Wally Swift Snr

[palooka]

The name 'Wally Swift' crops up time and again in the Old Timers section of the Boxing News. He was described as 'a Midlands legend'. I have looked at his record and he had a lot of fights and a fair few names on there I recognise from magazines.

Can anyone fill in the gaps on Wally Swifts record and achievements please?

[Graham Houston]

The name 'Wally Swift' crops up time and again in the Old Timers section of the Boxing News. He was described as 'a Midlands legend'. I have looked at his record and he had a lot of fights and a fair few names on there I recognise from magazines.

Can anyone fill in the gaps on Wally Swifts record and achievements please?

Wally was an excellent technical boxer with a beautiful left jab. He had a solid chin. Wally sprang a big upset when he outpointed the world-class South African Willie Toweel at Nottingham Ice Rink. In his next fight he outclassed Liverpool's Tommy Molloy to win the British welterweight title in a fight that the more experienced Molloy was expected to win, one of those times when the reporters of the day got their predictions well wrong. Swift lost two classic fights to Brian Curvis for the British and British Empire (as it was still called in boxing circles) welter titles. Although Wally won the British middleweight title his best days were as a welter: he outpointed former world champion Virgil Akins, for instance. Wally boxed with a broken jaw to outpoint the American middleweight Charlie Austin. (As I recall, Swift scored a rare knockdown with a right hand in that bout.) I believe all five of Swift's stoppage losses were essentially due to getting cut, although Les McAteer was starting to dominate him in Wally's last fight. Wally and the lightweight Maurice Cullen were British boxers who could (and usually did) win fights on the left jab alone (allied to conditioning and boxing intelligence obviously). I saw several of Wally's fights back in the day and I covered his last fight from ringside for Boxing News (no byline in those days; I was not on the staff at that time but I volunteered to cover the fight in a freelance capacity). Hope this helps.

[Hagler2002]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

[Graham Houston]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

The days when I spent many hours each week keeping a website going just for the love of it (four years of totally free-access articles, as I recall) just had to end, but I won't go into the whys and wherefores of it.

I wouldn't expect you to believe this, but I frequently got emails from readers telling me: "Graham, you know you should be getting something in return for all this free information you provide." Those readers who told me they would happily pay for the articles have stepped up to the plate, God bless them!

[Collins2000]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

The days when I spent many hours each week keeping a website going just for the love of it (four years of totally free-access articles, as I recall) just had to end, but I won't go into the whys and wherefores of it.

I wouldn't expect you to believe this, but I frequently got emails from readers telling me: "Graham, you know you should be getting something in return for all this free information you provide." Those readers who told me they would happily pay for the articles have stepped up to the plate, God bless them!

Always enjoyed your writing going back to when I first started reading Boxing News in 1977.

[Graham Houston]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

The days when I spent many hours each week keeping a website going just for the love of it (four years of totally free-access articles, as I recall) just had to end, but I won't go into the whys and wherefores of it.

I wouldn't expect you to believe this, but I frequently got emails from readers telling me: "Graham, you know you should be getting something in return for all this free information you provide." Those readers who told me they would happily pay for the articles have stepped up to the plate, God bless them!

Always enjoyed your writing going back to when I first started reading Boxing News in 1977.

Thanks for that. I appreciate it. Gosh, 1977. That takes me back a bit!

[Hagler2002]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

The days when I spent many hours each week keeping a website going just for the love of it (four years of totally free-access articles, as I recall) just had to end, but I won't go into the whys and wherefores of it.

I wouldn't expect you to believe this, but I frequently got emails from readers telling me: "Graham, you know you should be getting something in return for all this free information you provide." Those readers who told me they would happily pay for the articles have stepped up to the plate, God bless them!

What is your winning percentage/strikerate since you started charging for your recommendations if you don't mind me asking?

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

You were my favourite writer on boxing news! You made the magazine for me.

[bennie]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

[Scrap]

Wally Swift snr, what a Lovely Man, Good Fighter.

[Graham Houston]

I'm surprised you didn't charge for that information ;;-)

The days when I spent many hours each week keeping a website going just for the love of it (four years of totally free-access articles, as I recall) just had to end, but I won't go into the whys and wherefores of it.

I wouldn't expect you to believe this, but I frequently got emails from readers telling me: "Graham, you know you should be getting something in return for all this free information you provide." Those readers who told me they would happily pay for the articles have stepped up to the plate, God bless them!

What is your winning percentage/strikerate since you started charging for your recommendations if you don't mind me asking?

I had better be careful here because the moderators quite rightly will not want me (or anyone else) plugging a pay-to-read site. However, to answer your inquiry as best I can, here goes: I don't publish won-lost statistics because some previews contain more than one wagering choice (that is: the fighter picked to win might lose, but the "under" might come in as a winner.) In FAQs I have the following line: "The site is essentially about information and entertainment; it is not meant to be a 'bet on this' site. I like to think it is a little more than that." It is not nor ever was meant to be just a tipster site. I have losers and winners of course but each week I publish a selection of recent picks under "View Sample Picks". Some weeks there are more losses than wins, sometimes the other way around. (Not every week is a winning week.) Anyone who isn't happy can cancel any time, as stated on the site; I categorically do NOT want anyone's money if they are not happy with the service. I have probably gone too far with this post and I can see the post getting deleted but if you would like to PM me I will happily send you as email attachments my subscribers' site published previews and picks for the year to date.

[Graham Houston]

You were my favourite writer on boxing news! You made the magazine for me.

Thanks!

[Graham Houston]

Wally Swift snr, what a Lovely Man, Good Fighter.

Yes, a true gentleman. I drove up to Solihull with a photographer to interview his son for Boxing Monthly when I was back in the UK for a year, and Wally made salmon sandwiches. I had a look at Wally's scrapbooks and I could have spent hours going through those. My pal Malcolm Meredith told me: "I would rather you had done a feature on the old man than the son!" Wally was, I thought, a very modest man and I got the impression he didn't want to take any limelight from his son, but I did do a sidebar on Wally Sr. to accompany the piece on Jr.

[orbtastic]

Yeah, I enjoy Graham's writing but his picks were sometimes a little off.

[palooka]

Thank you for that Mr Houston (Didn't you write the preview and report for Rosario v Chavez? it's a long time ago but it got me interested in the sport, cheers).

[bennie]

George Biddles always said that Wally was the best pure boxer he ever managed. Wally was no banger but completely outboxed the boxer when he shocked South Africa's classy and vastly more experienced Willie Toweel on a decision in Nottingham in 1959, in what was Wally's first ever 10-rounder. A fight later, he scored another upset when he wrested the British welterweight title from Liverpool's Tommy Molloy on a 15-round decision, and further wins over cute Americans Larry Baker and Virgil Akins put him on the fringes of world class, but then came two heartbreaking losses to brilliant Welsh southpaw Brian Curvis which cost Wally the British title, and it was Curvis who challenged Emile Griffith for the world welterweight title at Wembley in 1964, taking a horrible pounding to the body.
Wally was and is a hard man. I remember him saying he would never have turned away, "even if I was hit with a hammer", as Nigel Benn turned away and fell to the floor against Michael Watson in 1989. Think of Albert Finney in the momentous Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and you get a taste of the drive and hunger of Wally back in his fighting days, a no-nonsense fellow from the back streets of Nottingham, hair swept back, who worked at Raleigh in the city all through his boxing career and saved his dosh enough to get out.
Plagued by cuts in his later career, he was only ever genuinely stopped by Teddy Haynes - up at middleweight - but Haynes was a banger and vastly underrated, and Wally came back to win the British middleweight title from Coventry's rugged Mick Leahy in December 1964 but those cuts cost him the belt against Nottingham rival Johnny Pritchett, which must have hurt the proud Swift, and he drifted away.

[Graham Houston]

Thank you for that Mr Houston (Didn't you write the preview and report for Rosario v Chavez? it's a long time ago but it got me interested in the sport, cheers).

Yes, I did that preview. That was one of my " off" predictions.

[palooka]

Thank you bennie; I felt he must have been a boxer of renown with how many times his name has cropped up. There must be 100's of class boxers from the past 50 years that hardly anyone remembers or knows much about. Thanks for your time again.

[palooka]

Thank you for that Mr Houston (Didn't you write the preview and report for Rosario v Chavez? it's a long time ago but it got me interested in the sport, cheers).

Yes, I did that preview. That was one of my " off" predictions.

From memory you picked Rosario in a great fight. I'd never heard of either boxer but the descriptions of both and Chavezs' record amazed me. It remains one of my favourite bouts.

[Old bones Ian]

Did he train Del Bryan as well?

[bennie]

Did he train Del Bryan as well?

Yes, he did, which says it all. Del was a superb fighter for many, many years who never got the credit he deserved because of his slick southpaw style. Del really was a rubber ball, a man who kept bouncing back. He beat Laing, of course, in an all-Nottingham affair for the British title; I once saw him nearly beat Crisanto Espana.

[palooka]

There's a couple of rounds of Del Bryan sparring with Paul Ryan on youtube; it's pretty good. Both are in good shape.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

We should have a write up about Harry Scott of Bootle, Liverpool. He fought EVERYBODY! Never even fought for the British title - look at his record and see who he fought and beat. Amazing!

[bennie]

We should have a write up about Harry Scott of Bootle, Liverpool. He fought EVERYBODY! Never even fought for the British title - look at his record and see who he fought and beat. Amazing!

Yes, he beat the famous and much-feared Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Everyone said it was a fluke, so they fought again.
Harry simply beat him again.

[bennie]

Actually, Carter won the first fight on a cut (but was losing) and was then outscored by Harry in the rematch.