Randolph’s Castle

British boxing legend Randolph Turpin chose picturesque Gwrych Castle as his training base ahead of his historic world-title win over Sugar Ray Robinson

The great Sugar Ray Robinson was renowned for his lavish lifestyle. In his heyday, he splashed cash freely and was used to the best of everything. Luxury hotels, stylish clothes, fast cars and an entourage to rival Floyd Mayweather’s.

When he arrived in England to train for his maiden world middleweight title defence against Leamington’s Randolph Turpin in 1951, the quarters that had been arranged for him shocked Robinson. He trained and boarded at the Star & Garter pub in Windsor, which he later called ‘a dump’ in his autobiography.

‘The stairway creaked. The door handle was loose. There were plaster cracks in the walls. The two beds were like cots,’ he recalled. ‘Downstairs, the jukebox was blaring. And the customers were yelling and pounding their glasses on the bar. I never got to sleep until long after midnight.’

Cauliflower Famine

Jack ‘Cast Iron’ Casey

 

The sight of UFC star Conor McGregor’s deformed left ear on the cover of the 20 July issue of Boxing News got me thinking about cauliflower ears in boxing. There was a time when a cauliflower ear was the hallmark of a seasoned pro boxer. But today, you’re far more likely to see one on an MMA fighter or rugby player.

So why this modern lack of cauliflowers among the boxing brigade? I was once told by a London Ex-Boxers Association founder-member — now in his 90s — that it’s because ‘they don’t have enough fights now and they aren’t taught how to slip punches’, the theory being that cauliflowers were often caused by slipped shots cuffing the ear.

No doubt a fair few modern trainers would dispute the last part of his statement. The first part, though, is hard to deny. Today, a prospect will fight, say, five or six times a year, an established top-liner perhaps two or three times. But in the inter-war years, particularly in Britain, it wasn’t unusual for a pro to make 20 to 30 ring appearances a year. Career records of 200-plus pro bouts were common and these were not just journeymen; many were star performers.

Mystery Man Sam

Sam Minto

Boxing has its share of mystery men: fighters who captivate and intrigue us, though the details of their lives are obscure. One such man is Sam Minto of the West Indies, who boxed in Britain for 28-plus years with an eye-watering tally of 345 recorded pro fights.

It’s thought Sam was from Barbados and arrived in the UK at Hull in 1908. His birth year, according to different sources, may have been 1883 or 1888, but no one — perhaps not even Sam himself — was certain.

It is believed Minto had boxed before he came to Britain, but no prior fight record exists. According to boxing historians Miles Templeton and Richard Ireland (boxinghistory.org.uk), Sam’s first traceable bout was in Withernsea, Yorkshire, on 18 March 1909.

Throughout his career, Minto drifted from place to place, travelling all over Britain and sometimes abroad for fights. In October 1912, he took on the reigning European bantamweight champion and world title claimant Charles Leduox in Paris. Boxing News had Sam winning the first few rounds and acquitting himself well, but he was knocked out in the eighth. 

'Terrible Terence's' TV milestone

Terence Murphy

How Canning Town middle and light-heavyweight Terence Murphy became the first sportsman to appear on UK commercial TV.

Long before terrestrial broadcasts made TV stars of British fighters, attending a live show was how most fans saw their boxing.

In the immediate post-war years, live boxing was widespread and fight followers were happy to venture out to shows. But as TV’s popularity exploded (licence take-up rose from 763,000 in 1951 to 3.2 million in 1954), boxing promoters capitalised on the new medium.

In the early 1950s, there was just one (BBC-run) British TV channel, with haphazard coverage of boxing and little thought given to what fights were shown. That all changed on 22 September 1955 as Britain’s first commercial TV station, ITV, made its maiden transmission.