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Boxing History

(Compact) History of two British fighting for global heavyweight belts

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heavyweight

Lennox Lewis in RSF 7 Frank Bruno
October 1993

Frank Maloney did not bother watching boxing at the 1988 Olympic Games. Why would he? He was not the main promoter, and the warrior, whom everyone wanted to sign, was a Canadian.

Reporters in Las Vegas, including Lloyd Honeyghan-Marlon Starling, discovered the relationship between Maloney and the Olympic champion of heavyweight Lennox Lewis-I called to tell him a message.

“They said,” Imagine how good it would be to have a British heavyweight master? “, Maloney remembered. “I said that there is no more chance because Frank Bruno and Gary Mason were with Mickey Duff.

“But they told me that the heavyweight Olympic champion, Lennox Lewis, came from West Ham and that his brother Dennis knew my brother Eugene. I checked this and it turned out that it was true.

“I was chasing Lennox on the phone. Lennox wanted to come to Great Britain to see his brother and said that if I got two tickets in both directions, he came and saw me. I got a credit card and used her for a limit to get Lennox here.”

Maloney convinced the Sport Management Group, Levitt Group, to give them support. “I told them that the British heavyweight champion would be huge for them,” said Maloney and Lewis, they were crowned WBC Belt-Holder in December 1992 after Riddick Bowe, detained by Lewis in the Olympic final, refused to face.

This made Lewis the first British warrior to organize the version of the heavyweight championship since Bob Fitzsimmons, born in Cornwall and raised in Modern Zealand, lost to James J Jeffries in 1899.

Within 93 years, Tommy Farr, Don Cockell, Brian London, Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner and Frank Bruno lost their challenges.

Bruno was beaten by Tim Witherspoon and Mike Tyson, but he kept his place in public feelings, and most fans rooted for him when he fought with Lewis in “Battle of Britain” at Cardiff Arm’s Park in October 1993.

Bruno had the history of accent and intermittent hop, which spoke to British fans, and in half the point he landed enough to overtake one result card, and the other two judges had the level of fighting.

It seemed, however, that the fight turned around Lewis, and after he shattered Bruno on his chin with his left hook, he did not allow the pretender to recover, with his right hands until the judge jumped.

Herbie hide in Ko 7 Michael Bentt
March 1994

Bentt He was brought to give Tommia Morrison to rusty before he challenged Lewis.

Bentt didn’t even give him one round. The fight lasted within 93 seconds. Morrison fell three times, and Great Britain had another belt owner, although at a time when the WBO belt, especially in heavyweight, was barely respected.

Not so many realized that Bentt was a British.

Bentt spent the first six years of his life, living with his aunt in East Dulwich, before settling in Modern York and represented the United States at the World Championships in 1986, where he defeated the defending master Alexander Yagubkin on his way to the bronze medal.

Batt, beaten in the round in his debut Pro, began to shock Morrison and was a home warrior when he defended the title of WBO from Hide at the home of the Millwall football club, The Den.

Bentt wore a Millwall hat at a press conference – before Hide threw him off his head.

Bentt remembered: “I hit him, grabbed me, torn off a suit, grabbed me, fell to my knees, grabbed me, hit me. It was an ugly mess.”

Hide later stated that Bentt caught his genitals during the “ugly mess” and they were both fined in the amount of 10,000 pounds, John Morris, secretary general of the board, describing them as “two stupid youthful men.”

Only 22 years elderly, Hide was astute enough to know that he must hold Bentt’s right hand.

Bentt could not leave the road to the upper right part in the third round and landed on the floor.

Hide dominated to the finish in the seventh round, Bentt later said: “Everything I tried to have had an answer.

“His rhythm was completely unconventional – and he could hit like an atomic bomb. The guy could crunch.”

Bentt has only vague memories of the fight. Later he was taken to the hospital and spent 98 hours in a coma before full recovery.

Hide was not aware of Bentt’s rush to the hospital when he said the press: “I want you to kill and kiss my ass. I want you to all kill and say:” You are the greatest. ” Because I am. “

Henry Akinwande at PTS 12 Scott Welch
January 1997

Akinwande was hefty weight of Great Britain.

Born in London, he grew up in Nigeria and returned to England as a teenager to continue his boxing career – contrary to his father’s wishes. Gangling Akinwande left Great Britain to Florida after 27 professional fights (one draw), feeling underestimated and together with Don Turner in his corner, he claimed that the free (and still slightly known) style in style, putting Jeremy Williams with a poem right hand in three rounds.

Then came the 10th round of the detention of Aleksander Zolkin in Las Vegas and in the coloration, Welch overtook Daniel Eduardo Neto.
The Argentinean had previously fought for the title of WBO, losing in two rounds with Francesco Damiani and defeating him “The Brighton Rock” a must -see for Akinwande belt.

Welch was against. In the previous 32 fights, no one found a way to defeat Akinwande. Many even fought for a glove on him.

Akinwande had 6 feet 7 inch-the highest boxer in the world-I had an 82-inch range that stopped opponents. Five inches shorter, Welch knew that he was not going to Outbox Akinwande, but a fanal that he could reconcile him.

He tried to start the fight against Akinwande at a press conference and had to be stopped during the judge’s instructions, but after the Akinwande bell departure he was holding the game plan. He got a welch at the end of his stab – and held him there. For 12 rounds

It wasn’t until the fifth round that Welch only achieved significant success. Akinwande felt the strength of his right hand and wrapped him with his arms.
Welch was doing well to go through the sixth and seventh round and stopped the crowd behind him when he attacked the right hook of the 10th round that hit Akinwande’s jaw.

Akinwande took a few steps back, hit the gloves and waved the welch forward. Akinwande made another move, landing crispy to the jaw, and the unilateral competition lasted.

Coach Jim McDonnell pulled out a photo of the two-year-old son Welch, Tommy-Teraz of the invincible professional-the last round and begged: “Do it for him!” But the task was too great and on the last bell only one of the three judges gave the claimant a round.

“I couldn’t raise the pace,” said Welch. “Perhaps it turned out to me.”

Lennox Lewis in DQ 5 Henry Akinwande
July 1997

There were more in Stateline in Nevada than the WBC Lewis belt in Stateline, Nevada.

Two weeks earlier, Mike Tyson was thrown out of his rematch against Evander Holyfield for playing part of the ear and John Morris, secretary general of the British control Council and WBC supervisor, defined the meaning of Lewis-Akinwande for sport.
He said: “This is a fight that can start a novel beginning of heavyweight boxing, show that his spirit and image do not have to be drawn into the gutter.

“This is the first fight since Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear, and Lennox Lewis and Henry Akinwande not only fight for themselves, but for the true meaning of their sport. I know them well and I know that they are good fighters and good people.”

Not everyone in England liked Akinwande.

He said before the fight: “Everywhere I go, except for England, people love to watch me.”

Fans in England could remember the heavyweight final of ABA in 1986, when Akinwande threw himself on the canvas after disqualification against Eri Cardouza of Northampton or his reaction to his exit from the Olympic Games in Seoul from 1988.

Akinwande said: “I didn’t believe in myself. What can I do?”

He also did not talk with great trust in the fight with Lewis, and after Judge Mills Lane told him, who was also responsible for Holyfield-Tyson II, in the opening minute for holding, he lost point second.

Coach Don Turner tried to get some fight from the warrior, telling him: “He strikes you because you don’t hit him,” and in the third round Akinwande hit Lewis with his right right, which made the master’s knee graze the canvas.

Lane later admits that he should count to Lewis, but he got it in the fifth round when he pulled Akinwande out of Lewis, telling him: “That’s all, he left” before he pushed him back to the corner.

Reporters noticed that Akinwande was close to tears at a press conference after the fight.

Read Steve Bunce on Lennox Lewis vs Frank Bruno HERE

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Boxing History

Appreciate the amazing Alan Richardson

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Alan Richardson

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.

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Boxing History

10 times WBC changed the game

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Vitali Klitschko WBC

  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

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Boxing History

The Green Man: The Pub/Boxing Gym, which attracted Tommy Farr, David Bowie and more

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Tommy Farr

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.

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