It’s end of the glove affair for Gilmour after 47 years

● Creator of champions steps away from the ringside as age finally catches him up

Tommy Gilmour says he feared no-one and respected everybody during a career dedicated to the promotion of boxing.

Itwasthewayheapproached a professional lifetime outside the ropes. But there was one adversary Gilmour paid attention to more than any other – his own mortality.

He was the Godfather of Scottish boxing. The capo di tutti capi at ringside. Tom Corleone. But tonight the bell for the final round will sound inside the St Andrew’s Sporting Club in Glasgow which he built into the cradle of the fight game in this country.

Gilmour is getting out because boxing was his life and he’s taking heed of the warningshewasgiventomake sure that he got a life once he had voluntarily stepped away from the limelight.

It was the journey from a ringside collapse to a bedside conversation in hospital which initially forced Tommy to bring his favoured destination into view.

The man who has no equal when it comes to continuous involvement in boxing in Britain, it being 47 years since he first obtained a licence to act as a second in the corner before subsequently moving on to promotion and management, was always characterised by one dominant feature.

The creator of seven world champions in his time, beginning with flyweight title holder Pat Clinton a quarter of a century ago, always showed the kind of flair for publicity that would have made the late and wonderfully gregarious Hearts’ owner Wallace Mercer blush.

But on the night when Tommy was informed that newsmen and photographers had gathered outside the hospital he had entered after taking unwell at ringside there came a previously un-discovered need for privacy. He said: “After being told the press had started to congregate it was pointed out to me that it would only be natural if my death made news.”

With the relaxed air of a man who can discuss mortality without any trace of morbidity, he added: “Boxing was my life but I knew then it wasn’t going to be the death of me. I knew it was time to start planning when I would ride off into the sunset.

“I had wanted to go when I was 55 but my friend and fellow promoter, Barry Hearn, had told me I would stagnate if I did that. Now I’m 65 it’s the opportune moment for me.”

Tonight, at the club he sold three years ago preparatory to his retirement, Gilmour will start to withdraw from view so far as boxing is concerned.

“The first time I collapsed at ringside I was told by a doctor that I had problems with high blood pressure,” he says. “My reply to him was, ‘But this is what I do.’

“Now I don’t want to do boxing 24/7 any more.” He deserves the rest. The St Andrews, as the club is known, was purchased from Englishman Les Roberts in 1987. Tommy gave himself five years to repay the loan he had taken out to fund his dream. He did it in three.

But now it’s time to repay a debt of another kind.

“When I bought the club it was partly at the insistence of my wife, Veronica, that I go into boxing on a full-time basis and give up working as an engineer.

“That meant Veronica had to go back to work as well as being mother to our two children, Christopher and Stephanie. It’s time to repay her for the support she gave me.

“When we get up in the morning we’ll decide what we’re doing to suit ourselves from now on. I won’t miss anything because there are too many memories and I’ll always remember the laughter.”

Chief among the memories will be the night Clinton defeated the Mexican, Isidro Perez, at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall to become world champion. A 12-round epic which will never

“I broke down because I was always the madman in the corner, the main cheerleader for my fighters... Clinton helped me do what I had always wanted – England to be drawn to Scotland”

TOMMY GILMOUR