#64: ‘Sweet Fighting Man’ by Melanie Lloyd

‘Sweet Fighting Man – Inside Stories from British Boxers’ is a collection of 14 interviews with former British boxers, compiled by Melanie Lloyd.

Book the first in what is now a series of three books. I ordered the second volume at the same time as the first so that will feature on the blog sometime in the near future.

As with all collections of interviews, the subject matter will offer differing levels of interest to different readers, depending on their personal preferences when it comes to boxing personalities and eras. I’ve selected four interviews which grabbed my attention:

Steve Robinson is a Welsh boxer famous for taking a WBO world featherweight title fight against John Davison and winning. Robinson defended his title seven times before surrendering it to Prince Naseem Hamed. Incidentally, the story of his last-minute title fight is the subject of one of my favourite boxing documentaries, part of the BBC’s Legends of Welsh Sport series.

Mickey Cantwell is a boxer I’ve heard a lot about but I knew little about his career. Mickey grew up with my uncle and was well-known for winding up the lads in the local area, most of whom were considerably bigger than him, but no one could ever get hold of him because he was too quick and slippery. I’m glad I’ve got a better sense of his boxing career to go along with the stories my uncle Brian has told me.

Colin Dunne, The Dynamo, is a former WBU world lightweight champion originally from Liverpool but based in north London as a professional. Dunne’s face is one that I recognise most, as his fight posters are abundant at Islington Boxing Club, where my wife and I train on a Saturday morning (and any day I can get out of work). Dunne trained at IBC when he first came to London, as his trainer Colin Lake was based there at the time.

Spencer Oliver was European super-bantamweight until his forced retirement after a serious head injury, while defending that title against Sergey Devakov in 1998. It’s funny how coincidences present themselves; at the recent Haringey Box Cup at Alexandra Palace, I stopped a man wearing a Ringside Charitable Trust t-shirt, and asked him if he was involved with the charity. It turned out he’s a trustee of the charity, and none other than Finchley ABC legend John Oliver, Spencer’s uncle. We had a brilliant chat which briefly touched on how much the charity means to him, with his own brush with injury and his nephew’s near life-ending experience in the ring. I spent a fantastic hour with John and his wife chatting about his career as a boxer and trainer – hopefully it won’t be long before I’m reading about his life!

Other interview subjects include:
Jimmy Tibbs
James Cook
Billy Walker
Crawford Ashley
Bob Paget
Peter Buckley
Nobby Nobbs
Alan Minter
Johnny McManus
Howard Winstone