Erroll Christie has passed away

[thepocketrocket]

Errol Christie passed away last Sunday with a few throwaway lines in the media and a few shrugs from boxing fans who knew the name but not the story. “...keep reading he was a British boxing legend but when you look at it, he didn't seem capable of winning anything”, cracked one who was absolutely right: Errol won nothing in the pro ranks, not even an eliminator.
It was in the amateurs where the Christie legend was born many moons ago when he smashed his way to every domestic honour for the Triumph club in Coventry before striking gold for England in the European juniors in 1982. He should have stayed amateur for the Los Angeles Olympics but inevitable comparisons to Randolph Turpin, also a middleweight, also from Warwickshire, also one of a fighting family, also ABA champ at 17, also destructive, were irresistable to the promoters and managers of the day and Burt McCarthy forked out a fortune to secure Christie's signature ahead of the rest. So, what went wrong?
Christie had racked up an impressive 13 wins (12 early) when he was thrown in with a plodding southpaw light-heavyweight from Belgium who blew him away in 46 seconds. It was a shock but people put it down to the weigh disparity as Christie began racking up the middleweight wins again. Trouble was, the bar had been lowered and Errol needed just 11 rounds to dispose of seven opponents leading up to his biggest test against the rugged, skilled, superfit, supergame Mark Kaylor at Wembley in November 1985.
Errol had him down but Kaylor clambered up and kept on coming and Christie had nothing left after the early rounds. He took a beating which finished him, in my opinion, but dabbled with the light-middleweights afterwards, taking a decent win over Ireland's Sean Mannion (who couldn't break an egg), but for every win there were defeats, stoppage defeats, and he wound up as virtual fodder for the likes of Michael Watson and James Cook.
“A star is Born” crowed the front cover of Boxing News after Christie had outscored Cameron Lithgow in a thrilling ABA final in 1981. Sadly for Errol, it would never get better than that.

Thanks Bennie....I was hoping you would pop up!

[bennie]

Just to add that Errol won four national schoolboy titles, two junior ABA titles, three NABC titles and then the senior ABA title at his first attempt. I don't think anyone else has ever done this.

[Jackson328]

Thanks for those posts bennie, I was on holiday when I heard the sad news and it jolted me back to the 1980s. Kaylor v Christie was one of those bouts that I didn't want either man to lose because I knew I'd feel gutted for him.

[Flump]

Just to add that Errol won four national schoolboy titles, two junior ABA titles, three NABC titles and then the senior ABA title at his first attempt. I don't think anyone else has ever done this.

Nice to have you back bennie, I very much enjoy your writing.