Finding the Will: Kevin Lueshing on Fighting for Survival

[thenonpareil]

“The other thing was, I was brown. When I was growing up, in the 1970s, it was either black, Paki [Pakistani], white, or Chinese. It didn’t matter where exactly you came from on the planet; you fell under one of those categories. Paki was classified as the worst for some reason. If you were Sri Lankan, Maltese, whatever, you were a Paki. I was a Paki, because my dad is Chinese and my mum is Jamaican, and it would drive me mad. I grew up listening to people saying, ‘We’re going Paki bashing,’ so I had to fight. My brothers wouldn’t help me if the kid I was up against was my age or one year older than me, only if they were two years older, then they’d jump in. So I was always having to defend myself. I couldn’t go home and say, ‘Dad, I’ve been beaten up,’ because he’d beat me a lot worse than the kid I’d just fought.

https://hannibalboxing.com/finding-the- ... -survival/

[tonyevs]

Yep - the colour of someone’s skin is often the thing which identifies them as different, and then a reason to bully them.

Being ginger, having glasses, living in a different area, and even being white in a predominantly black area gets the same results. White kids in poor inner city schools will probably have similar stories.

[bennie]

Good feature but Lueshing's trainer is former ABA champion Gary Nickels and not Gary Nicholls, which is disappointing.

[King Tubby]

Good feature but Lueshing's trainer is former ABA champion Gary Nickels and not Gary Nicholls, which is disappointing.

How is Gary Nickels these days, Bennie, do you know? Used to see him out driving the cab all the time. Haven't seen him in years.

[bennie]

Good feature but Lueshing's trainer is former ABA champion Gary Nickels and not Gary Nicholls, which is disappointing.

How is Gary Nickels these days, Bennie, do you know? Used to see him out driving the cab all the time. Haven't seen him in years.

I believe Gary works as a courier, these days, and I know he is involved in personal training in his hometown of Stevenage. Amazingly, he still has his baby face at 61 and certainly doesn't look like an ex-boxer who gave it everything in every fight and earned a lot of domestic respect. F rank Warren hailed him "the ultimate professional" when Gary called it a day in 1987 and Gary hoped to manage fighters of his own but Stevenage is not really a hotbed of boxing. I sat close to him at the first Eubank-Benn classic in 1990 and you could see he was missing boxing.
Gary had a long amateur and pro career, winning the ABA flyweight title in 1978 with a close decision over Welshman Russell Jones and then representing England in the Commonwealth Games in Canada, where he was eliminated in his first bout by an unheralded Aussie, which was a disappointment but may have been a blessing because the Aussie then suffered a brutal beating at the hand of Kenyan Mike Irungu, who went on to win flyweight gold with an easy decision over Canadian southpaw Ian Clyde, the man who famously stopped Charlie Magri in the 1976 Olympics.
Gary turned pro with Terry Lawless and made it to a final eliminator for the British flyweight title in 1981 but was now dead at the weight, having fought as high as featherweight in preceding fights, and was stopped in the first round by Swansea's Dave George, after which some of Gary's fans jumped in the ring and threatened Welsh referee James Brimmell. It was not a good night. Amazingly, Gary came in at under eight stone for his next fight but I think he was under orders from Lawless who had clearly blundered in boiling Gary down and was trying to disguise the fact. Gary won that one against a man with just three fights behind him, then moved back up the divisions but was outscored over eight rounds by Brighton's Mark West at York Hall in 1982, after which Lawless let him go, so Gary signed up with Mr Warren and racked up a number of solid wins at featherweight until he was stopped in a shocking first round by Barnet banger John Maloney at the Ally Pally in 1986 for the Southern Area title, in the days when the Southern Area title really meant something.
Gary was caught cold in that one but was too brave to go down and Maloney really teed off on him and London referee Mike Jacobs stopped it way too late. Jacobs' indecision cost him his 'star class' licence, which meant he could no longer referee world title fights and he had refereed a lot.
Gary came back with a cuts win over Steve Pollard but was held to a draw by Shane Silvester next time out in a six-rounder at York Hall, climbing off the deck in the second round, and he decided to call it a day. Gary was never a big puncher but he possessed lovely boxing skills and masses of grit, determination and fitness. He was cut prone but never let a cut faze him and win or lose, proved a true sportsman.

[margaret thatcher]

How is the name pronounced, if it's like loo-shing then it does sound Chinese

[King Tubby]

Thanks Bennie.

[chinarich]

How is Gary Nickels these days, Bennie, do you know? Used to see him out driving the cab all the time. Haven't seen him in years.

I believe Gary works as a courier, these days, and I know he is involved in personal training in his hometown of Stevenage. Amazingly, he still has his baby face at 61 and certainly doesn't look like an ex-boxer who gave it everything in every fight and earned a lot of domestic respect. F rank Warren hailed him "the ultimate professional" when Gary called it a day in 1987 and Gary hoped to manage fighters of his own but Stevenage is not really a hotbed of boxing. I sat close to him at the first Eubank-Benn classic in 1990 and you could see he was missing boxing.
Gary had a long amateur and pro career, winning the ABA flyweight title in 1978 with a close decision over Welshman Russell Jones and then representing England in the Commonwealth Games in Canada, where he was eliminated in his first bout by an unheralded Aussie, which was a disappointment but may have been a blessing because the Aussie then suffered a brutal beating at the hand of Kenyan Mike Irungu, who went on to win flyweight gold with an easy decision over Canadian southpaw Ian Clyde, the man who famously stopped Charlie Magri in the 1976 Olympics.
Gary turned pro with Terry Lawless and made it to a final eliminator for the British flyweight title in 1981 but was now dead at the weight, having fought as high as featherweight in preceding fights, and was stopped in the first round by Swansea's Dave George, after which some of Gary's fans jumped in the ring and threatened Welsh referee James Brimmell. It was not a good night. Amazingly, Gary came in at under eight stone for his next fight but I think he was under orders from Lawless who had clearly blundered in boiling Gary down and was trying to disguise the fact. Gary won that one against a man with just three fights behind him, then moved back up the divisions but was outscored over eight rounds by Brighton's Mark West at York Hall in 1982, after which Lawless let him go, so Gary signed up with Mr Warren and racked up a number of solid wins at featherweight until he was stopped in a shocking first round by Barnet banger John Maloney at the Ally Pally in 1986 for the Southern Area title, in the days when the Southern Area title really meant something.
Gary was caught cold in that one but was too brave to go down and Maloney really teed off on him and London referee Mike Jacobs stopped it way too late. Jacobs' indecision cost him his 'star class' licence, which meant he could no longer referee world title fights and he had refereed a lot.
Gary came back with a cuts win over Steve Pollard but was held to a draw by Shane Silvester next time out in a six-rounder at York Hall, climbing off the deck in the second round, and he decided to call it a day. Gary was never a big puncher but he possessed lovely boxing skills and masses of grit, determination and fitness. He was cut prone but never let a cut faze him and win or lose, proved a true sportsman.

Always appreciate your insights, Bennie, so interesting to learn from your experiences...

[bennie]

Thanks, mate. I feel my insights don't compare to those made on Lueshing, whose biggest fight clearly came outside the ring and I'm surprised there isn't more of a reaction to writer Paul Zanon's incredibly graphic feature but maybe Lueshing belongs on the boxing history forum, even though it seems like yesterday (to me, anyway) that he was fighting.
Kevin goes back a surprisingly long way. He spent years trying to win an ABA welterweight title in the 1980s and early 1990s, blasting out early opponents before getting blasted out himself by the likes of Gary Logan and Adrian Carew. He made it as far as the ABA quarters in 1989 where he was crushed in two rounds by Liverpool's inspired John Jones, who dazzled all the way to Wembley but then choked against Telford's Mark Elliott, although Elliott was a very clever boxer. Lueshing, much like Jones, much like Colin McMillan, much like Michael Watson, just couldn't win an ABA crown.
By September 1991, Lueshing had clearly had enough and switched to the pro ranks under Frank Maloney where longer distances suited his counterpunching style as he racked up stoppage wins over Kirkland Laing, Ian Chantler and Simon Eubank but with a record of 11-0 (9), his chin buckled at the hands of obscure Barnsley southpaw Chris Saunders and it was the ABAs all over again. However, Saunders then embarked on an amazing run which culminated in the British welterweight title so perhaps Lueshing got unlucky and he went on a brilliant run himself with wins over Peter Waudby, Dennis Berry and Michael Smyth to set up a British title rematch with Saunders at York Hall in February 1996.
Finally, at the age of 27, Lueshing came good in one of the greatest domestic tear-ups of the decade, with seven knockdowns in seven minutes. Lueshing was so utterly determined to win - so utterly tense - he rocked from everything Saunders could land. It reminded me of George Foreman's desperate comeback (from Ali) against Ron Lyle in Las Vegas in 1976, but Lueshing kept going to third-round revenge and the biggest fight he ever won.
That win alone earned him a shot at Felix Trinidad for the IBF welterweight title 11 months later in the States but he was out of his depth and stopped in three rounds, although he did manage to drop the unbeaten Trinidad (who needed knocking down to get going). Back home, Lueshing really needed to beat Geoff McCreesh in his next fight at Wembley and he gave it a great go against a more naturally talented opponent before he was overwhelmed in the 11th round for the British title, after which he moved up to light-middleweight. A couple of wins there secured him a WBO title shot at Harry Simon, who he was never really going to beat, and the man had the intelligence to walk away afterwards at the age of 31.
Overall, Kevin flattered to deceive in his boxing career but I admired his short left hook on the counter, which accounted for a lot of his opponents, but his ability to take a shot was always in question and he wound up winning - or losing - by knockout, which made him a flawed, dangerous, compelling fighter to watch.

[Coco]

.

[orbtastic]

The Saunders rematch was bonkers. Same night that Thacko absolutely levelled Scrap Iron Ryan.

[stujones]

McCreesh - was just inspired that night he beat Lueshing - what a fight and performance that was. He just would not be denied and I wonder what he would have done had it been another fighter in the ring that night - e.g. a European or World champion.

I would, politely, disagree with Bennie in that McCreesh was more naturally talented - for me McCreesh was a hard hard man, but I would argue that Lueshing had more of a skill set - but he just couldn't keep him off in what was an inspired display (didn't McCreesh lose a close family member in the run up to the fight?). It reminded me of a slightly lower level Collins vs Eubank 2 type fight., even possibly parrells to a lower level Hatton vs Tszyu.

[bennie]

Geoff tragically lost his mother in a car crash a few days before his magnificent win over Lueshing and it defies belief that he went through with the fight under those circumstances and fought the way he did. Jim Evans, who managed him in the pro ranks, told me that McCreesh is the best fighter he's ever handled and was dynamite in the gym. I can well believe it. One of Geoff's greatest wins came in South Africa against Dingaan Thobela, whom he flattened with a beautiful right hook when under pressure on the ropes, a hook which only travelled a few inches but Thobela was out cold. Nobody saw the punch.
McCreesh was temperamental, of course - a proper fiery redhead -and made it into the national newspapers for an ABA boxing incident in 1990 in Birmingham. Geoff was fighting Robert McCracken, a local man and probably the best unpaid welterweight in the country at the time, so it was a big fight for McCreesh and he did well in the opening round but at the bell to end the round, McCracken 'screwed' him, to which McCreesh took exception and he followed McCracken back to his own corner and eyeballed him in turn.
McCracken smiled and touched gloves to defuse the situation but a few of McCracken's mates (and clubmates, it has to said) were enraged by this in a small arena and during the interval one of them cleared his throat as if to spit on McCreesh. This prompted McCreesh's father to approach the group and suddenly the group surroundered him and it was all about to explode when McCreesh jumped off his stool, climbed on to the top rope and then dived like superman on top of the lot of them, which had the desired effect and the group dispersed. Amazingly, McCreesh then clambered back into the ring and sat back on his stool, ready for the second round. It all happened that fast.
Nobody knew what to do. The bell didn't go and there was a long delay as officials huddled together at ringside and eventually it was announced that McCreesh had been disqualified for leaving the ring during a fight, which is a bit of a shame but he shouldn't have confronted McCracken the way he did. McCracken thus went on in the ABA championships but was robbed in the quarter-finals in Gloucester against Adrian Carew, the eventual champion.