unfortunately, Evan is no longer with us, but Alan is still gaining respect – but maybe not as much as he should.

Alan achieved his goal, winning the British title three years later, when he separated Vernon Sollas in eight rounds in the town hall in Leeds. After Eddie Ndukwu beaten for the empty title of Commonwealth in Lagos a few weeks later, Alan gained his first successful defense with this classic against Pickett.

Going to the third level, Alan was beaten by Dave Needham. He did not win the belt straight, but he won almost everything and was a great warrior.

1. Reduction of 15-order
   After the death of Deuk Koo Kim during the fight with Ray Mancini in 1983, WBC issued a principle that stated that the maximum distance for the fight for the championship would be 12 rounds.
2. I weigh at least 24 hours earlier
   Due to the fears of weakening of the boxers due to the weight production process, and then the fight on the same day as the indicator, the day before the introduction of defects.
3. Intermediate weight classes
   Sport once had only eight classes, but now it has 17 (well, 18, if you include the producing weight). WBC introduced several novel divisions, recently in weight, super-medium weight and circuitous weight.
4. Gloves without your thumbs
   In 1983, Everlast created the first thumb glove and was accepted by WBC due to fears related to eye injuries associated with the “thumb”. Today, the thumb is attached.
5. Doping tests
   WBC were one of the first to enforce doping tests after the fight, and in 2016 introduced their immaculate boxing program, which required the fighters to want to be classified to register in random tests.
6. Retired
   Masters who retire, still having the title of WBC, are usually awarded with the status of a “retired”, which means that if they return, they will automatically get a shot to the current master. Vitali Klitschko [above] He started it in 2008, when he returned to defeat Samuel Piotr.
7. Four ropes
   It often happened that boxing rings have only three ropes, but WBC made it obligatory for all rings to put up the championships that consist of four.
8. Diamond Championships
   A bit nonsense championship that appears in the “historical” battle in the division. Manny Pacquiao won the first welterweight division when he defeated Miguel Cotto in 2009.
9. WBC Cares
   The organization performs a significant charity work with WBC Cares, which since founded in 2006 has over 160 volunteers around the world (their British branch is managed by Scott Welch).
10. Franchise championship
    The franchise championships, which were introduced with great mockery in 2019, are different than diamond, silver, transient titles and allows masters to move between divisions, ignoring mandatory obligations and doing almost what they like. Probably it’s best not to start with this …

Read our interview with the President of WBC Mauricio Sulaiman HERE

Blackheath-Urocza, a wealthy, relatively deciduous part of the south-eastern London-does not have obvious boxing ties. From sport, he is best known as a starting point in the London marathon and for the apartment of the world’s oldest open rugby club. But return 60 to 90 years, and the surrounding area had a prosperous boxing gym, popular among the best characters of this sport.

The green man was a pub on Blackheath Hill with boxeria above him. He shot in importance as a boxing plant in 1937, when two world warriors, Great Britain Tommy Farr And America Petey Sarron decided to train there. The British weighty title Farr was preparing for Showdown on April 15 with Max Baer, ​​who would ultimately lead him to a heavyweight title defining the career with Joe Louis four months later. The prevailing champion of the world featherweight, Sarron, was preparing to fight with the same Survivist-first in this country-a former British Lightweight King Harry Mizler.

At the beginning of April Boxing news The columnist “The Watcher” visited Green Man Gym, and then using the boxing manager Walter Daya and the seriously striking seafarer Jim Lawlor to see Train Farr and Sarron. The banner above the door proclaiming “Tommy Farr and Petey Sarron Tround here” told him that he was in the right place. However, he arrived too overdue to see how the warriors were working and said that Farr was changing after his session.

“Tommy welcomed me warmly when I regretted that I was too overdue. Jim Lawlor was at hand and he welcomed me a lot, invited me to a cup of tea, and I was very worried about showing me. The wardrobe was equipped with a shower bath, rubbing the table and everything. Large windows overlooked Blackheath and said that here was the perfect place to prepare here. to the competition, because such a wonderful open space – and it could be high – and it could be up – and it could be up.

“Tommy finished the dressing, and then I was taken over to junior high school. A full -size and properly staged ring was erected in a roomy and well -lit room, while ordinary amenities necessary for training had a desire for training. The place was vast enough to issue the program, and Lawlor told me that they introduced several amateur shows.

“The presence of Tommy Farr and Petey Sarron will undoubtedly bring them a lot of publicity and recommendations, because in addition to the fact that the British champion was very enthusiastically focused on it, later I learned from Jimmy Erwin, the world champion manager that he was looking at all training exercises in the south of England, not finding a place that suited him better.”

In 1939, Jock McAVoy trained at Green Man-Swoim with his first training in London-his last fight with Len Harvey’s rival, in a program that set a attendance record in Great Britain over 90,000. Seventeen years later the Green Man’s gym was still busy when Dick Richardson prepared for his clash of December 1956 Nino Valdes.

In the 1960s, the pub became a popular place of music where Paul Simon, Manfred Mann, Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott performed. In 1963, 16-year-old David Bowie played there with his first professional band The Konrads. At this memorable concert of Bowie, until then, the saxophonist entered as the main singer, when the band’s frontman cut his foot on a broken glass in the cloakroom in a pub. Then Bowie took the position of the singer. Unfortunately, for sentimental fans of boxing or music, in 1970 a green man was demolished. Today, there is an indefinite block of flats in its place.