IT says a lot about the social importance of boxing that monuments are being unveiled around the world in honor of the great boxers of the last over 100 years. The latest is a plaque commemorating the world heavyweight title fight between Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson. It stands on a footpath in Rushcutters Bay in Sydney, Australia, near the former Sydney Stadium where the 1908 fight took place.

Johnson chased Burns around the world to get the fight. As a black man in the early 20th century, he fought his greatest battle outside the ring, fighting against widespread racism, making securing a shot at the biggest prize in sports a monumental one.

Jack followed Tommy to London, where the latter engaged in several subtle fights, defeating outclassed Brits Gunner Moir and Jack Palmer. Upon arrival, Johnson visited Arthur “Peggy” Bettinson at the National Sporting Club in Covent Garden, and Peggy offered to arrange a world title fight between him and Burns for a fee of $12,500. Burns, however, found the offer ridiculously low and demanded $30,000 to defend against Johnson.

After destroying Wexford’s Jem Roche in the Dublin round, Tommy went to Paris for a few fights and Jack followed him. After knocking out London’s Jewey Smith and Australia’s Bill Squires in the French capital, Burns was tempted to travel to Australia for a rematch with Squires and a fight with another Australian, Bill Lang.

Australian promoter Hugh D. (“Huge Deal”) McIntosh paid Burns handsomely for these two simple defenses and began collecting the $30,000 Tommy was asking for to fight Johnson. Already funded, McIntosh wrote to Johnson in London and offered him $5,000 to challenge Burns for the world crown in Sydney. Even though Jack didn’t like having to accept one-sixth of what the champion was going to receive, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

They met on Boxing Day 1908 in an open-air stadium originally built for the Burns-Squires fight. Twenty thousand fans sat inside the stadium, while about 30,000 stayed outside, climbing trees or telegraph poles to catch a glimpse of the action. The event wowed the world – it was the first time a black man had fought for the world heavyweight crown – but it turned out to be a complete mismatch. In fact, the 5-foot-10, 167-pound Burns had no chance of beating his infinitely more qualified 6-foot-1, 200-pound opponent.

After a prolonged, one-sided beating, Tommy was saved from further punishment when the police stopped the fight in the 14th round. Johnson was declared the winner and the first black world heavyweight boxing champion. Although initially conceived as a short-lived structure, Sydney’s Rushcutters Bay Stadium was later enlarged and covered. It remained an iconic boxing and entertainment venue until its demolition in 1970.

Ten thousand miles away, another plaque was erected in Pimlico, London, honoring Olympic boxing champion Harry Mallin. It is set at Peel House, where Mallin spent most of his working life as a policeman. Arguably the greatest amateur in British history, Harry left the sport with an undefeated record after over 300 fights. He won Olympic gold medals in 1920 and 1924 and five straight ABA titles (1919-23).

After leaving the ring, Harry remained involved with boxing. He managed the British boxing teams at the 1936 and 1952 Olympics and was a life vice-president of the ABA. He served in the Metropolitan Police for five years above normal retirement age, retiring in 1952 with the rank of sergeant-instructor. The Harry Mallin plaque was exhibited by English Heritage last year, but for some reason it seems to have slipped by unnoticed. It is a worthy addition to the growing list of memorials to British boxing heroes.

These are the most famed 91 seconds in all of boxing, which took place on this day, Monday, June 1988. 31 years ago on this very day, the peak and seemingly unbeatable Mike Tyson faced a man who, in the opinion of a handful of good judges, was the only remaining fighter capable of testing him; maybe even beat him.

The fight, dubbed “Once and For All,” took place at a swanky hotel owned by a certain Donald Trump, The Trump Plaza. Everyone who was anyone was there – Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone and Madonna, to name just a handful of the celebrities in attendance – and the fight was the biggest cash-in in sports history at the time. Unfortunately, those who expected a great fight were disappointed.

Two undefeated fighters who had legitimate claims to the heavyweight throne – Tyson won the WBC/WBA and IBF belts, and Spinks won the lineal title after angering Larry Holmes in 1985 – finally faced each other. Tyson, who was only 21 years ancient (he turned 22 three days after the fight), had a record of 34-0 (30), while the 31-year-old Spinks was perfect with a record of 31-0 (21). Despite these adequate qualifications, the fight turned out to be a huge mismatch/anticlimax.

Spinks, a fighter Tyson admired as a teenager while watching him on TV, seemed completely uninterested in the fight as he climbed the ropes in Atlantic City. Much has been written about Spinks’ apparent fear and even fear of what was about to happen to him. He froze and Tyson sensed that his secretiveness had reached another of his victims. Tyson, who had many distractions outside the ring – chief among them the mess of his marriage to Robin Gives – didn’t let any of them bother him; in fact, he used chaos as additional fuel for his fire. He really wanted to hurt Spinks, and everyone has probably read the story about how Tyson, quite literally, was punching holes in his dressing room wall when Spinks’ manager, Butch Lewis, came in to check his gloves before the fight could start.

The fight was over in the blink of an eye. Tyson was smoking when he left the house and after just a minute he sent his fighter a nasty body shot; Spinks is forced to kneel on the ropes. When he rose, the former delicate heavyweight king, who had made history by becoming the first delicate heavyweight ruler to climb to the top and win heavyweight gold, was free from his misery. A sizzling left-right combination to the head knocked Spinks down, almost through the ropes and out of the ring. Spinks tried to get up but was completely gone and was taken down in just 91 seconds.

Tyson barely celebrated, even though millions of his fans did. Spinks later claimed that he “came to fight like I said” but had absolutely nothing to bother Tyson with. As it turned out, this was Tyson’s last truly great performance. He peaked at the age of almost 22, and although he held the undisputed heavyweight title for almost two years, his skills were very slowly eroded; finally to the point where a huge outsider in James Douglas was able to knock him out in 1990.

But that night against Spinks, Tyson’s defeat seemed almost impossible. Tyson had achieved everything he set out to do when he turned professional less than three and a half years earlier.

AFTER my successful blogs informing you about the greatest warrior of all time, this week it’s the turn of the greatest British warrior of all time. I believe that man is Scottish legend Ken Buchanan.

As I said last week, it’s not about yesterday’s players beating today’s players or vice versa, it’s about what they did in their era against the best that were around, and Ken – I think – outshined them all.

I considered many great fighters, including John Conteh, Randolph Turpin, Ted Kid Lewis, Jack Kid Berg, Carl Froch, Joe Calzaghe, Howard Winstone, Jimmy Wilde and even Lennox Lewis, but none matched Buchanan as my all-time greatest British fighter.

I had the pleasure of fighting on the same list as Ken in 1969 (I say fight, my opponent was fighting, I was just practicing shooting). Ken was 23-0 when he fought for the British Lightweight title against Maurice Cullen. Buchanan won by knockout in the 11th round at the National Sporting Club in Mayfair in front of an all-male audience who were only allowed to cheer during the break between rounds.

He continued to defeat world-renowned fighters such as Angel Garcia, but tasted his first defeat when he lost a 15-round decision in Madrid to Miguel Velazquez, who went on to win the welterweight world title. He defeated Velasquez in a rematch, defeated Chris Fernandez and defended his British title against Brian Hudson.

That year he traveled again, this time to Puerto Rico, to challenge legendary Panamanian Ismael Laguna for the WBA lightweight title, whom he defeated by decision over 15 rounds in scorching heat. The WBA was not recognized by the British Boxing Board of Control at the time and he was unable to defend his title at home. Meanwhile, after 10 rounds at Madison Square Garden, he had determined that Denato Paduano would be ranked number one in the world, and in February the following year he defeated Rubén Navarro in Los Angeles for the WBC title, became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world, and was then allowed to defend in Great Britain. There, he knocked out Carlos Hernandez, the former welterweight world champion, before returning to Madison Square Garden for another unanimous decision over Ismael Laguna. Two fights (and wins) later, he returned to Novel York to defend his title against undefeated Roberto Duran. The legendary Panamanian won after a controversial hit and stop, but he always cited Buchanan as his toughest opponent – praise indeed.

The Scot has fought against the best in the world in places such as Puerto Rico, Panama, South Africa, Japan, Canada, Los Angeles and across Europe, fighting on five different continents. He fought at Madison Square Garden five times and won once, with Muhammad Ali as his main supporter. He was voted the best European fighter to ever fight in the USA. He was the only British fighter to ever win the American Boxing Writers’ Fighter of the Year, defeating the likes of Ali and Frazier that year. He was also inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year and awarded an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen.

Here’s to it!