When I really got into the sport, reading everything I could find, I found it amusing that there was 3 fighters with a Jamaican background named Bunny. We had Johnson, Grant and Sterling with a name that didn't really send chills through an opponent. Beforehand, that is. Anyways, this little narrative is about Bunny Grant and Bunny Sterling. I leave Johnson out because he is still with us. I got thinking of these fighters when I saw that Grant and Sterling passed away this month within a little over 2 weeks of one another without a mention. Sterling emigrated to England as a youth and over his career beat Luis Rodriguez, Maurice Hope, Tom Bogs, Billy Douglas, Tom Bethea and Rudi Schmidtke. It seems his chance for the Euro middleweight title against Jean Claude Bouttier was pivotal. It seems he would have got the chance against Monzon had he got passed him. Just speculation. Commonwealth and Euro champ and a damn good fighter. Bunny Grant never left Jamaica as his home base and beat Lauro Salas, Dave Charnley, Doug Valiant, Alfredo Urbina, Raul Soriano, Tito Marshall, Angel Garcia, Manny Gonzalez and Eddie Perkins. But lost to Perkins when it counted with the title at stake. Outstanding contender and Commonwealth champ. RIP champs
I should mention Bunny is a nickname, but I never did find out its connotation, even from a Jamaican friend. He would just laugh it off. Anyone give any further info on this?
Shirley Anstis’s book “They call me...” references “an African tradition of real names being secret,”a remnant of ancestral practice that survived the Transatlantic Slave Trade into the Caribbean. Protection of one’s spirit is of utmost importance in African diasporic spiritualities, and naming practices are a vital part of that.
Yes, but he also knocked out Dunn. The problem with Johnson was that he was just too small to fight at heavy as Dunn and Duane Bobick proved. Once he moved down to the more reasonable light heavyweight division he found opponents more his own size and along the way beat Dennis Andries (twice), Mike Quarry, Sylvain Watbled and won the British 175 lb. crown and a Lonsdale Belt outright. Bunny Johnson was quite a capable fighter at 175.
