THEBIGGERISSUE.ORG: Upper-Cut Pugilists of the Past. By Uncle Monty.

Upper-Cut Pugilists of the Past.

By Uncle Monty.

Boxing Photos By Alex Albion.

~~~

Surrrounded by top Irish and British professional

and amateur boxing champions of the past at the

London evening charity fundraiser by The Freddie

Mills Boys Clubs for disabled kidz, I watched with

delight more than eight charity matches of three or

four full rounds each with some of those old champs

putting up a good fight inside the ring to help support

such a good, clean cause for such disabled people.
To learn more about the British boxer Freddie Mills

(1919-1965), who was the world light heavyweight

boxing champion from 1948 to 1950, just visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mills.
~~~

Showing some of the disabled individuals.

~~~
The only things missing at the three-hour charity box-

ing event were Havana cigars and filthy cigarette smoke

that also saw alot of fun and jokes among the champions

of the past. And, among the 100 or so good working

class folkz there, who put their hard-earned money

where their mouth was by freely donating their time

and money and buying lots of raffle tickets of

which your’s truly also won third prize!!

~~~
Some of the good working class folkz.

~~~
The good folks, then, were neither posh nor toffs. But by far, rather good decent people with their feet firmly on the ground. The social atomsphere was earthy, biosterous, joyous and extremely friendly. From a five week old baby girl to an 85 year-old gentlemen, the span of such a wide age range among those at the evening event was simply splendid. Men, boys, women, and girls all roared and screamed together whenever a match was on the edge and whenever the boxers revelled in upper-cut boxing to their very best. I had a ringside seat, too!

^ The Charity Organizers. ^
~~~
Earlier, The UK Boxing News -had reported that former professional boxer, and now licensed referee, Bob Williams, would put the gloves back on for the first time in 15 years in aid of the charity. BF Williams, as he was known in his fighting days, joined a number of other ex-pros and ex-amateurs from the British Ex-Boxers Association. Along with Bob Williams was also Pat Thompson (shown above in the story caption picture of him), who was at one time rated as a world-class boxer with several boxing wins under his belt that included the title of Central Area Light Heavyweight Champion of England. When I got to meet him, Pat Thompson was just a nice fella and so easy to meet. He just loved helping the Freddie Mills Boys Clubs raise money for the disabled folkz with several of them getting in the ring themselves, too, to have their own bouts with some real ex-boxers. Pat, and his wife Chris, now run Odessa Caterers to the construction trade from out of East London.

~~~

In the red corner were these folkz.

~~~
Back some 40 years ago or more, I remember the public row about boxing in which Dr. Edith Summerskill and boxing promoter Jack Solomons did spar with each other on the merits and demerits of the pugilist art. She was against boxing for kidz, especially without any protective head gear, groin pads, and mouth pieces. While Solomons defended the sport as a good venue for rough and troubled kidz and to keep them off the streets of the Teddy Boy era and later the skinheads and rockers and so on. At that time, British state schools had after-school boxing tours for the ladz and they went all over the country to box here and there. Also at American colleges, too, boxing was common among freshmen, sophomores, and seniors. I myself enjoyed the sport with my P.E. teacher retired Army boxing champion Frankie Bell, who we affectionately called "Ding Dong Bell." Off, for example, to North Wales and to the Isle of Man we went on weekends to box with the Army Cadet Force and we all had a great time. Guess Edith Summerskill helped put end to all of that! She was a toffy-nosed bitch!!!

^ Ringside view of the boxers boxing inside the ring.
~~~

At the charity boxing evening, I noticed that among

those set to attend was Peter Cragg, ex-ABA Welter-

weight Champion; Johnny Oliver, North-West Division

Welterweight Prize-Winner whose title was undefeated

in 39 years; Billy Aird, Heavyweight Contender for

Europe; Bernie Dillan who fought Terry Spinks, and

Eddie Brooks of Fitzroy Lodge. They were set to

box at the blue corner for the sake of charity.

~~~

While at the red corner for the Freddie Mills Boys Clubs

was The Puncher Dean Proud, The Killer Jimmy Clark,

The Jabber Mark Johnson, The Bomber Lesley Bernard,

The Hurricane Mathew Hisee, The Hunter Tony Collins,

and Jason "Iron Mike" Tyson. They did box like grim

death did some of them. They were all true winners by

the end of the night, too. Even better was the thousands

raised in cash to help those vunerable and disabled folkz.

~~~

"Knocked Out" in the ring for charity!!

~~~
Before everybody all headed home, there came the Memorabilia Auction of autographs and certificates of boxing items of Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Joe Calzaghe, Muhammad Ali, Manny Pacquiao, and Roberto Duran. Some of the items went for $100.00 or more. All the proceeds went again to The Freddie Mills charity. Bravo! But the framed item of Alan "Boom Boom" Minter -http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/minter.htm - with his autographed photo and with one of his off-white boxing gloves was not auctioned off, due sadly to fears that the minimum bid of £500.00 would not be met after so many folkz had already left at now about late 10.30pm in the London evening. So, it was time to call it a day. They did and so did I ... It was so good to be able to meet so many upper-cut pugilists of the past all in one single evening and more than I ever have in all my life ...