The Forgotten Champ: John L. Gardner is a book just out on the former British and European heavyweight champion and it makes compelling and often graphic reading. John L. probably found it safer in a boxing ring than outside it. Never a big puncher, he walked into the likes of Michael Dokes, Jimmy Young, Ossie Ocasio, Paul Sykes and Neville Meade and kept on walking until something 'gave'. Often, his opponents turned and quit as the superfit Gardner maintained a relentless workrate but there were times when he walked into big trouble. He was 24-0 when American “Sailor” Ibar Arrington caught him cold at Wembley in 1977 (Arrington went 10 hard rounds with Larry Holmes a fight later) and the chubby Young dropped him on the way to a 10-round decision two years later, also at Wembley.
On both occasions, manager Terry Lawless was able to bring him back and Gardner would have challenged Holmes or Mike Weaver had he beaten the unbeaten Dokes in Detroit in June 1981. He was coming off knockouts of Lorenzo Zanon and Ocasio and some gave him a chance but Dokes proved different class, picking him off and then brutally despatching him in four rounds.
The Londoner was never the same but his record of 35-4 (29) proves that he outlasted most of his opponents and his spectacular five-round knockout of Zanon in Italy in 1980 remains a career highlight. He was the best heavyweight in Europe for a number of years.
