bollocks wrote:Last British title fight to go 15 was in '82? Were 15 rounders abolished in the UK before the alpha boys did it?
That's a very, very good question. The WBC were the first to reduce world title fights to 12 rounds after the Ray Mancini-Duk-Koo Kim disaster in Vegas in November 1982 - and yet Collins faced Andries in March 1982 in the last British title fight to go 15 rounds. To answer your question, there were other British title fights scheduled for 15 rounds after Collins-Andries, but none of them went the full 15. In October 1982, George Feeney and Ray Cattouse slugged it out for 14 brutal rounds for the British lightweight title and a month later came the Duk-Koo Kim tragedy. The Board followed suit with the WBC and reduced their championship distance to 12.
Yeah in a sad twist of fate the 1st WBC 12 round title fight ended in the death of Kiko Bejines , and he was stopped in the 12th round!
