BRITISH boxing lost one of its greatest ever fighters last weekend when Ken Buchanan, the former world lightweight champion, passed away at the age of 77. He had been suffering from dementia in a care home.
Best known for beating Ismael Laguna to win the championship and his defeat to Roberto Duran while losing it, Buchanan was, in the early 1970s, both one of the best boxers on the planet and a darling of New York, as he headlined at Madison Square Garden on five occasions, wowing audiences with his majestic skillset.
Born in 1945, young Ken was raised on a working class council estate on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Though it would be untrue to say he was living in poverty, the Buchanan family were nonetheless forced to be very careful with the money they had but their home life was happy and stable. Ken lived with his father, Tommy, his mother,
