TRIBUTE TO ROGER BARLOW

Remembering the life and career of the popular Coventry ghter

BRITAIN lost another link to its 1970s heavyweight past recently with the death of Roger Barlow of Coventry. Roger died aged 68 on June 23. His son, Nick, told me that Roger always viewed the bronze medal that he won at the 1971 European Under21 championships as his career highlight.

Roger was introduced to the game as a young boy by his father, Ron, a coach at Coventry’s Edgewick Trades Hall ABC. This top club was notable for producing Steve Early, Roy Varden and, of course, Danny Mcalinden. Roger had a fine amateur career. He boxed twice for England, winning both, and in 1968 he represented The Rest against London in a middleweight contest at RAF Stanmore.

His opponent was Chris Finnegan, and Roger had been called in to fight after first-choice Peter Mccann, the reigning ABA champion, was injured. At the time, Roger was viewed as quite a hot prospect and although he was given little chance, Boxing News reported that he “made Finnegan step lively at the start.” Finnegan won on points and went on to claim Olympic gold four months later.

Roger’s two victories in an England vest came against Scotland and Ireland in early 1971. In the second of these he looked terrific in blasting out Frank Kierans. BN commented that Barlow pounded Kierans “with spectacular left hooks to knock all the spirit out of the Irishman.” It was all over in the first round.

His bronze medal at the European Under-21s came the year before in Hungary. Roger was a late replacement for the injured John Conteh and, as an indication of the sort of company he was now mixing with, other British representatives included Alan Minter, Larry Paul, Dave Needham, Pat Thomas and Joey Singleton. He won his first two contests inside the distance, before losing the semi-final against a fighter named Siklosi. He had taken a compulsory count in the first but was fighting back strongly and had shaken his man with a left hook to the body when the bout was inexplicably stopped. Inevitably, Siklosi was from the host nation.

In late 1971, Roger turned pro. He was managed by Eddie Thomas of Merthyr Tydfil. Thomas was a shrewd manager and as an ex-british champion himself, he had all the contacts. He also managed Howard Winstone and Ken Buchanan. Roger moved to Merthyr at this time and, despite losing two of his first three, he soon found his feet and was unbeaten in the next 10. He commenced this run with a stoppage of Barry Clough, whom he decked three times for a first-round victory.

Another excellent win came in March 1973 when he knocked out Dave Hallinan in a seven-round war. Roger was always light for a heavyweight and Hallinan used his considerable weight advantage early when Roger was down three times in the opening two frames. He recovered and used his skill to stay clear of further trouble and then he went after the tiring Hallinan and used his own power to secure victory.

He had further wins against tough fighters in Vic Humphreys (twice), Woody Vuckovic and Brian Jewitt. By this time, Roger was ranked at number eight in the BN ratings and was ready for a step up. This was when his lack of size started to matter. He was beaten in two and three rounds respectively against two larger men who could both hit. Eddie Neilson defeated him in Cardiff and Neville Meade did the same in Swansea. He realised that, at heavyweight, there was no future for him, and he retired in 1974.

He came back three years later as a light-heavy and after scoring good wins against Davey Mullings and Joe Jackson, he found weight-making a new problem and was knocked out in a round by Steve Fenton. Roger finally retired for good in 1978 having won 12 of 18 contests. He then became a publican for many years and was well-liked and respected.

Roger was too big for light-heavy and too small for heavyweight. Who knows how good he could have been had the cruiserweight division been around when he was boxing. We will miss you, Roger.