BOOK REVIEW: Legendary British fight figure Mickey Duff called him: “The most outstanding boxer from this county never to have fought for the world title.” Former flyweight champion Charlie Magri said of him: “He was fantastic. He should have earned a fortune.” Terry Lawless, London manager of world champions John H. Stracey, Maurice Hope and Magri, reflected: “He’s probably the most gifted boxer I have ever managed, different to everyone else. I’ve never seen people do things like him.”
Born in England in 1942. Life as a boxing writer began with a weekly column in a newspaper called the South London Advertiser in the early 1960s. Moved to the far bigger-circulation South London Press, writing a twice-weekly boxing section, in 1966. Joined the weekly Boxing News in 1970 and became editor in 1972. Moved across the pond in 1977 for marriage-related reasons and covered the American scene for Boxing News until joining Boxing Monthly in 1990.
...
APPLEBY (left) and LINDSAY showed mutual respect after the fight.
In a weekend of dramatic finishes, one of the most stirring came in Belfast on Saturday when local fighter Martin Lindsay captured the British featherweight title with a blistering sixth-round stoppage victory over Scotland’s Paul Appleby.
This fight lived up to and maybe surpassed expectations, an all-action, shifts-of-fortune sizzler between undefeated fighters.
Lindsay, the underdog, produced some beautiful boxing, making Appleby miss and countering, and he was always dangerous with the left hook.
Appleby kept attacking though, fierce and proud, and at times his body punches looked like giving him command of the fight, only for Lindsay to come right back at him, snapping back the champion’s head with jabs and bloodying his nose.
It looked anyone’s fight after five rounds, with Appleby looking perhaps the stronger man, but in the sixth Lindsay landed some big shots — right hands behind the jab and then a huge left hook that buckled Appleby’s legs and sent him back to the ropes — and suddenly the courageous young Scottish fighter was in desperate trouble. Lindsay’s furious follow-up offensive had Appleby sagging forward at the waist and brought referee Howard Foster’s intervention after two minutes, 36 seconds of the round.
In the preview I mentioned that the fight had striking similarities to a 1950s battle of undefeated featherweights in Belfast when local underdog Jimmy Brown knocked out Scot Bobby Neill, who, eerily, came from Edinburgh, Appleby’s hometown, and, like Appleby, had been honoured with the British boxing writers’ award as best young fighter of the year. I had the strong sense that history was about to repeat itself in this fight but I really didn’t expect it to be by stoppage — I thought that Lindsay would have boxed his way to a win on points.
Lindsay against Appleby brought back memories of still another stirring clash between unbeaten British featherweights, the one at London’s Royal Albert Hall in April 1963, when European amateur championships gold medallist Frankie “The Tiger” Taylor, from Lancaster in northern England, knocked out Lennie “The Lion” Williams, a fiery southpaw from Maesteg, in Wales, in another sixth-round finish.
That fight was a lot like Lindsay-Appleby, with Williams throwing everything he had at Taylor, seeming to be in with a great chance of winning, then getting caught and stopped in the sixth round. Mentioning Lindsay and Appleby in the same paragraph as Taylor and Williams shows the high regard I have for the fighters as well as being an expression of appreciation for the fight they produced.
