He was sonething like 5 times ABA champion and win a gold at the commonwealth. He was a officer in the army so never turned pro I also heard a rumour he once schooled a amatuer calzaghe. Any know if this is true and just how good was he? And could of been had he turned pro and took up boxing full time. Dont know much about him but very intreaged. Thanks
His brother posts on another forum he thought Chris was last Brit to beat Froch when they were ams in aba's
MY mate Wayne Alexander knocked out chris bessy in the ABA finals before but yes bessy was a great amateur holds record for winning the most aba titles I think its 7xs
He was not an officer unless he got promoted from the ranks. When he was boxing in thee army thats all he was doing. Better paid that most pros and gets a pension.
I remember him. Very good fighter. He was a six time ABA champion not five, at two different weights too. Never heard anything about him fighting Calzaghe. Joe never lost as a senior. The last time he lost was in the quarter finals of European Junior championships in 1990 against a Romanian who subsequently went on to win the gold (was meant to have been a bad robbery too). That was down at 67kgs when he was an 18 year old. Bessey and Calzaghe did compete in the same ABA championships though, in 1993. That was the year Bessey won his first one (down at welter) and Joe won his third and last (up at middle). Calzaghe won his first in 1991 (at welter) and second up at light-middle the following year. Bessey, who was still a welter up until at least 1993, won his second ABA championships in 1995, his third 1997, fourth in 1998 (beating Froch in the final), fifth in 1999, and his last in 2000, all at light-middle.
No worries. I only saw him fight a handful of times, when some of his bouts were broadcast on terrestrial TV, but I remember his name popping up a lot in the back pages of Boxing News in the amateur section back then. I'm sure I saw a short feature on him on TV too (probably on the BBC). He was pretty fast and skilful IIRC and he had a fairly sharp dig on him. Winning that many ABA titles is certainly an impressive feat. Like you say, shame he never turned over.
