British super middle & light heavy (dabbled some @ cruiser) - active for two decades and was British and European champ @ 168lbs, Commonwealth & British champ @ 175lbs, and English national champ @ 200lbs - passed away yesterday at 44. Sudden onset of terminal cancer, was only diagnosed this January. One of only three people to ever stop Ovill McKenzie, and did so far faster than Tony Bellew or Enzo Maccarinelli, by several rounds each in fact, icing "The Upsetter" in under 2 minutes. I was going to post a video of that blitz in tribute, but appears to not be available online anywhere...
Really talented fighter, definitely possessed the talent to become a world champion but he suffered a bad injury to his shoulder when he was just 24 years of age which kept him out of the sport for 3.5 years and he never truly recovered from it. This content is protected He was brilliant against Cornelius Carr, former amateur conqueror David Starie, and former European champion Frederic Seillier This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected The excellent YT channel David Kirkwood has uploaded a bunch on his fights https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCob9u687hlh8c2zcY7sTaJw/search?query=dean+francis This is the fight he suffered the shoulder injury in This content is protected RIP
at the end of his career he didn't do to bad against a prime bob asife it was a close fight sad to hear great man and fighter
