Johnny Owen

I was there, sitting right next to Mickey Duff, and Don Chargin. I was writing fight reports for Ring Magazine. I had just gotten a copy of The 1980 Ring Book, and I turned into a kid asking everybody to sign their High School Yearbook. The nite of the fight I went into the dressing rooms and got everybody's autograph. I got Lupe Pintor, he signed it with the date. I then went into Johnny Owen dressing room as they were wrapping his hands or about to. Johnny signed it "Best wishes, Johnny Owen", turned out that was Johnny's, last autogragh. Johnny's ring entrance was impressive Owen's people held up a big banner with a dancing skeleton on it, it was man-size to give you an idea. The difference was seen right away, Johnny looked almost bleached while Pintor was deep indian tan, you could see it was a man vs a boy from the git-go. Johnny was firing you cant say he didn't try, he just was facing a strong hard punching Mexican, something Johnny never faced before. around the 6th rd I believe, Mickey turned to me and said, "At the bell go to the corner and tell them to stop the fight. Just as I was going Mickey pulled me back and said, "forget it, I don't want the trainer to say I am second guessing him." So the beating that was apparent to everybody that Johnny was taking was overlooked by the people in the corner, the ref and boxing commission. whether it was, heat of the moment, whatever it was, Johnny marched on with absolutely no chance to win, the shots he took, believe me Pintor, hit. You have to hand it to Johnny he stood up he showed big Welsh Balls. The battering went on for a few more rds until Johnny could stand it no more. Mickey was right they should have stopped it. On a side note they picked Mickey's pocket and got away with a substantial amount. After everybody rushed in the ring, Don went up to check cos Johnny was still out, when Don came back he said, "He's gone, his eyes were white".

 

I was boxing in Malta when we heard he'd died and told the OIC about him and could we have a minutes silence in his honour.there was a breakdown in communication and the crowd applauded instead but the meaning was the same.
I know his dad and corner men were devastated and obviously his family.
34 years ago next month but never forgotten.
R.I.P. johnny

 

I watched the fight against Pintor without knowing the tragic outcome. Terrible feeling after reading he died. He looked so young.

 

As i recall Lupe was present in wales at the subsequent Hometown unveiling of a Statue to Johnny, and was welcomed and treated with Honour and Respect, A Brave Journey by an Honourable man to pay Tribute to a fellow warrier, As ever the guy's throwing and taking the punches were admirable Gentleman, and any
"Murkiness" was not attached to these fine fellows.

 

couldn't agree more which is why I don't like fighters being labelled bums.
The bums involved in boxing don't get in the ring.

 

I have watched just about every fight that has involved a ring death that I felt was still historically significant enough to warrant watching anyway, but I can't bring myself to watch that one. Just can't do it.

 

painting this fight as a horrible one sided beating from the start is not right at all and does the performance Owen gave a serious disrespect.

It was competitive for many rounds and a great back and forth fight fought at a blistering tempo.He faded after ten and could have been pulled out then if they wanted to be very safe, but i've seen many more negligent fights than this..or more brutal fights where the loser did not die.I would not blame the corner as Owen was still fighting competitively, trading and even backing Pintor up on the inside quite often, right until he gets dropped with a short right.

He looked fine responding to the ref too and not overly hurt, just a typical knockdown, but then gets caught perfectly by a right hand while pivoting away and goes down alarmingly, as if shot.

It was a pretty sudden shocking knockout in a fight where Owen had been competitive all the way and that then yielded a tragic outcome.Not some horrific drawn out one sided beating that should have seen the corner, doc etc called up for negligence for letting go more than 2 or 3 rounds.

 

Watch the first six rounds at least sal, if nothing else than to pay Owen respect as he seems to get too often portrayed as some totally overmatched, pathetic fighter that was just beaten from pillar to post.

he gave a highly credible effort and was competitive with Lupe.

 

Yeah, Owen was very much in the fight through the first half, and a very good case could be made for having Owen level (or even ahead) with Pintor after eight. Pintor took over after the first KD, but Owen was firing back and was attempting to trade with Pintor right until getting caught at the very end.

Ruelas-Garcia this wasn't.

 

I saw this fight about 25 years ago, maybe around 87-88, and I knew from the beginning Owen was going to lose, he looked to small, skeletal, and pale, while Pintor looked well nourished, had solid muscle tone, and relaxed, the way Owen hit the floor the final knockdown was very disturbing to say the least...

I know this was 1980, but wasn't there a doctor in the ring that could have stopped this match sooner when it was obvious Owen was in deep trouble....

I did not like the way Owens body looked before the fight, too damn small and weak looking..

 

What I have read is that he was severely weight drained. He certainly looked that way.