ESTEEMED COMPANY
Ipswich EBA’S Graham Moughton once went the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard
A POSITIVE opening to April’s Scottish EBA newsletter: “At long last there is a glimmer of hope of us having our meetings. Keep your fingers crossed. Just another couple of months, with good progress on the COVID battle.”
I hope so. It’s been so frustrating for all of us. The vaccination plan seems to be going well – if you haven’t had yours yet, please do. The one thing we must avoid is the temptation to do too much, too soon – there’s a very real danger of another lockdown. But at present things do look hopeful.
The newsletter also thanks regular advertisers Ian Wilson (St Andrew’s Boxing) and BBBOFC inspector Phil Anderson (Financial Services) for their continued support. With no meetings, raffles, fundraising events and the like, EBAS currently rely more than ever on sponsors and advertisers – so well done, Ian and Phil.
Scotland has produced some brilliant flyweights, including several world champions. There’s an in-depth article tracing the history of the Scottish flyweight title from 1910 to 1941, with a full list of title bouts. Fascinating reading. There’s also a round-up of Scottish boxing in 1956, from flyweight up to middleweight. It begins: “Peter Keenan remained the main man on the Scottish scene and began the year as British Empire bantamweight champion.”
Keenan boxed three times in 1956, with two good wins in Australia – a second-round stoppage of Kevin James, in an Empire (now Commonwealth) title defence, and a 12-round points win over useful Italian Federico Scarponi. Sadly a trip to the Philippines proved disastrous, a ninth-round KO loss to Al Asuncion ruining a projected world title bid.
Featherweight Bobby Neill had a great 1956 – eight straight victories, including a sensational first-round win over reigning British champion Charlie Hill (another Scot) in a non-title bout, and a fifth-round cuts stoppage of former European kingpin Ray Famechon (who announced his retirement the same day). Bobby would go on to take Hill’s title in a rematch. After retiring he became a successful manager, and today he’s a member of London EBA.
In his editorial, SEBA Chairman Robert Craig wishes Kash Farooq and Joe Ham luck in their scheduled April bouts. Well done on that – as I keep stressing, it’s vital that EBAS show they take an active interest in today’s scene. Ipswich EBA certainly does – in fact, the first time
I met Ipswich Secretary Erik Roper was at Brentwood Leisure Centre, when he and two fellow members had driven down to support one of their locals.
I was delighted to hear from Erik recently, and he reminded me that Ipswich “are following the progress of Ipswich’s promising young heavyweight, Fabio Wardley, with keen interest. We did all go and watch him box on a local show a year or so ago but his opponent was old, out of shape and looked like he was just there for the money.”
Erik goes on: “Reading Steve Bunce’s article about Tony Burns’ send-off [BN April 1] reminded me that I listened to a very interesting podcast a couple of weeks ago where Steve interviewed Ipswich EBA member Graham Moughton, himself an old Repton boy who boxed for the club with such distinction in the early ‘70s. Steve was surprised to learn that Graham had lost on points to a young Sugar Ray Leonard at Madison Square Garden and had also fought such British notables, in the amateur ranks, as John H. Stracey and Terry Marsh. He had also trained Nigel Benn for a while – and he holds the distinction of being the only amateur boxer to represent three different countries: England, Denmark and Bermuda.”
I remember Graham as a fine amateur, and a promoter, staging several goodvalue shows at Barking’s Broadway Theatre between 1998 and 2001. A May 1999 promotion featured the pro debut of Patrick John Humphrey, who outpointed Arv Mittoo over six.