Boxing in Great Britain has always had a powerful connection with football fields. In recent years, Tony Bellew He fought at Goodison Park and Josh Warrington at Elland Road, while Ricky Hatton boxed before nearly 60,000 people in Manchester Stadium, now known as the Etihad stadium. In 1993, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank aroused a classic meeting in Ancient Trafford. The most celebrated of all, Wembley Stadium was the scene of one of the largest British competitions. The first took place in 1924, when Jack Bloomfield met American, Tommy Gibbons, in a program that went bankrupt the promoter, while Muhammad Ali and Henry Cooper there in 1963.

Unfortunately, some of these great stadiums have been demolished. For the second time, when Cooper crossed the gloves from Ali, on this occasion for the heavyweight world championships, he was in Highbury in 1966. Do not outdo, the great rivals of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, allowed the operate of White Hart Lane, also a long time ago, for Frank Bruno and Joe Bug in 1987 in 1987. Featherlight massive title, rejecting Harvey’s great linen. Elsewhere Bombardier Billy Wells in St James’ Park, Newcastle, in 1916, where he defeated Dick Smith from Woolwich for the title of British heavyweight.

This week I would like to talk about a series of high -class programs that took place in 1948–1951 in Selhurst Park, the Crystal Palace house, now so well in the Premier League. The land was built in 1924, but there was no boxing there after the war, when the original Crystal Palace, a magnificent glass structure built in 1851, was nearby. This building, which burned on Earth in 1936, regularly performed in boxing in the 1930s, both in the room and in the open air.

In 1948 there was an extremely good medium yield, airy and heavyweight from Croydon and nearby. Selhurst Park was only a few kilometers from here, so it was an obvious place to organize vast -scale events in this area. After the war, the sport will then flourish, with a vast number of desperate people, to return to some normality after six years of savings and difficulties. I suspect that something similar can happen this year.

Six concerts were held on Earth in this four -year period and all of them took place, as you can expect in the summer months. The weather was not only more reliable in the case of outdoor shows, but there was no football with which you could compete. The promoters of the first five events were Bill Goodwin and Alf Hart, and for the last Ron Johnson in 1951.

Albert Finch was the undoubted star of these programs [pictured above]. In 1950 he ruled the British medium champion, defeating Dick Turpin for the title, then lost him with his brother Dick, Randolph, six months later. During the first performance in Selhurst Park, in 1948, Finch beat Jock Taylor from Sidcup, in seven rounds on the bill crowned by another Croydon Middle, Mark Hart. Nine weeks later, Finch returned to win the eliminator of the Southern Medium Southern weight title against Bert Sanders Kilburn before 10,000 people. Then he defeated Hart for this title in All-Croydon, staged in the city of Davis Theater.

In 1949, in his last fight, before he challenged Dick Turpin in his first, losing, offering the British title, Finch knocked Bob Cleavera in seven rounds on earth. He returned there the next summer, in his first competition as a novel champion, when he detained Juan Torrecilla from Spain in the third. In his last duel in Selhurst, Park Finch stuck the South African Billy Wood in five rounds in May 1951. He won all five competitions at the stadium, four of them at a distance and as the crowd loved him. Finch died in 2003, but many are remembered by many in Croydon and outside.

I felt like All my career It was a challenge.

I didn’t get gigantic breaks, I didn’t get the exhibition that others did. I have always had the highest respect for both Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns and I am sure they had the same for me. Leonard told me that there would be a fight between me and him, and I knew it happened one day.

As for Hearns, I always knew that Tommy was a good warrior with a good right hand. He was statuesque, slender and very cunning. He always had good management behind him. He was a boy No. 1 of Manny Steward. And Manny looked after him very much, preparing for his fight. But I always counted on the day when I and he met.

[The fight should have happened two years before but Hearns pulled out with an injured finger]. I said, “What? I know guys who would take this payment and cut off this little pink. I thought, to be straightforward, he wasn’t sure of the fight because he saw me as a real threat. I thought it was an excuse.

I needed a gigantic fight and someone who was a potential threat to me. Basically, I cleaned my division and needed fresh meat. I needed a up-to-date and other kind of challenge. Someone who people thought can beat me. It sold tickets. But I got better and achieved a perfect number in the right time. He said he was going to reject my bald head. I thought: “Great, it means that it will appear and I will get payment.” But I tried not to scare him in case he didn’t get on the ring with me. I was polite and tranquil because I didn’t want him to run away.

Entering the fight I was a nasty guy. I wanted war. And there was no question of hell that he was going to take my title. I achieved my improvement and I was more hungry than ever. It was thrilling and electrifying for me and I knew it would be a drama.

I tried to keep the pressure on the whole fight. And I had a solution to everything he had. I had to put pressure if it boxes. The first round was too thrilling and too blurred. I was surprised that he could take as many blows as. He tried to fly me. I followed him non-stop.

I was not lucky in boxing, and things do not go in my power because of my politics. And I see it all flashing before my eyes when I was cut. I thought: “They are trying to steal him and take away from me.”

I went to the doctor and he asked: “How do you feel? Do you see? So I said,” Well, I don’t miss him, right? ” So he said, “Go further” and I thought, “Oh, he is [Hearns] I’m going to get it now. I became even more aggressive and the monster left.

I never wanted to kill another man in the ring. But everything could happen if he survived. I thought I would hurt him really badly, the adrenaline flowed so much. You have to imagine it would do it a tragedy. The whole conversation comes out in the ring. I didn’t finish and I was ready for more. I was in such a huge shape. But thank God he was fine, and the fight ended when it happened.

[In the end] It was worth all the fights and sacrifices. I wasn’t the shiny star for all the fights, being a bad guy, having this deadly image. They never looked at my artistic side. I was a switch. I was a complete warrior. I think that at that time it was the climax of my career. People now knew that I was a great warrior. I wanted to be the best and I was. And now people look at me as a legend.

Incredible.

Wembley Arena, London, England – September 27, 1980.

On this day, the demanding -earned coronation of the great warrior as a world champion in medium weight was overshadowed by events that led to the fact that the fight was called “ashamed of British boxing.” Marvin HaglerThe terrifying shaved head of Southpaw from Brockton, Massachusetts, challenged the British hero Alan Minter for the world crown. Before the fight, there was controversy with Minter, who was the second defense of his belt, infamously declaring how “no black man would never accept my title.” After the fight, there was controversy in the form of wicked ugly scenes after the fight. If you could call it a fight. A bloody sculpture can be a more true description of 7 minutes and 45 seconds that lasted.

Hagler, hungry (see starving) and still smart “being robbed” in his challenge from 1979 of the then Champion Vito Antuofermo, and the fight was a draw at the end of 15 exhausting rounds, she was a petite weakness against Minter and decided to break through to the title at that time. Minter, who won the title, deciding about Vito and stopped him in the first defense of the title, had no idea what was for him against his hunger pretender.

From the very beginning, Hagler was a defender’s master, soon opening a nasty cut above Minter’s left eye. Soon blood belonged, the minister suffered a total of four cuts to the end (later needing 15 seams). Hagler was the personification of a warrior who was simply not denied. Minter was arrested on his feet, trying to fight through the blood, and then more slaughter broke out. Minter’s “fans”, most of them drunk, felt that Hagler was knocked down his hero and that his shaved dome caused terrible cuts of the face, not his fists. Soon a bottle of beer and cans was fired on the ring.

Hagler, on his knees celebrating his great win, was protected by a human shield created by his corner men. Commentator Harry Carpenter was not so lucky: “I just hit the head with a bottle,” Carpenter informed the television audience, slightly noticeable in his words. It was a ghostly scene, and later Mickey Duff, the head of Mintera, apologized to “for everyone in boxing in this country.”

Hagler was so indignant that he vowed that he would never return to Great Britain again. Minter was taken to the hospital.

Although his great moment was broken, Hagler was as determined as always, if not more, to maintain a strongly beloved world title – the one who worked so demanding and so long to earn. Indeed, there was a great reign of the title, and Hagler ruled the world for almost seven long years.

Today, looking back, Hagler has respect for Minter and Anddufermo. During a boxing dinner a few years ago, the wonderful Marvin remembered both his unsuccessful title and his successful.

“First of all, I want to talk about Vito Antuofermo,” said Hagler, when he was asked that he finally became the world champion, defeating Minter.

“I Give Antoufermo a Lot of Credit, Because He Was A Little Bull. He was Kinda Tough and at Knew It and I Trained Very Difficult for AntoFermo. And I Tell You, heery And I Had a Lot of Footwork and Movement and I Felt as Though and Beat Him, But at the end, when the smoke Cleared, I Lost and he won because he was [still] master. I thought it was unfair and I thought that a lot of policy was involved. But one thing that was very frosty was when I went down the stairs, Joe Louis, I remember, grabbed my hand and said: “Hey, kid, you won this fight, don’t give up.” I said, “Tough, no, I’m coming back to the gym.”

“So I focused on Alan Minter. At that time I never knew so much about Alan Minter, except that I knew that I should be next in the queue, a return match with Anoufermo. It caught a lot of anger in myself – and you don’t want me to go crazy (laughs). So I think that when the fire started to burn. [the title] And he didn’t deserve it. Every day I ran next to the ocean and dreamed about it by becoming the world champion. I had to go through this water to take what I wanted.

“But to this day I thank Alan Minter for giving me an opportunity. He was a respected master and showed me what a master he was, although he was a three -hand stop. He took a lot of punishment, but he showed me a lot of courage. All the things that happened after I didn’t really blind, because I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content Joyful that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content that I was so content. [policemen]. But these are just a handful of people who made the whole country look bad. “

A really unforgettable day in the British history of boxing. If not for pleasant reasons.