Tommy Tiger, a Nigerian boxer who settled in Leicester, is my great favorite in the class of journeymen from the behind schedule 1950s and the 1960s.

He took part in 120 professional competitions, only 30 managed to win, but during this period it was popular around the British rings. Nowadays, there are many journeymen with discs such as Tommy, but then it was quite scarce. He was one of the last boxers from Great Britain, who achieved 100 competitions before they came out of fashion for about 20 years, in the seventies. Ray Fallone was the last of the group.

Tommy began in his native Nigeria, where in 1958 he took part in the Nigerian featherweight. He twisted other boys there who also came to Great Britain to earn better money, with Sammy Etioloja, Ola Michael, Nye Ankrah and Love Allociee among them. He arrived in 1959 and quickly settled with a manager from Leicester, Johnny Griffin. Among the other Stablemas were Jimmy Assani, Sunlit Ohmegies, Costa Lawrence and Joe Falcon, for Griffin specializing in gathering boys from the whole community. I am quite sure that Tommy will be up to date, not only with the decisions, but also with his size of the handbag, because black fighters at that time were not treated as well as they should. This is not a reflection on Griffin, who could try the most challenging for his boys, but the promoters will turn the screws to him to accept a lower bag.

Perhaps Tommy is best remembered at two competitions he had with the upcoming Ken Buchanan in 1966. Both competitions took place at the National Sporting Club, and then at the Royal cafe in West End in London. . Bn The report for the fight is compact and sweet, but reveals: “former master ABA, Ken Buchanan, clearly overtook Tommy Tiger in eight rounds, but he knew he had a fight when the last bell sounded.”

Buchanan was joyful, being able to meet him again, two and a half months later and this time Buchanan showed his authority in what was only his seventh pro. “Ken Buchanan, one of the most talented perspectives of Great Britain, lost six and a quarter of a pound at Tommy Tiger, and ended the winner of points in eight rounds. Lewy JABA SCOTA dominated the fight and often hit a demanding tiger with three or four stabs unanswered. Buchanan usually had silent members who exploded with natural applause with their brilliant and rapid boxing. “

After this fight, Tommy met another master ABA, Al White of Dulwich, at Baths Manor Place in Walworth. Such a hat-trick for the tiger in 1966, after Ron Smith from Liverpool, in a fight immediately preceding the second fight with Buchanan. Smith Outhout Boxed Tiger in Blackpool, and then White did the same, with Bn Stating that “Buchanan, Smith and White everyone knows that they had to fight before leaving the ring. Tiger takes everything on the road to a stab, he is tireless and can throw a useful compact blow to the head and body. He is almost the best featherlight trial horse in the industry. “

Tommy also packed Maurice Cullen, Vic Andreetti, Des Rea, Pat McCormack I, in his last competition, Jim Watt. They were all British champions and everyone was good, and Watt became a global featherlight champion in 1979. Tiger also had a good series with Vic Chandler from Bermondsey, and he defeated Ray Fallone at the Battle of Centurions in 1968.

When he finally hung the gloves, in 1969 Tommy remained in Leicester, where he lived throughout his career, after loyally staying with Griffin for eleven years, and became a coach at East Goscote ABC, especially interested in the development of boxers.

His real name is Babatunde Taiwo and I wonder if he is still nearby. During the day he was a cracking warrior.

In the early years of the last century in Liverpool there were two boxing places in the direct competition: Malakoff Club at the Cleveland Square and Gymnyteic Club at Dale Street, half a mile up.

These were two main places in the city at that time, and on March 31, 1902, the Gymnastic Club organized a tournament in which Jack FairClough from St helens faced a local boy, Billy Bierley in twenty rounds. Earlier that evening, the judge had a fight in which American Billy Barrett, in two rounds, knocked out Billy Willoughby, a manchester warrior. Barrett came to Great Britain at the beginning of this year and as the previous opponent of the “terrible” Terry McGovern, former world champion in a featherweight, he mixed up in a lofty company. He wrote campaigns in Great Britain until 1904, making Liverpool his base.

When the main event took place, nothing happened for eight rounds, and the judge had enough that he left the ring, leaving the competition in Aleyance. He could simply announce “no competition”, but he decided to tidy, outraged by fighters. Another judge, Dan Whelligan, took control, and the fight ended as a draw. The name of the original referee was Kinsell, and when I saw it in the report, I immediately thought about the weighty weight of Liverpool from the 70s Paul Kinsella. It wasn’t until last year that another Liverpool warrior with this name, Harry Kinsella, made his debut with Dale Street, at Echo Arena.

I am very excited when I can make these connections for over 120 years of boxing history in one city. I have no idea if the annoyed judge in 1902 is any relationship of Harry and Paweł, but I strongly suspect that he is.

Another example is Jim and Billy Pennington from Patricoft in Manchester. Both of these boys were busy at the same time as Barrett and fought in different places in the city. As an official of the board, I met Joe Pennington, the leading airy of the Northside boxing club, several times and I can’t wonder if his boxing origin returns to Jim and Billy. I will have to ask him when I see him.

Paul Kinsella was a tough man. He had only 12 professional competitions during his career, which lasted in 1975–1978, but left his trail. He never boxed in his hometown, fighting instead of London, under the best coach, George Francis. As an amateur Paweł, he won national schools, Junior ABA, the Royal Championships and the northern counties. He was disturbing in the 1975 semi -final, losing to Garfield Mcewan from Birmingham Rum Borner ABC. He briefly served as a royal Marine, hence his title of Navy.

In a sensational professional debut, Pat Quinn from Manchester blew up in just 50 seconds at the English -American sports club at the Hilton Hotel London, before Prince Charles. He was undefeated in his first six fights before the wheels fell. Was rated at 10 in Bn Rankings from March 1976 together with my previous amateur winner, Garfield Mcewan at 11 and Eddie Fenton, whom I presented in the article in September 2020, at 12.

Kinsella and Fenton were matched in the next month in six runes in the Royal Albert Hall, on the undercard of the demolition of Billy Knight Alan Minter. Under the headline “Kinsella failures in a thriller”, Bn He informed that Larry O’Connell had stopped the fight on the fourth, officially due to the poorly divided upper lip, with Kinsell beaten. “It was the most bruise preliminary fight of the year, and few main events matching effort, drama or emotions,” we wrote. Paul was never the same after this competition, but I remember him as one of the Kinsells from Liverpool, a proper boxing city.

For anyone who reads Bn 40 or 50 years ago, the 1950s were often presented as a golden age for British boxing. This will have a lot in common with the age of correspondents, with many of them to start a journalistic career at the beginning of this decade, and with nostalgia what it is, a significant photo was painted from the era.

In 1950, 770 tournaments were held in the country. In 1959 it was only 240. It was a rather shocking fall and it largely caused the arrival of television and an economic boom that took place over the years. In 1948, over 1,000 tournaments took place in Great Britain, so until 1950 the rot was already starting.

At the beginning of the decade, Freddie Mills was a world -class airy champion, but he lost this coat by the end of January. In what turned out to be the last struggle of Mils’s career, he was knocked out in 10 rounds by American, Joey Maxima in the exhibition hall, Earls Court. Three months later, Terry Allen raised the empty title of World Flyweight, beating Honore Pratsi compared to the full 15 on the Harringay Arena. Then Allen lost the crown in his first defense, losing to Dado Marino in Honolulu in August 1950. Despite this, Britiska could still say that he had two world champions in the 1950s, and the decade was only nine months elderly.

Randolph Turpin was the hottest prospect of Great Britain in 1950 and proved his value, defeating Ray Robinson’s great sugar in the one that was never avoided in July 1951 in Court Earls. It was one of the best victories that the British warrior ever achieved. Sixty -four days later he was crushed by Robinson in a return in Recent York. And it was that in the 1950s there will be no longer British world champions, as long as Terry Downes and Johnny Caldwell in 1961. Six British fighters tried to win world awards for the rest of the decade and everyone was defeated comprehensively. We had two pretenders in heavyweight, and Don Cockell fell at the hands of all time, Rocky Marciano, in the absurdly diminutive ring in 1955, and then Brian London was crushed by Floyd Patterson in 11 rounds in Indianapolis in 1959. Both men fought boldly, but they were both of their depth.

There were no British contenders either in a featherweight or welterweight, but in a airy weight Dave Charnley became the first fighter of Great Britain who questioned the world championship title from Jacek Kid Berg, 28 years earlier. Charnley fought with “Ancient Bones” by Joe Brown in Houston, Texas in December 1959 and lost in the average eye stop in sixth place, when behind all three results cards.

No wonder that it was lighter weights in which the world title attempts. In Bantamweight Danny O’Sullivan, the great star of Snooker, Ronnie O’Sullivan, recently lost in the European title challenge after it was not less than ten times. A few months later, in December 1950, he traveled to South Africa to deal with the great VIC for the title of world champion. This time, Danny hit deck 14 – yes, fourteen – opportunities, but he went at a distance. In 1952, this tough man from Scotland, Peter Keenan, also lost in Toweeel in the world title. Dai Dower was our Flyight weight representative for World Honors, and his defeat of the Argentine Pascal Perez in March 1957 was destructive. Dai had an advantage of almost six pounds, but was crushed in one round before a crowd of 85,000 in Buenos Aires.

In the 1960s, it would be a slightly greater success for British fighters, but only in the 70s and 80s Great Britain really accelerated and laid a mark on World Boxing, producing a series of really great world champions.