AUTOGRAPH MEMORIES
I ENJOYED reading Steve Bunce’s piece in last week’s issue of Boxing News (January 14). I agree with him that you can’t beat a good autograph. It reminded me of being at York Hall with my young son and asking Paul “Scrap Iron” Ryan for his smudge for my boy. Despite telling him how to spell Casey, he still spelt it with a ‘K’! My favourite autograph memory, however, came at The Point in Dublin. As we were leaving the arena, the crowd all swarmed over to Ricky Hatton. Meanwhile, I noticed Emanuel Steward, who’d been working with Andy Lee that night. I went over to Emanuel and asked him if he’d mind signing an autograph. We ended up having a lovely chat for five minutes – what a gent! That was the last show at The Point and it was headlined by Bernard Dunne being stopped by Kiko Martinez. Eddie Crispin
SUPER-FLYWEIGHT vs LIGHTWEIGHT
THERE’S lots of talk at the moment about a new and exciting era at 135lbs, and rightly so, given the quality of the top fighters at lightweight. Unfortunately, however, due to promotional politics, it’s unlikely that we’ll see them all face each other in the near future. With this in mind, I think that we should take a look south. There are four boxers at 115lbs – Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai – who have all shared the ring numerous times, with more fights among this group in the offing. With other exciting superfly-weights also in the mix, the division is on fire. James Ingleby
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
PLEASE can you wish a happy 82nd birthday to our dad, Thomas Francis Gillam, who was born in Kilburn, London on January 18, 1939. He has been an avid reader of Boxing News for 72 years – he has never missed a copy! When he was 10 years old, his uncle, a local boxer called Bert Sanders, lent him a copy of
BN and since then he has been hooked. He went on to join Stowe Boxing Club in Maida Vale and has been a boxing fan ever since. Neil, Lynda, Chris and Becki
Wishing you a very happy birthday, Thomas! Thank you for being such a loyal reader for all these years. From everyone at Boxing News.
SPARE A THOUGHT
NOW that we have a ludicrous amount of world titles in each division to contend with, could they not at least make the belts a bit smaller? It’s hard enough for Anthony Joshua to hold them all, so spare a thought for the lightweights… John R. Smith