Donations to support Herol Graham

Lads,

Here's a link to an article by Buncey, with a link to a just-giving page;

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing/herol-bomber-graham-tragic-tale-sadness-steve-bunce-donation-page-a8183546.html

Herol Graham was, as far as I'm concerned the best British fighter ever. Full stop. When he was on form his skills were absolutely sublime, and I know that I'm in very small minority, but I'll go to my grave believing could have stood Hagler on his head and spun him if was in the right frame of mind. Tragic that he's struggled so badly in retirement.

There is so much money in the boxing business that one would think there should be a special fund for such boxers in retirement.  It should at least be part of the boxing license agreement.   It sounds like Herol Graham has severe depression.  I would have liked the article to discuss more about what sort of mental illness he has in detail.  Frank Bruno was said to have had mental issues after retirement - which I think again was severe depression.

He doesn't deserve any donations. Should have saved his money and kept his pecker in check.

Mochyn du wrote:He doesn't deserve any donations.  Should have saved his money and kept his pecker in check.

Did the big boys on Twitter teach you to think like that? Pr1ck.

When you see that Darren Barker has a belt you realise life isn't fair.....Very talented boxer Graham.....Seemed to clam up in his biggest fights......

Will say though that the point about Hagler turning down a million to fight him in 1987 is slightly disingenious (Kind of hints at ducking)...Hagler fought Leonard for a 13 million purse a couple of months later..

Good luck to Herol..

A little re-cap on Bomber for those who might not know him.He won the British middleweight title, a Lonsdale belt, the Commonwealth title,and the European belt.He lost that to future world champion and all time great Sumbo Kalambay in 1987.Ingle put that loss down to Herol's main weakness-an
emotional vulnerabilty, and " if he had women troubles,only then was he in any trouble".
He fought for a world title three times. Unfortunately for him he was fighting in an era with two of the best middleweights of recent times,Mike McCallum and Julian Jackson. He gave McCallum one of his toughest fights but lost the decision due to deductions for low blows.Needless to say Graham confused the heck out of him and to the mind of some observers, clearly won the fight.
His fight against Julian Jackson was another sad story.According to Brendan Ingle, Graham had recently had a denture fitted.After the third round he pulled out his fighters gumshield, and there it was,embedded. Graham had been giving Jackson a lesson, closing his eye in the process, and the referee told both camps that he was going to give Jackson one more round before pulling him out.
However, Graham ignored Ingle's advice to stay away from him, and went for the kill, smarting about his ruined denture.He needlessly commited himself, leaving himself wide open for a hook that landed flush on the chin.He was infamously "out" before he hit the floor.
At the age of 38, once more challenging for the title, this time at super-middle, he outfoxed and humiliated the IBF champion Charles Brewer, before once more succumbing to the brute force of a lesser fighter.
This is true British all time great.

Didn't humiliate Brewer..

Brewer was ahead when he was stopped.

Humiliation too strong a word but I am pretty sure that he was ahead by the judges.Or maybe memory is failing me? Did you see it? And you think that Brewer was doing better.....?

According to "the "free library " ;"Graham then frustrated Brewer with a display of slippery skills reminiscent of his heyday. Sheffield-based Graham was ahead on one judge's scorecard and level on another when it was stopped"
I remember the look on Brewer's face which was reminiscent of the expression of a person who is seeing their grandmother crawl out of your nose

I saw it....Like with McCallum he could make good boxers look ordinary..

But I thought Brewer wore him down and reached at least parity on the cards..

I remember the ending was a bit of an anti climax....

I was wrong about the scores...They were each ahead on one and the British judge had it even.

Brewer was awful Truss and you know it.Rather than wear him down ,Graham just didn't have the legs any more...the reflexes -reliant fighter ages poorly....Ali post 30,Hamed,Jones all lost a lot in their 30s.
Seeing Graham lose to such s crude fighter was a truly depressing sight...

That said I wished that he'd beaten Ottke...the shame of the super middle division

I've no problems digging into my pockets to help out the great that never was.

Herol was the first boxer I ever truly followed, through their career. He used to box on one of the Saturday sports programmes, either world of sport or grandstand. Think I saw every one of his fights from 14 on. Too young to see him live though.

But did meet him in the flesh once, in B&Q in Sheffield. I walked round the isle looking for paint and he was stood there in front of me! Too giddy and star struck to say anything inciteful I just said hi and my girlfriend was mystified if I knew him etc.

To give a bit more detail, on his career. Eastwood was totally and utterly responsible for the Kalumbay loss, although Sambu was a far better operator than we all thought at the time.

As noted, Herol was the archetypal ingle fighter, indeed the one that probably set the mould. Elusive and one of the who would want him club.

At middle he didn't have the most concussive punch, that improved as he stepped up, but was so illusive and beautiful to watch in the ring.

If my memory serves, it wasn't long after he'd left ingle when the Kalumbay fight happened and shortly before Eastwood openly boasted he'd brought in a Latin America trainer to make him come forward and become more eye catching. Effectively, trying to change his style weeks before the biggest fight of his career. You could see he wasn't too comfortable and got caught so much more than normal, trying to force the fight rather than out boxing his opponent.

Personally, I thought he just edged McCallum. Buy effectively he was cruising the first half and just took his foot off the gas too much and showboated for the second half. He timed it badly and lost.

The Jackson loss is still painful for me to watch add he had it in the bag a got careless.

By Brewer he was a shadow of himself and struggled.

He seemed to have a bit of an ego and it got the better of him, at the worst times.

He used to have a jewellery shop in Nottingham but I assume that has gone.

Any boxing fans who haven't seen him there must be fights on YouTube. I highly recommend them.

No name Bertie,

I always thought the organisations would do their reputations a world of good by establishing a pension and benevolence fund for boxers. The sad thing is, they wouldn't have to even fund it, just organiser it. Simply make it clear a portion of their sanction fee was for it.

Don't think they could fund every journeyman but for every title fighter wouldn't seem unreasonable.

To be fair to the BBBC, the Lonsdale belt does come with such a payment. Sure it's not a lot but it's something.

Very sad news, Graham probably could have won several world titles in this day and age would have got a shot while still at his peak unbelievably elusive at his best

Can’t believe they haven’t picked up the Rios/Garcia fight tomorrow night would like to have see than yet are showing this tonight

Could be feistier than anyone thinks and interesting to see if Rios is shot to bits as the Garcia’s have bargained or Brandon’s got one last hurrah in him. He’s taken this camp very serious unlike the Bradley. Hope Garcia fights Porter if he wins, if he goes after Alexander then he’s back to doing the b-circuit like we said. Rios on top form this would be a helluva fight:

https://youtu.be/Uy3lHwy075c