THE organisers of Prizefighter boxing series justified their upstart status yesterday with the quarter-final draw to end them all. Eight Royal Marine commandos abseiled 165 feet down one of Glasgow's iconic landmarks, the Finnieston Crane, carrying the trophy that will be fought for at the city's Kelvin Hall on Tuesday night. And the fighting men in fatigues then took to the skies once again to bring down the names of the boxers in shorts who will do battle for a £25,000 prize on the night. The spectacle was a brash example of how boxing's new kid on the block intends to leave a lasting impression on the minds of the ticketbuying public. But Scottish boxing's oldest living legend, Dick McTaggart, wasn't offended by the razzmatazz surrounding the pre-fight build-up. And the man who won Olympic gold in Melbourne in 1956, and went on to take European and Commonwealth Games honours as an amateur, had no objection to the notion of one boxer earning £25,000 for a night's work. Expenses McTaggart won nothing but praise and the distinction of having a sports centre named in his honour in his native Dundee but he recognised the Prizefighter format as memory jogger and money-spinner. He said: "That was the way they used to handle the old Scottish boxing championships. I remember we used to start at 2pm and finish at 2am in the 1950s. "I probably got the equivalent of 25p in expenses in those days, or five bob in old money. Next week's Prizefighter champion will go home with 100,000 times that sum of money. "But I'm not bothered about money and never have been. I was happy and proud to remain an amateur and the guys who will fight for the £25,000 prize will need to be fit to have a chance of taking it. "We used to have five bouts of three rounds in order to go from the first round to the Scottish championship final in the 50s. "This event isn't such a great departure from those days, except that TV wants all of the Prizefighter bouts squeezed into a three-hour spectacular." The draw, which managed to pair four Scots with a quartet of Englishmen, would have caused raised eyebrows and allegations of cold balls and hot balls if it had fallen so conveniently into a football context. But you can hardly rig the way eight military men abseil down a crane in front of a growing audience of bemused office workers on their lunchtime break. Clydebank's Gary McArthur will meet Steve Saville, from Walsall. Charlie King, from Motherwell, fights Sunderland's Paul Holborn. Stuart Green, from Glenrothes, faces Liverpudlian Steve Burke. And Ben Murphy, from Hove, takes on Irvine's Ryan Brawley. The whole event will be shown on Sky television. Fight promoter and manager Tommy Gilmour, who looks after all four of the Scottish boxers, said: "This is an exciting departure for boxing and it has captured the public's imagination. "Scotland has been the home of the lightweight since Dick was winning Olympic gold in that division. "But the boxers are on their own, having to plot the downfall of their opponent in three rounds at the quarter-final stage, otherwise they're out and the dream they had of earning big money's gone out with them." Tickets for Prizefighter at the Kelvin Hall can be obtained from the St Andrews Sporting Club on 0141 510 8700.
not me craig, copy and paste, copy and paste lol from todays daily record, i'll be going along as well, on the charlie (paul) king express from motherwell
He is right though, you are just being spun the rubbish that infested the sport in this country in the early 70s, and damn near killed it. Remember Wrestling boomed once more in the late 70s when Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks hit the scene. But within 10 years the spectacle was dead, because everyone saw under the glitter and sequins were two fat 50+ year old men belly butting each other..... Boxing was stung once with this phenomenon, it should not be sucked down this path again. As Dick suggested in the article, three rounders and one night tournaments are for amateurs, not professionals.
i hear what your sayin, but let us younger boxin fans enjoy the moment, and especially when the prizefighter show rolls into scotland for the first time, any injection of life into british boxing at the moment is welcomed by me.
