BoxRec

Anyone know what these former boxers are doing nowadays and how I might contact them.
Thanx Martin

John L lives up north, Gateshead way I think,
Danny sometimes goes to shows when John Breen is bringing fighters over

Thanx Eric

If only Gardner possessed McAlinden's punch, and McAlinden, Gardner's workrate. Oh well, that's what you call swings and roundabouts. I met McAlinden at the Magee-Takaloo show in Belfast in 2006. He looked good, with a woman, not a bit punchy.

Danny didn't too bad as a pro, you know. He licked Ali and drew with Patterson.

Shame they were the brothers of the champs

Old bones Ian wrote:Shame they were the brothers of the champs

John L's son is boxing now and was in attendance for his debut. Watch out for his next assignment as im sure Dad will be there again.

maninthemiddle wrote:John L's son is boxing now and was in attendance for his debut. Watch out for his next assignment as im sure Dad will be there again.

This is great news. Gardner was a classic "Where are they now?" - no longer running a pub in Gateshead - but it is so good to know he is back in the game via his son. How may fighters did John L. 'break' with his workrate fitness and stamina? Even Ossie Ocasio, later to win the world cruiserweight title, could not live with his pace.

mercman wrote:McAlinden's demolition of Jack Bodell to win the British Title was sensational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLJhiaqkf_o

Who was Larry Middleton? Came over here and beat Bugner and Danny Mcalinden. and lost by 1/2 a point to Jerry Quarry.

Old bones Ian wrote:Who was Larry Middleton? Came over here and beat Bugner and Danny Mcalinden. and lost by 1/2 a point to Jerry Quarry.

Just another 1970s' heavyweight, Ian, who floored Bugner and bust his jaw. Today, he would play with the lumbering Klitschkos. He was born too early.

Larry Middleton! Tough 70s heavy, some good wins but also was matched very tough, almost constantly.

It would be fascinating to see how far the Larry Middleton's, Stan Ward's, Kevin Isaac et als could go with todays cotton wool wrapping route to world title shots. With their grit, chins, stamina and big punches they'd probably all be America's greatest hopes in todays muck.

Going back to Punjabipal's original subject, John L: didn't he have a violent altercation some years back & become a recluse? I hope not, but that was a story that went round and round for years.

Even Board man John Jarrett, who knows everything there is to know about the North East, knows nothing of Gardner's current whereabouts.
John L. naturally lost his confidence for a while but I am sure he is fine now.

As ‘little’ David Haye nears his inevitable showdowns with the ‘big’ Klitschkos, Vitali and Wladimir, the idiotic internet view of today’s heavyweights rears its ugly head again on seemingly every boxing forum, on seemingly every heavyweight thread. Filibusters tell you today’s heavyweights are better than yesterday’s because they are so much bigger - and so much bigger is surely so much better.
What are they saying!
Jack Dempsey dished out the worst beating in the entire history of boxing to a giant of a man who could fight by the name of Jess Willard (the gigantic Luis Firpo also has good cause to remember Dempsey); Haye, quick and hungry, if not as ferocious as Dempsey, toyed with the biggest and heaviest ‘world’ heavyweight champion of all time just two months ago; Chris Byrd, a stinking, non-punching southpaw beaten by Joe Calzaghe in the amateurs, made millions courtesy of a dire modern heavyweight scene and then dropped back down again - to middleweight. John L. Gardner, no bigger than Haye, refused to take a backward step and came desperately close to a shot at Muhammad Ali; Danny McAlinden knocked out Richard Dunn in one round, who did get a shot at Ali.
Some posters, on other forums, actually believe that because someone like Eric “Butterbean” Esch scales 300 pounds he must be better than Haye, Byrd, Gardner, McAlinden, Tommy Burns, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier and even Dempsey – smaller, lighter heavies - although they usually spare Mike Tyson in their ludicrous comparisons. “Butterbean”, coincidentally, was taken apart in under a round by a half-blind bloke from Walthamstow on these shores recently. (On that note, Dempsey flattened two would-be muggers at the age of 78).
At least old-school boxing men, who do know their boxing, know heavyweight boxing has sadly regressed through the decades. Size and strength fail to compensate for lack of technical skill or natural power amongst today’s big men. Ask yourself this, do the huge Klitschkos possess natural power, real ‘snap’ in their work, or do they just possess outstanding fitness as they poke away at fat, puffing barrels until those barrels run dry? Vitali certainly jabbed the life out of Sam Peter and Danny Williams before the corner, the doctor, did their respective jobs. Wladimir is probably more aggressive, more in the face of his opponents, but seemingly needs to drop men several times before his arm is raised. His power appears to be that of the ‘clumping’ variety.
Think of Primo Carnera.
However, Haye can naturally ‘crack’ as he showed when he dropped New York’s Monte Barrett five times on a heady night in London in November 2008 in his heavyweight debut, winning in the fifth round, and when he flattened French bull Jean-Marc Mormeck in Paris before that to wrest the undisputed world cruiserweight title. Moreover, Haye is the ideal size for a heavyweight at 6ft 3ins, in my opinion, the ideal weight at 215 pounds.
Think of Muhammad Ali.
The charismatic, self-assured, smart-talking Londoner poses the biggest threat to to Vitali since Lennox Lewis, another British fighter, stopped Klitschko on cuts back in 2003 - and Vitali is the better of the two brothers (and the braver, so he will fight Haye first). Like Haye, he seems a likeable fella’ but acted disgracefully when pulled out of the Lewis fight due to two horrendous cuts (caused by punches), jumping off his stool in a manner which petrified even his cutsman, the gentlemanly Joe Souza, as he tried to get at Lewis in front of a crowd of 16,000, only just held back by Wladimir, who probably prevented a riot.
Vitali was out of control, totally, and I believe his actions resulted in the millionaire Lewis, after making Klitschko wait and wait and wait (ha ha!), walking out of the sport, something which has bugged Vitali ever since. You reap what you sow, Vitali. (Souza, incidentally, agreed with the stoppage and said so to the press a day later, Klitschko firmly out of earshot.)
Nevertheless, Vitali’s boxing record of 39-2 (37) is excellent. He has lost only to Lewis and to that little man Byrd, on another injury stoppage, and while he comes off a terrible fight with Kevin “Queenpin” Johnson (a drab points win), he is better than he showed that night as he showed when he emerged from a retirement lasting FOUR years in 2008 to drub Nigeria’s Peter for the WBC heavyweight title. It were almost like he had never been away.
Once upon a boxing time, nobody could emerge from a hiatus of four years and waltz their way to a world title - nobody - but boxing foundations are horribly debunked, these days, with fighters winning world titles like dog treats, jumping up and down divisions like Georges Carpentier, switching promoters, managers and trainers like condoms, and pulling out of big fights at the last minute because they have locked themselves “in” (a famous excuse once uttered by Birmingham’s Lloyd Hibbert).
Man, the sport has changed!
Nevertheless, the still-improving Haye, nine years younger than Vitali at 29 and with a record of 23-1 (21), can bring back the days when fighters, heavyweight fighters, knew about balance, skill and power, about the kind of power sorely lacking in those lumbering arm-puncher Klitschkos, who make Frank Bruno look supple. Class always tells, not weight.
Haye is a different man from the one who punched himself out spectacularly against Bolton’s Carl Thompson at cruiserweight back in 2004 for his only setback. Haye still punches up from his toes but mixes up his heavy shots nowadays with jabs and sharp left hooks. He has a longer reach than one would imagine at 78 inches - just two inches shorter than the 6ft 7½ins Vitali’s. His right hand is thunderous.
Oh yes, he will reach Vitali all right, just as he reached the Jurassic Valuev - all seven foot of the Russian - although Vitali has never been down as a fighter (Birmingham’s Pele Reid once knocked him out with a kick, apparently). For me, this gives Haye a golden opportunity to make a real statement as he floors the WBC champion on the way to a stoppage, on the way to undisputed status in the heavyweight ranks (at last), on the way to superstardom.
First, he must defend the WBA heavyweight title he won from Valuev against America’s John Ruiz in Manchester on April 3. Pave the way, David, blow Ruiz away.

cor blimey bennie :!: thats alot of writing there DD

haye dont look natural too me as you've stated ali being the optimum heavy.also mentioning him alongside ali & dempsey is an insult, jesse willard was like valuev he couldnt fight neither, id of loved to see haye smash through him but he dont have the confidence in his chin i feel regardless of his broken hand, to which i think his gameplan was to stay away anyhow.
also monte barrets resistance is shot but hayr can deffo dig :!:

bennie wrote:

maninthemiddle wrote:John L's son is boxing now and was in attendance for his debut. Watch out for his next assignment as im sure Dad will be there again.

This is great news. Gardner was a classic "Where are they now?" - no longer running a pub in Gateshead - but it is so good to know he is back in the game via his son. How may fighters did John L. 'break' with his workrate fitness and stamina? Even Ossie Ocasio, later to win the world cruiserweight title, could not live with his pace.

Hello all this is john l gardners son he is doing fine if any one wants to get in touch please let me know as i can pass on the number on ppl who have somthing they need to chat about many


Thanks Ross L Gardner

david pearce was a small heavy & im led to believe he was very talented.

130xer wrote:

bennie wrote:

maninthemiddle wrote:John L's son is boxing now and was in attendance for his debut. Watch out for his next assignment as im sure Dad will be there again.

This is great news. Gardner was a classic "Where are they now?" - no longer running a pub in Gateshead - but it is so good to know he is back in the game via his son. How may fighters did John L. 'break' with his workrate fitness and stamina? Even Ossie Ocasio, later to win the world cruiserweight title, could not live with his pace.

Hello all this is john l gardners son he is doing fine if any one wants to get in touch please let me know as i can pass on the number on ppl who have somthing they need to chat about many


Thanks Ross L Gardner

Heeey, this is where internet forums (which I spent some of the morning slagging off) come into their own!
Ross, stay with us, the very best of luck with your career and tell your dad we still remember his stunning European title win over Lorenzo Zanon in Italy.
What a triumph!

hurlock wrote:david pearce was a small heavy & im led to believe he was very talented.

David was one of a large fighting family and stopped Dennis Andries on the way up and featured in several domestic thrillers. He won the British title from fellow Welshman Neville Meade (a man John L. Gardner had stopped, before Meade went on a great run) but a terribly one-sided loss to Lucien Rodriguez for the European title signalled that Pearce's well had run dry. Sadly, he died while still a relatively young man.

yeah i looked up his record, sad how a fighter can deteriate & lose there spark.suppose its like quarless defeating gardiner who he would never of lived with in his day.

130xer wrote:

bennie wrote:

maninthemiddle wrote:John L's son is boxing now and was in attendance for his debut. Watch out for his next assignment as im sure Dad will be there again.

This is great news. Gardner was a classic "Where are they now?" - no longer running a pub in Gateshead - but it is so good to know he is back in the game via his son. How may fighters did John L. 'break' with his workrate fitness and stamina? Even Ossie Ocasio, later to win the world cruiserweight title, could not live with his pace.

Hello all this is john l gardners son he is doing fine if any one wants to get in touch please let me know as i can pass on the number on ppl who have somthing they need to chat about many


Thanks Ross L Gardner

Hi Ross, thanks for update , glad to hear your Dad is going well.

bennie wrote:As ‘little’ David Haye nears his inevitable showdowns with the ‘big’ Klitschkos, Vitali and Wladimir, the idiotic internet view of today’s heavyweights rears its ugly head again on seemingly every boxing forum, on seemingly every heavyweight thread. Filibusters tell you today’s heavyweights are better than yesterday’s because they are so much bigger - and so much bigger is surely so much better.
What are they saying!
Jack Dempsey dished out the worst beating in the entire history of boxing to a giant of a man who could fight by the name of Jess Willard (the gigantic Luis Firpo also has good cause to remember Dempsey); Haye, quick and hungry, if not as ferocious as Dempsey, toyed with the biggest and heaviest ‘world’ heavyweight champion of all time just two months ago; Chris Byrd, a stinking, non-punching southpaw beaten by Joe Calzaghe in the amateurs, made millions courtesy of a dire modern heavyweight scene and then dropped back down again - to middleweight. John L. Gardner, no bigger than Haye, refused to take a backward step and came desperately close to a shot at Muhammad Ali; Danny McAlinden knocked out Richard Dunn in one round, who did get a shot at Ali.
Some posters, on other forums, actually believe that because someone like Eric “Butterbean” Esch scales 300 pounds he must be better than Haye, Byrd, Gardner, McAlinden, Tommy Burns, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier and even Dempsey – smaller, lighter heavies - although they usually spare Mike Tyson in their ludicrous comparisons. “Butterbean”, coincidentally, was taken apart in under a round by a half-blind bloke from Walthamstow on these shores recently. (On that note, Dempsey flattened two would-be muggers at the age of 78).
At least old-school boxing men, who do know their boxing, know heavyweight boxing has sadly regressed through the decades. Size and strength fail to compensate for lack of technical skill or natural power amongst today’s big men. Ask yourself this, do the huge Klitschkos possess natural power, real ‘snap’ in their work, or do they just possess outstanding fitness as they poke away at fat, puffing barrels until those barrels run dry? Vitali certainly jabbed the life out of Sam Peter and Danny Williams before the corner, the doctor, did their respective jobs. Wladimir is probably more aggressive, more in the face of his opponents, but seemingly needs to drop men several times before his arm is raised. His power appears to be that of the ‘clumping’ variety.
Think of Primo Carnera.
However, Haye can naturally ‘crack’ as he showed when he dropped New York’s Monte Barrett five times on a heady night in London in November 2008 in his heavyweight debut, winning in the fifth round, and when he flattened French bull Jean-Marc Mormeck in Paris before that to wrest the undisputed world cruiserweight title. Moreover, Haye is the ideal size for a heavyweight at 6ft 3ins, in my opinion, the ideal weight at 215 pounds.
Think of Muhammad Ali.
The charismatic, self-assured, smart-talking Londoner poses the biggest threat to to Vitali since Lennox Lewis, another British fighter, stopped Klitschko on cuts back in 2003 - and Vitali is the better of the two brothers (and the braver, so he will fight Haye first). Like Haye, he seems a likeable fella’ but acted disgracefully when pulled out of the Lewis fight due to two horrendous cuts (caused by punches), jumping off his stool in a manner which petrified even his cutsman, the gentlemanly Joe Souza, as he tried to get at Lewis in front of a crowd of 16,000, only just held back by Wladimir, who probably prevented a riot.
Vitali was out of control, totally, and I believe his actions resulted in the millionaire Lewis, after making Klitschko wait and wait and wait (ha ha!), walking out of the sport, something which has bugged Vitali ever since. You reap what you sow, Vitali. (Souza, incidentally, agreed with the stoppage and said so to the press a day later, Klitschko firmly out of earshot.)
Nevertheless, Vitali’s boxing record of 39-2 (37) is excellent. He has lost only to Lewis and to that little man Byrd, on another injury stoppage, and while he comes off a terrible fight with Kevin “Queenpin” Johnson (a drab points win), he is better than he showed that night as he showed when he emerged from a retirement lasting FOUR years in 2008 to drub Nigeria’s Peter for the WBC heavyweight title. It were almost like he had never been away.
Once upon a boxing time, nobody could emerge from a hiatus of four years and waltz their way to a world title - nobody - but boxing foundations are horribly debunked, these days, with fighters winning world titles like dog treats, jumping up and down divisions like Georges Carpentier, switching promoters, managers and trainers like condoms, and pulling out of big fights at the last minute because they have locked themselves “in” (a famous excuse once uttered by Birmingham’s Lloyd Hibbert).
Man, the sport has changed!
Nevertheless, the still-improving Haye, nine years younger than Vitali at 29 and with a record of 23-1 (21), can bring back the days when fighters, heavyweight fighters, knew about balance, skill and power, about the kind of power sorely lacking in those lumbering arm-puncher Klitschkos, who make Frank Bruno look supple. Class always tells, not weight.
Haye is a different man from the one who punched himself out spectacularly against Bolton’s Carl Thompson at cruiserweight back in 2004 for his only setback. Haye still punches up from his toes but mixes up his heavy shots nowadays with jabs and sharp left hooks. He has a longer reach than one would imagine at 78 inches - just two inches shorter than the 6ft 7½ins Vitali’s. His right hand is thunderous.
Oh yes, he will reach Vitali all right, just as he reached the Jurassic Valuev - all seven foot of the Russian - although Vitali has never been down as a fighter (Birmingham’s Pele Reid once knocked him out with a kick, apparently). For me, this gives Haye a golden opportunity to make a real statement as he floors the WBC champion on the way to a stoppage, on the way to undisputed status in the heavyweight ranks (at last), on the way to superstardom.
First, he must defend the WBA heavyweight title he won from Valuev against America’s John Ruiz in Manchester on April 3. Pave the way, David, blow Ruiz away.

BRILLIANT, just BRILLIANT.

mercman wrote:

bennie wrote:

hurlock wrote:david pearce was a small heavy & im led to believe he was very talented.

David was one of a large fighting family and stopped Dennis Andries on the way up and featured in several domestic thrillers. He won the British title from fellow Welshman Neville Meade (a man John L. Gardner had stopped, before Meade went on a great run) but a terribly one-sided loss to Lucien Rodriguez for the European title signalled that Pearce's well had run dry. Sadly, he died while still a relatively young man.

That's not how I remember Rodriguez v Pearce. I saw it as quite a close fight and Pearce dropped Rodriguez at one point. It was a pretty heavy knock down too but Pearce couldn't finish him. I think Pearce was a bit unlucky to lose it, especially as apparently he slept on a bench at a railway station the night before the fight. I kid you not.

where do you get these story's?? DD

i remember on reading about pearce a good while back,wasnt there some sort of mental issue??

Very good write up here from the excellent Johnny Owen tribute website.

http://www.johnnyowen.com/david_pearce.html

hurlock wrote:

mercman wrote:

bennie wrote: David was one of a large fighting family and stopped Dennis Andries on the way up and featured in several domestic thrillers. He won the British title from fellow Welshman Neville Meade (a man John L. Gardner had stopped, before Meade went on a great run) but a terribly one-sided loss to Lucien Rodriguez for the European title signalled that Pearce's well had run dry. Sadly, he died while still a relatively young man.

That's not how I remember Rodriguez v Pearce. I saw it as quite a close fight and Pearce dropped Rodriguez at one point. It was a pretty heavy knock down too but Pearce couldn't finish him. I think Pearce was a bit unlucky to lose it, especially as apparently he slept on a bench at a railway station the night before the fight. I kid you not.

where do you get these story's?? DD

i remember on reading about pearce a good while back,wasnt there some sort of mental issue??

I watched it on the box, and Pearce nearly stopped the Frenchman in one desperate round, but otherwise he took a prolonged, horrible beating from a man who could not punch but was a decent boxer and could not miss the Welshman with the left jab. It was sickening by the closing rounds as Pearce fought like a man who had forgotten how to fight.
Mullan's ringside report says it all: