RIP Terry Downes

Swear words

 

Nothing ****ing wrong with that.

 

Paper champion. Only reason he can be called a "champion" is because after robinson was stripped for inactivity he took a gimme to defend what little recognition was left of his "championship" against a bum named Paul Pender. Pender got what they used to call "one of those Boston decisions" i.e. a hometown robbery giving Pender a paper title if there ever was one. After winning a nip/tuck decision over Robinson in his first defense Pender defended against Downes and won handily on a 7th round TKO a completely pointless undeserved rematch was fought in London solely because Downes promoter offered Pender the then ridiculous sum of $84,000 to sell his title temporarily. Or at least it looked that way when Pender retired on his stool for no reason despite most feeling he was ahead on points. Penders excuse for quitting was cut by his eye which he admitted was superficial but added he just couldnt go on. Of course there was a 90 day return clause which Downes tried to get out of. It only served to delay the rubbermatch which ended with Downes losing his title in his first defense. Sports illustrated called the Pender-Downes series "protracted" "ridiculous" and "absurd".

 

N word and more...He would cause a riot in todays times, or minimum escorted out of venues !

 

A handful Lepinthehood is the best way to put it lol

 

N word? That's not cool. You'd think having shared a ring with a number of black fighters that you'd transcend that kind of thinking. Ah well.

 

Great fighter was your Dad Al.
Who did he fight that night?

 

Exactly.. I worked with a man in Coventry a few years back that used to drive Downes about when he was in the area for boxing bouts, bit of a chauffeur ! He was saying he would have a drink then all barriers came down and he was a right handful. Tough man on the street, gave zero ****s !

 

Sorry to hear he has passed away. He may not have been a great champion but was certainly a tough, rugged fighter who always gave 100%. I understand he also served in the US Marines, not an outfit known for turning out milksops, quite how an East End Londoner came to serve in the US marines is not clear.

Downes was a colourful character,very popular in the UK ,however one of my most abiding memories of him was from outside the ring, back in 1965 and the 2nd Ali/Liston clash.

There was huge interest in Britain in this fight at the time. Ali ,of course, had visited the UK and beaten Henry Cooper in the famous fight at Wembley. Liston, whilst champ had also done a promotional tour here. Such was the interest that the BBC purchased the rights to screen the fight live via satellite, albeit in the early hours of the morning, which I stayed up to watch.

As usual with these events there was a build up , various boxing journalists & pundits gathered in the studio beforehand to offer pearls of wisdom and analysis, amongst them was Terry Downes.The programme was hosted by David Coleman, at the time Britain's leading sports commentator. Eventually it got to be fight time and we witnessed (with some astonishment ) Liston's notorious 1st round bellyflop.

Switching back to the studio the assembled experts seemed beweildered & confused by what had just transpired. Not so Downes who was very forthright and called it an outright fix & a total disgrace.Eventually the programme wound down, but before going off-air host Coleman outlined some of the difficulties the promoters had encountered in staging the fight and mentioned they even had problems finding a suitable ring, and that in fact, the one they had used had for some time been stored in a local fish factory.

"See" snorted Downes " even the ring stinks !"

 

It was dad's 19th fight, he was still a prospect at that time. He fought a lad from Rhodesia called Baby John. They were the chief support on the night. I met Terry a couple of times, he was quite an handful. I remember once I was in his compàny having a drink an he started taking the **** out of my Scouse (Liverpool) accent. I just reminded him that I was actually born in Paddington London which was his manor He said it doesn't f----g sound like it.

 

In an era not graced with greats such as Harada,Olivares, and Rose, your Dad could easily have become champ,and probably would have!

 

I disagree that Pender and Downes were poor fighters. They look good enough here.

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Everything else you say has substance to it. The rematch clause era was clearly open to abuse (and was abused) and fans clearly would have found it anoying.

 

Tough guy and a real handful.RIP

 

Very impressive record your dads ! Who did he rate as the best he fought ??