Ken Buchanan - Why is he never invited onto TV?

[Autobarn]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

Very true.

[punchers chance]

Ken's nearly 75 and lives in a sheltered housing scheme these days.
He admits to still battling with alcohol.
It's 40 years too late for him to start doing TV punditry, although it would be great to hear his story on Tris Dixon's Boxing Life Stories podcast.

[Delta Jay]

Outside of the Roberto Duran fight and the big bollocks punch, I can’t say I’ve been too familiar with Ken.

This thread makes him sound like a proper old school fella, albeit with some flaws. I’ll get on YouTube and do some research

Any suggestions?

[liamlion]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

A sign of the times and more power to the likes of Dave Allen. The travesty is not that Dave Allen can earn a good living out of boxing and be setup for life with sound investments but that Ken Buchanan was born into an era where he’s skills and achievements couldn’t translate into life changing money.

[Fray Bentos]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

A sign of the times and more power to the likes of Dave Allen. The travesty is not that Dave Allen can earn a good living out of boxing and be setup for life with sound investments but that Kevin Buchanan was born into an era where he’s skills and achievements couldn’t translate into life changing money.

Kevin Buchanan

Sorry man...

I think with Ken Buchanan - it was a bit more than that - he wasn't kissing anyones ass - even if it meant cutting his nose off to spite his face - which is why he went down with Eddie Thomas in South Wales, which is why he boxed on private shows in London instead of fighting in Scotland and couldn't build up a following (he only fought 4 times as a professional in Scotland which is an amazing statistic), which is why he always followed the big money and fighting many times abroad - for awhile, he boxed out of Copenhagen with Mogens Palle because no-one in the UK wanted his services - to be a Frank Bruno type of celebrity is hard work and it means 'playing the game' which would be too much for a straight-down-the-line person such as KB.

Actually, KB praised Bruno very highly in his book 'High Life and Hard Times' for his fighting ability and the way he handed celebrity.

[liamlion]

A sign of the times and more power to the likes of Dave Allen. The travesty is not that Dave Allen can earn a good living out of boxing and be setup for life with sound investments but that Kevin Buchanan was born into an era where he’s skills and achievements couldn’t translate into life changing money.

Kevin Buchanan

Sorry man...

I think with Ken Buchanan - it was a bit more than that - he wasn't kissing anyones ass - even if it meant cutting his nose off to spite his face - which is why he went down with Eddie Thomas in South Wales, which is why he boxed on private shows in London instead of fighting in Scotland and couldn't build up a following (he only fought 4 times as a professional in Scotland which is an amazing statistic), which is why he always followed the big money and fighting many times abroad - for awhile, he boxed out of Copenhagen with Mogens Palle because no-one in the UK wanted his services - to be a Frank Bruno type of celebrity is hard work and it means 'playing the game' which would be too much for a straight-down-the-line person such as KB.

Actually, KB praised Bruno very highly in his book 'High Life and Hard Times' for his fighting ability and the way he handed celebrity.

Yep, good old predictive text on the iPad! This lockdown shite is making me so lazy.

Big difference as well being London based. There isn’t quite the razzmatazz in places like Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh etc as there is with London in terms of media, celebrity etc.

[Fray Bentos]

Kevin Buchanan

Sorry man...

I think with Ken Buchanan - it was a bit more than that - he wasn't kissing anyones ass - even if it meant cutting his nose off to spite his face - which is why he went down with Eddie Thomas in South Wales, which is why he boxed on private shows in London instead of fighting in Scotland and couldn't build up a following (he only fought 4 times as a professional in Scotland which is an amazing statistic), which is why he always followed the big money and fighting many times abroad - for awhile, he boxed out of Copenhagen with Mogens Palle because no-one in the UK wanted his services - to be a Frank Bruno type of celebrity is hard work and it means 'playing the game' which would be too much for a straight-down-the-line person such as KB.

Actually, KB praised Bruno very highly in his book 'High Life and Hard Times' for his fighting ability and the way he handed celebrity.

Yep, good old predictive text on the iPad! This lockdown shite is making me so lazy.

Big difference as well being London based. There isn’t quite the razzmatazz in places like Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh etc as there is with London in terms of media, celebrity etc.

Thing is though, those shows he fought on in London were mostly 'private shows' so the average punter didn't have access to watching him box because they were members only clubs - they don't have them anymore or they don't have boxing cards but for building up a fan base to get to the point where he was opening supermarkets and being on the telly - he did absolutely everything wrong...

[margaret thatcher]

He should go into 'property' , apparently all the boxers getting wealthy there these days

[Coco]

He should go into 'property' , apparently all the boxers getting wealthy there these days

Good thing to do, use the rent to pay off the mortgage, wait for prices to go up. You won't get rich quick but a long term stable investment.

[ThereByTheGrace]

I read a biography about duran and its pretty funny.

It tells of the time buchanan and duran met up for at a after dinner event and ken said to duran:

"Everytime i go for a piss i think of you"

[banjo]

Outside of the Roberto Duran fight and the big bollocks punch, I can’t say I’ve been too familiar with Ken.

This thread makes him sound like a proper old school fella, albeit with some flaws. I’ll get on YouTube and do some research

Any suggestions?

His three world title fights with Ismael Laguna(twice) and Ruben Navarro, his fights with Jim Watt and Guts Ishimatsu are online as well.

One of the very best to come from UK shores.

[JC]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

You've probably heard the story but here it is anyway.

Buchanan was working on a building site somewhere when a fan spotted him and came over to get his autograph. Seeing this, one of the younger lads on the site (who has no idea who Buchannon was) said: 'Jesus Christ Ken. You must be one hell of a fucking carpenter!'

[Stuarty]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

You've probably heard the story but here it is anyway.

Buchanan was working on a building site somewhere when a fan spotted him and came over to get his autograph. Seeing this, one of the younger lads on the site (who has no idea who Buchannon was) said: 'Jesus Christ Ken. You must be one hell of a fucking carpenter!'

Have heard that before mate aye but it never gets old

[Dirk Kelly]

I remember the old super Mod on here The Law was minding him at some event in Birmingham. The organiser or something diddled him out of £30 odd quid and Ken in his sixties went to his hotel room to get his money. The Law said the next day the organiser had a couple of black eyes he tried to explain away as walking into a door! Apparently the fella was a bit naughty too but Ken went and got his money, bought a bottle of whiskey and got on the train nice and happy.

[Noxy]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

You've probably heard the story but here it is anyway.

Buchanan was working on a building site somewhere when a fan spotted him and came over to get his autograph. Seeing this, one of the younger lads on the site (who has no idea who Buchannon was) said: 'Jesus Christ Ken. You must be one hell of a fucking carpenter!'

[Flump]

I was lucky enough to meet the great man last year at a meeting of the London Ex Boxers Association. He was in good form and had dozens of people, as well as a couple of old opponents/sparring partners on hand to make a fuss of him. He looked very well, spoke well and didn't have a pint until midday! Nice memory to have.

[Nightmare Roy]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

You've probably heard the story but here it is anyway.

Buchanan was working on a building site somewhere when a fan spotted him and came over to get his autograph. Seeing this, one of the younger lads on the site (who has no idea who Buchannon was) said: 'Jesus Christ Ken. You must be one hell of a fucking carpenter!'

[Steel City]

Kevin Buchanan

Sorry man...

I think with Ken Buchanan - it was a bit more than that - he wasn't kissing anyones ass - even if it meant cutting his nose off to spite his face - which is why he went down with Eddie Thomas in South Wales, which is why he boxed on private shows in London instead of fighting in Scotland and couldn't build up a following (he only fought 4 times as a professional in Scotland which is an amazing statistic), which is why he always followed the big money and fighting many times abroad - for awhile, he boxed out of Copenhagen with Mogens Palle because no-one in the UK wanted his services - to be a Frank Bruno type of celebrity is hard work and it means 'playing the game' which would be too much for a straight-down-the-line person such as KB.

Actually, KB praised Bruno very highly in his book 'High Life and Hard Times' for his fighting ability and the way he handed celebrity.

Yep, good old predictive text on the iPad! This lockdown shite is making me so lazy.

Big difference as well being London based. There isn’t quite the razzmatazz in places like Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh etc as there is with London in terms of media, celebrity etc.

Yeah I think he would have been a superstar had he been from south of the border.Becoming undisputed champ in those days of less weightclases and belts, and doing it all on the road .. is some achievement.

Scottish boxers never get the same press as English fighters. Josh Taylor despite being the best P4P british fighter right now imo ..is not known to casuals down here and even some boxing fans. His unification fight with Prograis wasn't covered on the national news. Yet the celebrity boxer Amir Khans laughable joke of a fight with Billy Dib was all over the national news lol.

[Grilling Machine]

Yeah, but the Scouts are still quite popular.

[Old bones Ian]

Didn't he fight under a fake name for a while after he officially retired?

[Autobarn]

Also hard to imagine Buchanan sitting there with the trendy colour commentators and some of the newer blow by blow guys with their new boxing lexicon of “straight backhand”, “game changer”, “story of the fight”, “analysing data”, “interpreting patterns” and all the other nonsense. Never mind how he’d respond to that. Not to mention not being allowed to criticise the action anymore.

[Autobarn]

Buchanan was my old mans favourite fighter. He was working on a building site in Paisley one day and he went to ask the joiner to move his ladder and it was Ken Buchanan. My dad was star struck. After all he achieved in the sport he was still working on the tools grafting! Nowadays you have guys like Dave Allen who are financially secure despite him being fuckin hopeless!

A sign of the times and more power to the likes of Dave Allen. The travesty is not that Dave Allen can earn a good living out of boxing and be setup for life with sound investments but that Ken Buchanan was born into an era where he’s skills and achievements couldn’t translate into life changing money.

i don’t want to be horrible but the man is an awful boxer and athlete.

[Steel City]

Outside of the Roberto Duran fight and the big bollocks punch, I can’t say I’ve been too familiar with Ken.

This thread makes him sound like a proper old school fella, albeit with some flaws. I’ll get on YouTube and do some research

Any suggestions?

This was a nice performance vs Donato Paduano. He moved up from lightweight to welterweight (zero fucks given) and schooled him despite a big weight disadvantage



Highlights video



Check the elusiveness

[Delta Jay]

Outside of the Roberto Duran fight and the big bollocks punch, I can’t say I’ve been too familiar with Ken.

This thread makes him sound like a proper old school fella, albeit with some flaws. I’ll get on YouTube and do some research

Any suggestions?

This was a nice performance vs Donato Paduano. He moved up from lightweight to welterweight (zero fucks given) and schooled him despite a big weight disadvantage



Highlights video



Check the elusiveness

Nice one!

[Fray Bentos]

Didn't he fight under a fake name for a while after he officially retired?

An opponent of his did - Lance Williams who was KO'd by Buchanan fought as 'Tony Dore' 15 years later and was unbeaten I think... Both aliases fought out of Manchester!

Ken Buchanan would have been the worst 'ringer' ever!