THE first minute of the first fight tells you all you need to know about how these will pan out. Prescott moves reasonably gracefully around the ring firing out two very decent jabs, Walker thinks about this for a minute and tries to take off Prescott's head with a wild right. The clash in style throws up two classics. Both were patchy at the highest level, Prescott beating Brian London but losing to Cooper and Bugner whilst Walker would beat Erskine but lose to Mildenburger and London, and truth be told neither delivered on their early promise, but here they are the two most important prospects in British HW boxing with it all in front of them. I know it can be a bit annoying when someone else tells you what boxing you should be watching, but you'll be rewarded here I hope! They're showing up smallscreen, so your best bet is to double-click and watch it on YT whether small or large-window. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDXZYeFnd88[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp_Za90CvCE[/ame]
I've got a mate here, a Brummie lad who was Johnny Prescotts no.1 fan back in the day. He took a day of work sick to gatecrash Prescott's wedding. It was a big deal at the time covered by the press and he ended up in one of the photos in the newspaper. He got a right bollocking when he got back to work but he said it was worth it
I have this on VHS somewhere. Think i taped it off Harry Carpenters boxing programme on BBC2 in the 80s. Billy did alright for someone who didnt even win a british title. Didnt him and his brother George start that Brent Walker film company (or something like that). Had the media eating out of his hand since he KO'd cornelious Perry when the brits beat the yanks 10-0
I think he got about 10 grand, a fortune in those days for his first fight and then earned at least that for every other fight. It was enough to set him and his brother George, a good lightheavy weight in his day up. George went on to own the Brentwalker empire, a multi millionaire. Georges daughter even married into royalty, not bad for an East end boy.
I was only reading about George Walker and the Brent Walker business empire a couple of days ago ! Here's a documentary, "The World of Billy Walker" [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXIzJmBqnvw[/ame] Also here, a nice article about the Walker brothers, it has several other clips from documentaries too : [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/12/the_bitch_the_stud_and_the_pra.html[/url] Everyone in Britain of a certain age and any passing interest in boxing seems to remember Billy Walker, he was kind of like a Georgie Best character in the sense he was a well-publicized young sporting celebrity of the swinging 60s .... but most people also remember him as, (unlike Best), being "not that good" at the end of the day !
