EDITOR’S LETTER
Remembering Jim Evans, a man who devoted his life to boxing
Paying tribute to the late Jim Evans
JIM EVANS made his way down the stairs of his home in Maidenhead, turned right into the kitchen, smiled at his darling wife Georgina, sipped the tea she’d made exactly the way he liked it, placed a newspaper under his arm, walked outside through the patio doors, down the steps into his garden, turned left at the bottom, trotted down a small path, then unlocked the door to his own private gym, turned on the lights and eased himself into his favourite armchair. Paradise.
“It just feels like home in here,” Jim said in 2010. It was essentially a converted shed, but a big one his sons Graham and Justin erected after Jim bought a portion of his neighbour’s garden to accommodate it. Inside was everything he required. Bags at the back, ring in the middle, gloves, training paraphernalia, fighters’ training charts and a sign that read ‘Jim’s Gym’ hanging up on the walls. And, of course, that beaten old armchair nestled in the corner. Fighters and trainers of all different shapes, sizes and abilities would use the gym regularly and get advice from the old master.
On that summer’s day both Michael Sprott and Patrick Mendy came along and Jim, though his deteriorating health meant he could no longer hold the pads, put them through their paces.
Rarely moving from his chair, he watched carefully and did not hold back if he felt his charges were doing things incorrectly.
“No, no, no!” he shouted at Mendy. “Feint, then a left to the head, bend your knees and then a right under the heart. Think about what you’re doing.” Then he turned to me, rolled his eyes, and whispered, “He’s a bit special that kid. He reminds me of Dick Tiger, he can go all the way. But he’s got to listen to me and he doesn’t always listen, he’s in too much of a rush.”
Mendy had recently won the supermiddleweight Prizefighter competition, netting his coach £2,000 thanks to a bet Jim placed on the 10/1 outsider to show the youngster how much he believed in him. But Mendy, then only 19, was already a little giddy with the success. He and Jim would separate and he would never become the next Dick Tiger. Evans would always speak from the heart and if the truth meant upsetting someone, so be it. Jim would tolerate flaws in technique but he would never put up with a lack of effort or dishonesty.
“As long as they tried their best, whether they were at the top of the bill or the bottom, he didn’t mind,” top matchmaker and trainer Mervyn Turner told Boxing News. “But if they didn’t, boy, they’d get a b ***** king!”
Sprott would get the odd b ***** king. Evans didn’t hold back when he felt Sprott hadn’t given his all against Robert Helenius in 2013. After taking the heavyweight all over the world, Jim refused to work with him anymore when he started to take too many punches to the head. Sprott didn’t agree but wouldn’t hold Evans’ decision against him.
“Jim did so much for me and we had so many great times together,” Sprott said