More Boxing Legends & Champions: A Journey Through Boxing History

By Lea Worrall

More Boxing Legends & Champions is another compilation of articles taken from The Boxing History Blog.

 

The book kicks off with Roberto Duran's first world title challenge against Scotland's Ken Buchanan in 1972. It was slugger versus classic boxer, with the rugged Panamanian using roughhouse tactics in a foul-littered contest.

 

More Boxing Legends & Champions also includes in depth profiles of Evander Holyfield, Nigel Benn, and Lennox Lewis, taking the reader back on a nostalgic journey through the history of boxing, depicting some of the most classic, controversial, and tragic encounters...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lea Worrall
• Release date: Aug 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223895664

Book preview

cover-image, More Boxing Legends & Champions EBOOK

More Boxing Legends & Champions

Lea Worrall lives and works in Gloucester and is married with two children. He currently writes for his own Boxing History Blog http://lw05boxing.blogspot.com



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First Published on 07th November 2020

Copyright © Lea Worrall 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Cover design by M & L. Worrall

In memory of Bryan Worrall

Contents

Ken Buchanan Vs Roberto Durán

Luigi Minchillo

Mike McCallum

Simon Brown

Evander Holyfield

Nigel Benn

Lennox Lewis

Terry Norris Vs Ray Leonard

Glen Johnson

Ken Buchanan Vs Roberto Durán

26th June 1972, Madison Square Garden, New York

WBA Lightweight Title

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World champion Ken Buchanan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 28th June 1945. He became ABA champion in 1965, turning professional on 20th September that very same year, stopping Brian Rocky Tonks in the second round in the lightweight division. In his seventeenth bout he became the British Scottish Area lightweight champion, outpointing John McMillan over ten rounds for the vacant title.

On 19th February 1968, he beat Maurice Cullen for the British lightweight title with an eleventh round knockout, taking his unbeaten record to 24-0 with nine kayo's. Nine more victories put him in line for the vacant European lightweight title.

He travelled to Madrid, Spain, to take on Miguel Velasquez. The bout went the full fifteen rounds and the Spaniard was given the decision 72-69 by Italian referee and sole judge, Piero Brambilla. Buchanan leaned dejected against the ropes as the home supporters invaded the ring to lift their man aloft their shoulders before the verdict was announced.

Buchanan then had two points victories before putting his British lightweight title on the line against Brian Hudson. The challenger was over-matched, though he managed to get off the canvas in round one and cut the champion's eye, forcing the bout into a desperate punch-up. A right hand from Buchanan saw off Hudson's challenge in the fifth round.

On 26th September 1970, Buchanan challenged Panama’s WBC and WBA lightweight champion Ismael Laguna. Laguna regained both titles from Mando Ramos (Laguna originally won the two belts from Carlos Ortiz in April 1965, then lost them in a rematch to Ortiz seven months later).

Laguna was making his second defence against the Scot and the bout took place at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan in Puerto Rico. The WBC had stripped Laguna of their belt on 15th September 1970, as he refused to face Mando Ramos, meaning the World Boxing Association strap was only up for grabs.

The British Boxing Board of Control didn't recognise the WBA title and ordered Buchanan not to face him. It fell on deaf ears and even though the Scot wasn’t fancied to beat Laguna, or the sweltering Puerto Rican heat, (the temperature was 100℉ or 37.78℃) an intimidating Hispanic atmosphere and suffering badly cut eyes, he won the title with a fifteen round split decision, 145-144 & 144-143 (Buchanan), 144-143 (Laguna).

Buchanan next defended the belt against Ruben Navarro on12th February 1971. The vacant WBC title was also on the line and the WBA champion became undisputed lightweight champion with a unanimous decision in Los Angeles. The champion was then stripped of the WBC crown on 25th June 1971, electing to face Laguna in a rematch instead of Pedro Carrasco.

The Laguna rematch took place in September 1971 at Madison Square Garden, with the champion winning a unanimous decision. Buchanan had two more non-title fights, one in Britain and then in South Africa, before returning to The Garden to face Roberto Durán. Ken Buchanan had taken the hearts of the New York fight fans with a series of impressive displays in America. The Scot was 43-1 with only sixteen knockouts, with his sole defeat to the Spaniard Velasquez being hotly disputed. It was ironic that the American boxing public appreciated Buchanan so much more than the fans at home, considering that he had a classic English style, building everything from a flashing left jab, unlike the other British lightweight Jack ‘Kid’ Berg who was loved by America, but not so much in Britain. Berg’s tearaway style was more suited to the American circuit. 

What Buchanan lacked in all out aggression and power, he more than made up for in the quality of his work and the honest grit that trademarked it, which earned America’s respect, especially the fans at Madison Square Garden, more so than in Wembley or Scotland.

Durán had an unblemished account of 28-0 with twenty-four kayo's and predicted he would flatten the champion inside nine rounds, with Buchanan, two days shy of his twenty-seventh birthday, being unimpressed by the comment.

The capacity crowd of 18,000 watched as Durán shot out like a sprinter from the blocks and nailed the champion with a right hand. Buchanan, the 13-5 betting favourite, was on the canvas within the opening 20 seconds. The champion got up straight away and indicated that he wasn't hurt, as referee Johnny LoBianco issued the mandatory eight count.

Durán, looking for his eleventh win inside the first round, swarmed all over the WBA lightweight champion. Buchanan showed his cool boxing skills to frustrate Durán for the remainder of the round and the next, although the fiery aggression of the challenger won him the opening two rounds on the judges’ cards.

The champion started to get back into the fight in the third, using his flashy jab and landing left hooks off the jab. Buchanan was scoring well, but the power was with Durán. In round five the Scot landed a cracking left hand, knocking Durán's gum-shield out of his mouth, but the challenger kept punching back.

Buchanan was a defensive master, ducking and rolling to make the challenger miss, but when Durán did land his punches were more hurtful. With the champion constantly on the defensive, it meant that the Panamanian was winning round after round.

By the eighth round Buchanan was cut by the left eye and it was beginning to swell. Durán was all action and didn't care what he used to land on the champion, head, elbows, anything counted for the challenger, and time and again he would viciously catch Buchanan low on his tartan shorts.

Buchanan was a proud champion, who won the title the hard way and wasn't about to concede it cheaply. In rounds nine and ten he put up a display of some vintage boxing, bringing the crowd to their feet, as he slammed jabs into Durán's face and timed his charges with some well-timed counter punches.

Durán entered the eleventh round for the first time in his career and it appeared that the champion's experience was beginning to play a major role in the contest. The Scot made the challenger miss, sending him sprawling and almost through the ropes.

It looked as if the challenger had shot his bolt, but in the twelfth round he dispelled that notion, shaking the champion early with a left hook and keeping Buchanan under severe pressure. The Scot tried to grab a breather on the ropes, with Durán rocking him with a right to the head. As the bell sounded the WBA lightweight champion looked a spent and beaten man.

Round thirteen was quiet, but as the bell signalled the three-minute mark both men traded punches. Durán finished the exchange with a wicked right to the groin. Buchanan's face contorted in agony and he sank to the canvas. His cornermen, including his father Tommy, rushed to help him. Referee LoBianco and the ringside Doctor walked over to the champion's corner as the 10 second warning buzzer sounded for the fourteenth round, with LoBianco crossing the ring and raising Durán’s arm in victory.

There was no low blow, said the referee. He was just badly hurt and I stopped the fight. Though photographic evidence disputed LoBianco's statement.

Durán's manager, Carlos Eleta, refused to honour the contract's rematch clause. Many years later, The Observer columnist, Hugh McIlvanney, asked Durán who his hardest opponent was.

Buchanan! Durán replied without hesitation.

On his return to Panama, Durán was greeted by a crowd of five-thousand people at the airport. As he made his way back to Chorillo, thousands more lined the streets as he waved to them from an open car. Not only had he escaped the gutter, an accomplishment in itself; he also became a national hero. Another reward for becoming a world champion meant he was now exempt from paying tax.

Luigi Minchillo



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In January 1977, aged twenty-one, Luigi Minchillo made his professional debut, stopping fellow Italian Silvano Bischeri in the fifth round. Minchillo went 17-0 before suffering his first defeat, a fourth round stoppage due to cuts against Alvaro Scarpelli.

In April 1979, only five months after his first setback, he challenged Clemente Gessi for the vacant Italian light-middleweight title, winning it in the maiden round. He defended his national championship four times and in July 1981 he challenged the French-Algerian Louis Acaries for the European light-middleweight title. Minchillo became champion by unanimous decision and the following month had a second round TKO victory over America's Danny Myers, before his big date with Roberto Durán in September 1981. 

Durán returned to Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in his second bout since losing his world welterweight crown against Leonard. In the opposite corner was 'Il Guerriero Del Ring' or 'The Ring Warrior' Luigi Minchillo. The Italian was making his American debut and like Durán's conqueror, represented his country in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

'Hands Of Stone' weighed in at 154 pounds (69.85 KG) slightly heavier than his opponent. The Italian was dominated by Durán for the whole ten rounds. Minchillo did open up a cut under Durán's right eye from an apparent butt, with Durán's corner doing such a good job on the injury, it never reopened.

Durán won the contest 100-91, 100-90 and 98-92, whilst Minchillo, who claimed he was constantly thumbed in the eye, dropped to 35-2 (22 KO's).

After his loss, Minchillo continued to keep a hold of his European light-middleweight championship with victories over Claude Martin, Maurice Hope, Jean-Andre Emmerich and Marijan Benes from November 1981 to October 1982.

He stayed unbeaten during 1983 to go 43-2 with twenty-seven stoppages when he travelled to America for the second time and only the sixth time he boxed out of his native country to challenge Thomas Hearns for the WBC light-middleweight title, who was making the first defence.

I need to win impressively, said Hearns prior to the contest. That means taking Minchillo out, putting him away at the first opportunity.

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Hearns weighed 154 pounds (69.85 KG), smack on the light-middleweight limit, with Minchillo coming in at 153 (69.40 KG) but the height and reach advantages laid firmly with the American. The champion used his advantages to good effect and when Michillo did land a right flush on the chin, Hearns barely flinched. As the opening stanza was coming to an end, the ‘Hit Man’ opened up, to the delight of the 18,453 crowd at Detroit’s Joe Louis arena.

Hearns kept his man off balance with the jab for most of round two, making it impossible for the challenger to get on the inside. When Minchillo did land a solid punch it didn't hurt the man from Detroit, who wasn't afraid to let the right hand he damaged against Wilfredo Benitez go to head and body.

The challenger looked to mix things up at the start of round three but the power of Hearns had him backing up. Minchillo didn't have much success until the final 30 seconds when he had the champion covering up on the ropes, the best spell of the fight so far for the tough Italian.

The jab was still a dominating factor for the champion in the fourth, as Minchillo tried his luck with an overhand right. On the third occasion he connected, bringing a grin from the 'Hit Man' as he continued to land his rangy punches.

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The challenger took the fight to Hearns who was happy to box at range at the start of round five. He then visibly hurt the Italian with a left hook and looked to take him out with a single punch. The challenger, who hadn't been knocked off his feet in his professional career, recovered and had Hearns on the ropes. The champion started to speak to his adversary; a futile move as Minchillo didn't speak English, so did his talking with his fists.

Hearns fired out his left jab in the sixth and it seemed he was reluctant to throw the right he damaged against Murray Sutherland last time out, but a right to the body put the doubts to rest. Hearns scored with some hefty shots as the challenger took them well and had his moments, cutting Hearns over the right eye.

The Italian looked to put the pressure on and Hearns picked him off with his jab. Minchillo landed some rights but it was the American who carried the power and the accuracy in a quiet seventh round. 

Minchillo’s left eye was beginning to swell as the eighth got under way and Hearns’s razor sharp jab was targeting the damaged area. The champion was firing in some lethal body shots but it was the American who was showing signs of fatigue, as the Italian pressed forward and had some success with his right. Towards the end of the round the ‘Hit Man’ opened up, with Minchillo showing signs of distress.

Hearns dispelled any worries of fatigue as he bounced around the ring on his toes in the ninth, flicking out his jab on the back foot as the tough Italian chased him, trying to get in close and unleash his hooks. The champion wasn’t troubled and sank in some hard body shots to easily take the round.

The pattern continued in round ten and with a few seconds left they traded freely, exactly what the strong, determined challenger wanted. There was confusion at the bell, Hearns went back to the corner a few seconds before the bell went, with Minchillo believing Hearns had quit, ran around the ring with his arms aloft in celebration, only to be disappointed he had to fight another six minutes.

Hearns controlled the penultimate round with his long range boxing, sinking in some hard body punches for good measure. The ‘Hit Man’ was finding out from first-hand experience why the challenger had never been off his feet.

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Minchillo needed a knockout in the final three minutes to win the title. Hearns kept him at arm’s length, finally hurting his game challenger with about 30 seconds remaining. The champion couldn’t find the lethal punch and won a unanimous decision 118-109, 120-110 and 120-109, in what was a competitive match, despite the landslide score margins.

At the end of the year Minchillo was sharing the ring again with another world champion in the guise of Mike McCallum, who was making the first defence since winning the vacant WBA light-middleweight back in October 1984. McCallum stopped Minchillo in round thirteen, storming back with ten victories from December 1985 to October 1987.

The Italian had his last contest on 29th January 1988, challenging European light-middle king Rene Jacquot, losing in the fourth round due to injury. Minchillo retired with a 55-5 (31 KO’s) resume, citing Marijan Benes, who he claimed a majority decision over in October 1982, as his toughest opponent.

Mike McCallum



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One of the most complete ring technicians of the modern era, Mike McCallum first came to prominence in the 1978 Commonwealth Games, held in his home country, picking up the gold medal in the welterweight division. 

Born in Kingston, Jamaica on 07th December 1956, he left his native country to turn professional in the United States as a light-middleweight in January 1981. He stopped the American Rigoberto Lopez in the fourth round, going 12-0 before fighting in his home country in his thirteenth contest against Gilberto Almonte.

Unfortunately for the Kingston crowd they only got to see 66 seconds of their man in action, issuing a sixth straight and final stoppage defeat on the Dominican's ledger. It would be Kevin Perry who stopped McCallum's stoppage spree, lasting the full ten rounds in front of the Madison Square Garden crowd in the Jamaican's fifteenth pro outing in June 1982. 

Two fights later he faced the biggest name of his career to date in the guise of ex WBA light-middleweight champion Ayub Kalule. The Ugandan, who set up home in Copenhagen, Denmark, also got off to a great start in the paid ranks. Within three-and-a-half-years he became world champion, dethroning and sending defending WBA champion Masashi Kudo into retirement. The champion made four successful defences, before losing his title and unbeaten record to Sugar Ray Leonard in June 1981.

He won his next four contests and challenged Davey Moore in an attempt to regain his old title. Though the defending champion was vastly less experienced than Kalule, he still had enough ring savvy to stop the Ugandan in the tenth round in July 1982.

Four months later he faced McCallum, in only his fifth outing outside his native Denmark. A right uppercut from the Jamaican put Kalule down in the first round. After seven completed rounds the fight was stopped with the Ugandan on his stool, dropping to 40-3 (19 early), whilst McCallum improved to 17-0 (16 KO's).

McCallum continued to win and due to his fearsome body attacks was starting to become known as the 'Body Snatcher'. By 1984 he became number one contender to WBA light-middleweight champion Roberto Durán. However, the Panamanian wanted a big contest after extending Marvin Hagler the full fifteen rounds for the undisputed middleweight title in November 1983, and elected to face WBC counterpart Thomas Hearns instead.

The World Boxing Association decided to strip Durán of their title and scheduled McCallum and Irishman Sean Mannion to face each other for their vacant belt on the undercard to Marvin Hagler versus Mustafa Hamsho on 19th October 1984. Although Mannion had a solid record of 29-5-1 (10 KO's), he wasn't in McCallum's class, who pocketed the vacant belt by scores of 150-134, 149-136 and 149-133. It was the first time two women judges had scored a world title fight and McCallum became the first ever Jamaican world boxing champion. The victory was a bittersweet experience for McCallum, as in the build-up he un-expectantly lost his