The Only British Boxer To Beat Clay

Hi folks,

I hope you don't mind a regular cricket poster like me making an excursion to the esteemed boxing section. You can blame Windy (most of you seem to normally anyway! ) for my appearance. He invited me over here following his own fine debut on the cricket boards.

Anyway, my main boxing interest relates to the heavy weight scene although I readily admit my knowledge is pretty limited these days. I used to follow things more closely when I was growing up in the sixties and through the seventies. Probably prompted by the excellent articles of Miles Templeton being posted by Alex, my thoughts recently returned to that era and one particular boxer.

The fighter concerned was Irish born Danny McAlinden who lived almost right outside my school in Coventry where I lived then and used to be seen by us kids now and again. He became something of a local hero when he knocked out Jack Bodell in two rounds at Villa Park in the early seventies to win the Britsh and Commonwealth Heavy Weight titles. The fight was rightly described by Harry Carpenter as being ''a brawl .... which would not have looked out of place on the cobbles''. The scenes at the end as dozens of fans invaded the makeshift ring were referred to by Carpenter as ''sensational'' and would have Health & Safety officials in uproar today. A clip from You Tube is shown below. Look out also for a blatant after the bell punch thrown by Bodell which Carpenter charitably attributes to him being ''confused and dazed''.

For a time, McAlinden was regularly and positively written up in the sporting press. There was even speculation that a world title fight against George Foreman was on the cards. A clash with Muhammad Ali was also briefly spoken of. Whilst this all went on, he continued to live in his perfectly fine but equally ordinary terraced house and exchange pleasantries with young wellwishers from the school around the corner.

Unfortunately, as so often in sport - and particularly, boxing - success and fame were not long lasting. His titles were lost to the more tactically astute Bunny Johnson. Further defeats followed although he did get a later chance to fight again for these titles in a bout with Richard Dunn. Despite having defeated Dunn years earlier, the tables were turned and McAlinden lost. This was the same Richard Dunn who fought Ali for the world title.

McAlinden never got his chance of a World title bout or a fight against Ali. However, he did have the slight consolation of being the only British boxer to beat his brother Rudy Clay (also known as Rehman Ali) in an undercard fight when Ali fought Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden in 1971. Bizarrely, McAlinden also fought another ''famous brother'' early in his career, Ray Patterson. In that fight, he and Floyd's brother drew.

After the loss to Dunn, McAlinden characteristically stuck at it for several years. Determination and strength were always his key attributes. Whilst he certainly didn't fall away, he was never able to recapture his past glories and retired in the early eighties (career record: 31 wins (including an impressive 28 knock outs), 12 defeats, 2 draws).

Until early this year, I didn't know much about his later life other than being aware he had worked as a doorman at a Birmingham nightclub and been involved with amateur boxing in Coventry. I was though saddened to learn a few months ago that he has been very ill with cancer of the tongue.

Danny McAlinden will understandably never feature in your Hall of Fame. However, I believe he deserves to be remembered and wished well. I would be interested in any memories or views you experts have. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLJhiaqkf_o

Welcome to the board guildford, always good to read about the forgotten heroes.

As a youngster growing up in leeds, i remember the dunn fight (given dunn was a bradford guy, he featured on local news). , the bodell fight was too early for me, but i have seen it and was well remembered for the action whilst it lasted.

Shame to hear about his illness, and i too wish him well in his biggest battle.

Lovey write up guildford and welcome aboard, not too sure I care for Windy visiting the cricket boards though, feel like he is cheating on us.

Leave him alone Rowley, Windy just popped across to help Guildford in reinforcing his account of the finer details of WG Grace's impressive beard.

Good write up, Guildford, and very interesting. I'd point you in the direction of the boxing vault, and the articles posted by alexd, amongst which you'll find some cracking stories of the forgotten heroes of British boxing.

Fair point Fists, would guess the opinions of someone who saw both CB Fry and Grace in their pomp would be as welcome on the cricket boards as his first hand accounts of Jem Mace fights are on here.

My point exactly!

Superb debut, guildford. Thank you for sharing.

I still, from time to time, dig out the McAlinden v Bodell fight and still find it exciting. Danny did nearly so good a job on Bodell as did Jerry Quarry, and while nobody would claim that McAlinden was world class he most certainly gave value for money.

Nice to see him enjoy a rare moment in the Sun, and particularly so since health issues have seen him fall on difficult times of late.

Excellent read Guildford and welcome aboard.

Hope McAlinden is on the mend soon.

Feel slightly cuckolded with Windy's visit to the cricket board, if he shows his face round here again smelling of willow there will be hell to pay!!!

'Twas a temporary flirtation, badger, born of the desire to have an answer to a pretty inept question, which guildford, to his eternal credit, handled with the utmost good grace and patience.

Just don't make a habit of it Windy, if it becomes a regular occurance I will write a Tunney vs Jones thread which will keep you more than occupied on here.

Heaven forbid, jeff,

As to making a habit of it, I am pleased to say that this would be impossible, since what I know about cricket could be written several times on the end of a cricket bat handle.

rowley wrote:Just don't make a habit of it Windy, if it becomes a regular occurance I will write a Tunney vs Jones thread which will keep you more than occupied on here.

Do. Not. Start.

Jones Jnr beats the stuffing out of Tunney everytime.

Nutrition, diet and modern training all factors why the above is true.

Also the fact that Tunney was in Black and White makes me question if he was any good.

Windy, just PM Coxy for all your cricket knowledge. He has a fine grasp of the game. The only reason Matt Prior is not carrying his jockstrap is due to too much of Coxy's time being taken up playing golf to a pretty incredible standard.

Really interesting article Guildford, thanks.

Thanks for sharing, Guildford. I have a photo taken at an ex-boxers' function (circa 1971/72) of my grandfather and some other former fighters standing with McAlinden and Tommy Glencross. Hope McAlinden gets well soon.

Seems like a good bloke but tbh he is lucky that he did not fight Ali or Foreman they would have had far too much class for him and he could have got hurt it would be a mismatch. Ali was the most skillful heavyweight of all time and Foreman was a monster maybe he could have used the money but he would have had to take a serious beating not good for the health. Hopefully he can recover from the cancer and be able to tell people he beat Alis brother that is a good story!

Really interesting read about a guy I've got to admit I knew nothing about. Thanks for the link to a great little bout too, he looks a gritty and strong scrapper, a shame he never got a world title shot when he was at his best.

All - thanks very much for the warm welcome and kind comments. Appreciated.

Fists and Alex - am already enjoying the Miles Templeton articles in the boxing vault. Very interesting from both boxing and social history perspectives.

Windy - sorry I seem to have dropped you in it with your boxing pals, that honestly was never my intention.

I would emphasise to all that although Windy made a fine contribution on the cricket section, he always seemed to fear the next post would be a beamer and was happy to retire not out to the relative safety of the boxing boards!

Gracious as ever, guildford, and a fine effort to save my hide, to boot.

I hope this won't be your only contribution to the boxing pages.

HumanWindmill wrote:
I hope this won't be your only contribution to the boxing pages.

Thanks again, Windy. I was wondering if it might be best to remain a one cap wonder but as that term probably doesn't apply to boxing and you ask so nicely, I'll see what I can do ....

guildfordbat wrote:Hi folks,

I hope you don't mind a regular cricket poster like me making an excursion to the esteemed boxing section. You can blame Windy (most of you seem to normally anyway! ) for my appearance. He invited me over here following his own fine debut on the cricket boards.

Anyway, my main boxing interest relates to the heavy weight scene although I readily admit my knowledge is pretty limited these days. I used to follow things more closely when I was growing up in the sixties and through the seventies. Probably prompted by the excellent articles of Miles Templeton being posted by Alex, my thoughts recently returned to that era and one particular boxer.

The fighter concerned was Irish born Danny McAlinden who lived almost right outside my school in Coventry where I lived then and used to be seen by us kids now and again. He became something of a local hero when he knocked out Jack Bodell in two rounds at Villa Park in the early seventies to win the Britsh and Commonwealth Heavy Weight titles. The fight was rightly described by Harry Carpenter as being ''a brawl .... which would not have looked out of place on the cobbles''. The scenes at the end as dozens of fans invaded the makeshift ring were referred to by Carpenter as ''sensational'' and would have Health & Safety officials in uproar today. A clip from You Tube is shown below. Look out also for a blatant after the bell punch thrown by Bodell which Carpenter charitably attributes to him being ''confused and dazed''.

For a time, McAlinden was regularly and positively written up in the sporting press. There was even speculation that a world title fight against George Foreman was on the cards. A clash with Muhammad Ali was also briefly spoken of. Whilst this all went on, he continued to live in his perfectly fine but equally ordinary terraced house and exchange pleasantries with young wellwishers from the school around the corner.

Unfortunately, as so often in sport - and particularly, boxing - success and fame were not long lasting. His titles were lost to the more tactically astute Bunny Johnson. Further defeats followed although he did get a later chance to fight again for these titles in a bout with Richard Dunn. Despite having defeated Dunn years earlier, the tables were turned and McAlinden lost. This was the same Richard Dunn who fought Ali for the world title.

McAlinden never got his chance of a World title bout or a fight against Ali. However, he did have the slight consolation of being the only British boxer to beat his brother Rudy Clay (also known as Rehman Ali) in an undercard fight when Ali fought Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden in 1971. Bizarrely, McAlinden also fought another ''famous brother'' early in his career, Ray Patterson. In that fight, he and Floyd's brother drew.

After the loss to Dunn, McAlinden characteristically stuck at it for several years. Determination and strength were always his key attributes. Whilst he certainly didn't fall away, he was never able to recapture his past glories and retired in the early eighties (career record: 31 wins (including an impressive 28 knock outs), 12 defeats, 2 draws).

Until early this year, I didn't know much about his later life other than being aware he had worked as a doorman at a Birmingham nightclub and been involved with amateur boxing in Coventry. I was though saddened to learn a few months ago that he has been very ill with cancer of the tongue.

Danny McAlinden will understandably never feature in your Hall of Fame. However, I believe he deserves to be remembered and wished well. I would be interested in any memories or views you experts have. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLJhiaqkf_o

Hi folks - I've only just learned of the death of Danny McAlinden. Using that to give this thread a bump and pay tribute again to a largely forgotten boxer who was something of a local hero when this old poster was a schoolkid.

Quoting Ron Lewis' online BoxingScene obituary:
''As the first Irishman to hold the British heavyweight title, Danny McAlinden holds a place in boxing history. And while no one will ever mistake McAlinden for a boxing great, he was British heavyweight champion at a time when that meant his name was known in a vast number of households in the country.
McAlinden's death, at the age of 73, was announced on Monday [8 March 2021]. By coincidence, it was the 50th anniversary of one of his most famous wins. On March 8 1971, Joe Frazier was not the only boxer to beat a man called Ali at Madison Square Garden. On the undercard to The Fight Of The Century, McAlinden recorded a points victory over Muhammad Ali's brother, Rahman.''

That pretty much says it. Just to add, as the much missed Windy commented about Danny McAlinden when I first posted, ''he most certainly gave value for money''.

Not entirely comfortable with intermixing in sport but it was a good read on this Thursday afternoon

Thanks,Guilfordbat.You really knew your stuff about the guy.

P.S. Can I smoke out any old-time boxing heads for information about who Terry Spinks is having a laugh with ,above?

I had no idea who that was just by looking at the pic, Derek - doubt many would! But after a bit of digging it looks as if that's Dave Hilton Sr., patriarch of the Hilton fighting family. People are obviously much more familiar with his sons Dave Jr and Matthew, both of whom won world titles. Matthew had some good names on his record, albeit always past their best. As for Dave Jr, he hit a few headlines for the wrong reasons after his world title....

I hate to hijack a great thread and article, but cheers for that, I have an original photo of Spinks with Helen Shapiro and Sugar Ray Robinson too.Theyre obviously having a high old time in the picture.Having searched online for that ,there are others from the same roll that you can see on Google images.
Was naturally dismayed to read about  Dave Hill Jr.I was always pretty disappointed to hear about the shenanigans of many a great,eg Ray Robinson,Ali etc, but this guy is something else.
Anyway, it would be great to hear more about boxers like McAlinden,Terry Spinks ,Downes,et al.
My old man told me about a guy called  Terry Crimmins.I wonder if Guildford Strangler (sorry,autocorrect won't let me write the username!)  or Chris,you have heard of Crimmins?A boxer firmly rooted in the domestic  scene,but by all accounts,a very handy one.

Yes Guilford, I'm old enough to remember that fight which would have been on Saturday after noon sports show. My Dad who was a big boxing fan only watched the first round saying " if that's the best they have for the British title I'll go back outside and carry on with my gardening". I watched the rest of the fight and wasn't impressed. I seem to remember that Bodell chopped his toe off with a lawn mower, I'm not sure if that's why he stopped boxing or while he was active.