You're right, Lawson reached the ABA middleweight final in 1975 and was outscored by Repton star Dave Odwell, who went to the Montreal Olympics a year later. Chris also boxed in the European championships – good fighter.Bladder wrote:Great knowledge Bennie. I seen a few Lawson fights, they used to run a coach from Pembroke Dock for some of his bouts. I seem to remember he beat Colin Jones' older brother for the Welsh Light Heavyweight title at for him a local(ish) venue in Haverfordwest. One of his last fights against Aneurin Williams, the coach broke down a few miles outside Ebbw Vale and some of us ran the rest of the way to get there for the start of the show.bennie wrote:Chris Lawson was a dangerous fighter who racked up plenty of quick wins in a fine career. He was unlucky in that Dennis Andries and Tom Collins were a cut above everybody else on the domestic scene in the 1980s but Chris at least picked up the Welsh light-heavyweight title and won the ABA light-heavyweight title in 1977 with a spectacular dismissal of the fancied Placid Gonzalez.
Kelvin Smart, another Welshman, did make it all the way to the British title with a one-sided stoppage of the hot and cold Dave George in 1982 but was always desperately tight at flyweight and lost his title quite quickly to Hugh Russell in an upset. Smart wound up winning and losing at bantamweight before a nasty knockout at the hands of Sean Murphy in 1987 forced him out.
Southpaw Rudi Pika looked a bit unlucky to drop the points to Frank Bruno in a thrilling ABA heavyweight final in 1980 but never settled in London as a pro under Mickey Duff's management and wound up dead at 26, slashing his wrists at home in Cardiff as his marriage broke down. He never lost a pro fight.
Londoner Colin Derrick reached an ABA final at 17 and was dominating the insanely aggressive Dave Williams when he suffered a terrible cut from a head clash and was ruled out. As a pro Colin lost a shock decision to Birmingham's Joey Mack and never fought again. Like Pika, he was a waste of talent.
Didn't Lawson make another ABA final, maybe at Middleweight?
On that note Colin Derrick was a ruthless fighting machine who liked nothing better than stopping his opponents (Lloyd Christie fell in a single round) but met his match in Joey Mack, a rangy, slender man from Birmingham who made a habit of upending the young guns and dropped Derrick with body shots on the way to an eight-round decision at York Hall in May 1983, after which Derrick walked away at the age of 23. Reading between the lines, Terry Lawless must have slung him out of the gym. Colin made the belligerent Lloyd Honeyghan look like a choirboy.
Kelvin Smart also had a ruthless streak and often rolled the thumb in the opening seconds of a contest when no referee is going to sling you out. There was a time when Kelvin looked like making real noise at flyweight but he wept tears of joy after he was crowned British champion and the fire in his belly dwindled. He was gifted a 10-round decision over Canada's Ian Clyde in Wales (the man who famously upended Charlie Magri in Montreal), then retired on his stool against Hugh Russell in Belfast and his career slowly petered out.
Rudi Pika was only 17 when he showed true fighting mettle against big Andy Palmer in the 1979 ABA heavyweight final, surviving a bad first round to have the Wembley crowd roaring as he launched a second-round rally. He was pulled out in the third round but made it to Wembley again a year later and fought magnificently against Frank Bruno before Bruno dug deep and pulled out a big third round to nick the points.
