MENTAL WARFARE

I WAS born in Liverpool on May 27, 1951. My father was from Sierra Leone and my mother was English. My family was a big one – I grew up with seven brothers and two sisters. My father wasn’t a boxer himself, but he showed me a few moves when I was a kid. After doing that for about six months, he took me to Kirkby Amateur Boxing Club. I was 11 years old at the time. I used to play a bit of football and do a bit of athletics too, but somewhere along the line I made the decision that boxing was going to be my way out.

I’ve seen my amateur record listed as 46-4. I’ve never gone back and checked it, but that sounds about right. I won the ABAs at middleweight in 1970 and at light-heavyweight in 1971, but the highlight of my amateur career was winning the middleweight gold medal at the