limited boxer, but I really liked Gary Mason and wanted him to beat Lewis. That fight is one of the few occasions when you could see a fighter was in genuine pain. Very sad to hear of his death - with the amount of nutters on our roads these days, its not safe to cycle ...
was that fight on the bbc? or did they show highlights? I can remember watching either the fight live / or highlights on Sportsnight (?)
Saw a few of his fights on TV.Was tough,fair punch and fairly quick hands.Beat some decent Americans.Did a bit of TV work and had a nice roguish sense of humour, I reckon.Kind of bloke you'd like to meet in the pub,I think.RIP.
a quick look at google: the fight was held on wednesday (!), being very young i must have recorded on vhs, and watched it before school the next morning. BBC Sportsnight must have shown it live. imagine that, a big fight held in midweek.
He was a very good boxer in his day and was arguably the bigger name going into the Lewis fight Great guy.
You were there too! My first fight I went to, without the ol' man, in my first week of paid work. I took a sickie on Thursday and was on strike on Friday, they were the good old days! All my mates were (smartly) picking Lewis, but I was sure 'Lummox' was overrated and Mason was going to expose him...
garry was in the shadow of frank bruno. he was from the same camp. The cartel that ran british boxing. Mason was more a natural fighter than frank but not as dedicated. the cartel matched him against a lot of cruiserweights but he could really fight. once lewis beat him garry really tried to sell lewis to the british who were not buying into lewis as a real brit at that time, he was lewis's number one fan and would back lewis over anyone. even over his freind frank bruno.
Mason even reminded me a little of Frank, although dare I say Bruno was better overall. Gary was a tough, tough man though and had some skills. I wonder how he'd fare today?
