REMEMBERING A SCOTTISH LEGEND
BOXING
IT is often wondered how the story has not ended up on the silver screen. It has every ingredient.
The rapid rise, the drama, the downfall. Perhaps the problem with Benny Lynch’s tale becoming a summer blockbuster is the fact Hollywood would never go for the ending.
The Scottish fight legend never got the big redemption in the final act. Lynch, instead, became a Glasgow folk hero as well as one of the nation’s most cautionary tales.
That’s maybe why the boxing great makes such superb documentary material rather than the next cinema multiplex seat filler.
A BBC Alba film on this week brilliantly chronicles the life and times of one of the country’s sporting heroes and serves as another reminder about how the West of Scotland can forge a man – but can also break one.
It’s a tale of epic achievement and of colossal tragedy. The little big man from the Gorbals inspired generations of fighters and is also a warning to all about the trappings of wealth and fame. Jim Watt grew up on stories about this flyweight dynamo and followed him into the ring and the world title arena.
Watt said: “Benny is the most important figure in Scottish boxing. He was the first one to do it. He showed us that a little guy from Glasgow could be champion of the whole wide world.
“No one ever mentioned if he was Catholic or Protestant. He was Glaswegian and he was Scottish. Ask anyone from any sport to name a Scottish legend and they will say Benny Lynch.”
Lynch, son of Irish immigrants, was born in 1913 and escaped the brutal Glasgow ghetto to become Scotland’s first genuine superstar.
World champion at 22. Burned out by 25. Dead by 33. This was a star that shone so brightly and quickly the fans in the 1930s needed sunglasses.
Boxing great Alex Morrison is steeped in the history of the sport and had close links with the Lynch family.
He said: “Benny was very strong. He had a mighty punch and a big heart. He also had a good engine. He had great stamina and could continue for 15-20 rounds.”
That incredible strength and stamina saw Lynch rise from fighting in the show booths at carnivals to the top stages in the world.
He was spotted by matchmaker, trainer and bookie Sammy Wilson and catapulted on the path to glory.
There were epic encounters in his too-short spell at the top. The Jackie Brown bouts went in to legend.
Wilson brought the world, European and British champ to Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall but made it a non-title fight. Lynch was told to go easy, secured a draw and then a rematch in Manchester – this time for all the silverware.
The outcome has gone down in history as the Scot battered Brown inside two shuddering rounds, dumping the Englishman 10 times in little over four minutes.
The Human Tornado was born – but it blew out far too soon. Lynch returned to Glasgow with 100,000 fans waiting for him in Central Station. The street kid from the Gorbals was more famous in his hometown than Clark Gable.
But the fame and the money that came with it was too much too soon for Lynch and while the rags to riches and back to rags story is one that echoes through the ages in boxing, it was on fast forward for the Glaswegian.
More than 40,000 packed Shawfield to watch Lynch knock out Pat Palmer in the first world title fight in this country but the problems were already coming thick and fast.
There was the gambling on the dogs and horses but it was the demon drink which did the damage. It didn’t help his home patch of the Gorbals had 100 pubs within a square mile.
Watt said: “He had tremendous discipline when his ambitions were in front of him. When you become champion that edge can go. He became a huge celebrity. The distractions were there and unfortunately Benny got dragged into it.
“He became a bit of a party animal and making the weight became more difficult.”
Irish former world champ Bernard Dunne is another inspired by Lynch but also one who was told about the fight legend as a warning.
The former bantamweight said: “Benny was like a movie star. Everyone wanted to know him. He already had great support but he was catapulted to Hollywood status. People want to know you, shake your hands, not always the right people.
“He seemed to be led astray. He went down the path to self destruction.”
The rise was rapid – but the fall was just as spectacular. Lynch increasingly struggled to make the weight as the boozy lifestyle took hold.
He still managed historic wins – such as the unification bout with Filipino star Small Montana and a career-defining win against Pat Kane.
The rematch ended in a draw as an overweight Lynch struggled and lost his purse and when he came in at nearly half a stone over the limit when taking on Jackie Jurich at Love Street in Paisley he won the fight but was stripped of his titles. By the time he’d gone up to bantamweight to face Romanian Aurel Toma the drink had sapped him of all of his senses and he was knocked out for the only time in his career, in his last bout.
He lost his licence and his final fight against alcoholism despite a brief comeback after a spell with monks at Mount Melleray Monastery near Waterford in Ireland.
Lynch famously ended up back boxing in the booths, sleeping rough and begging for money for his supper before dying of malnutrition in 1946, at just 33. Watt said: “He was a hero.” Lynch’s story still packs a punch 70 years on.
● Benny is a co-production between MacTV in Scotland, and Square One Productions in Ireland, funded by MG ALBA, TG4 and Creative Scotland, broadcast on Friday, December 29 at 9pm.
JIM WATT