Legend rewrote history
Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh believes a statue in honour of Scottish boxing “legend” Ken Buchanan is long overdue.
Welsh last month became a patron of the foundation set up to immortalise the former lightweight world champion in Edinburgh.
A fundraising campaign spearheaded by ex-Scottish welterweight champ Owen Smith is running to raise money for a permanent tribute to the retired great.
And Leith- born Welsh said: “Buchanan was, along with Pat Stanton, my first ever sporting hero.
“My dad wouldn’t let me stay up to listen to his fight with Ismael Laguna on the radio as I was just a kid and had school the next day.
“But he couldn’t resist running through to wake me up and ecstatically inform me Ken had become world champion against all odds.
“From that moment on I had a great – mostly sadly unrequited – love of boxing.
“I’m terrible at all sports but I have rarely been out of gyms since, although I knew from an early age I’d never be a champion.
“But I have the same waist measurement at 59 I had at 19 and that’s all thanks to Kenny.
“He real ly did set a skyscraper of a bar for others to reach and they still haven’t quite done it. Legend is an overused term in sport but how else can you describe Ken Buchanan?”