Small in stature but a giant among Scots He was always willing to pass on advice to young boxers
KEN BUCHANAN led the tributes to Walter McGowan last night after his fellow Scottish ring legend died aged 73 following a short illness.
And Buchanan revealed that, as a teenager, it was through working with and listening to the man who was WBC flyweight champion from 1966-67 that he learned how to become one of the country’s greatest fighters himself.
‘Walter is up there with Benny Lynch and Jackie Paterson,’ said Buchanan, the undisputed world lightweight champion from 1970-72. ‘He was a beautiful boxer.’
It was certainly a path that McGowan was always likely to take. The boy from Burnbank in Lanarkshire was born into a boxing family. Dad Joe Gans was also a fighter and, after retiring, became Walter’s trainer.
He guided him through the amateur ranks, where he lost only twice in 124 bouts, claiming the prestigious ABA title in 1961.
A superb athlete, the young McGowan had a fluid boxing style but could also slug it out with the best of them, relying on his fast footwork to keep him out of trouble.
He turned pro at 18 and had accumulated the Scottish, British and Commonwealth belts by the time he was 20.
I ndeed, there were so f ew flyweights around that the British Boxing Board of Control awarded him the Lonsdale Belt outright after one successful defence when, in every other weight division, three were required.
He lost to Salvatore Burruni on points in Rome when he attempted to take the Italian’s European title in 1964 but, having worked out his opponent’s style, more than made up for that by winning the decision when they met again on June 14, 1966 at the Empire Pool, Wembley, for the Sardinian’s WBC title.
McGowan survived that night despite being badly cut by his opponent. And it was a similar misfortune that was to see him lose in his first defence against challenger Chartchai Chionoi in Thailand.
A clash of heads left an ugly gash on the Scot’s nose, which eventually led to the ring doctor stopping the fight in the ninth.
It was a case of deja vu in the rematch. McGowan suffered a cut above his right eye in the fourth, but appeared to have recovered. He was ahead on the judges’ scorecards and throwing punches when Welsh referee Ike Powell controversially ended the bout during the seventh round.
Buchanan has no doubt that McGowan would have enjoyed much more success in his career if only his skin had been more durable.
‘The wee man was only 5ft 3in but, in terms of his heart, he was a giant,’ he said. ‘He was also a good-looking, articulate guy and his only flaw was that the skin around his eyes wasn’t thick enough, so he had a tendency to cut — that was the only thing that held him back. I used to spar with him when I was a youngster. I’d travel through from Edinburgh to his dad’s gym in Hamilton and I learned a lot from Walter.
‘He could counter-punch before you’d even thrown your punch!
‘Any time I hit him I’d apologise because you knew there was going to be more coming back at you. He was a lovely man, though, always willing to pass on advice to younger fighters like myself.
‘Walter had a terrific left hook and he’d hit you with uppercuts and leave you wondering where those punches had come from.
‘But his most important weapon was his jab. He could keep you off balance all night with it and that was the foundation for everything else.
‘He was brave, too. He never ducked anyone, although the opposite isn’t true.
‘Walter was also a gentleman outside the ring. I’m not ashamed to say that I loved the man.’
Boxing promoter and manager Alex Morrison became a friend and confidant of McGowan’s, and had no hesitation in describing him as the greatest Scottish fighter of them all.
‘Pound for pound, I believe that Walter was the finest boxer ever to come out of this country,’ he said.
‘He had everything — his skills were amazing and he was so fast that opponents often couldn’t see the punches coming.
‘There weren’t enough flyweights around at the time but Walter didn’t let that bother him — he’d take on bantamweights, even though they were bigger and heavier.’
McGowan was awarded the MBE for his services to boxing, and was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.