Benn v Gimenez - NEC

[cobbler80]

All this talk of a moody crowd at the Excel on Saturday and Benn v Gimenez from 94 in Birmingham has just come on BN

Now that's a proper kick off! I was only 14 at time but vaguely remember it and remember is was United and Zulu's but looks even worse than i remember it watching it back now

Were any of you there or have any memories of it?

[palooka]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

[thepocketrocket]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

Seems a recurring theme there...trying to work it out!

[TerribleTerry]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

In fairness to McCreash I think he saw his dad fighting at ringside so you can't really blame him for getting amongst it!

[palooka]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

In fairness to McCreash I think he saw his dad fighting at ringside so you can't really blame him for getting amongst it!

Yeah, I remember reading about it in Boxing News - he was a livewire though McCreash and a good fighter.

[TerribleTerry]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

Seems a recurring theme there...trying to work it out!

To be fair to Rob McCraken he is a very nice fellar - he was also a massive Blues fan and the Zulus followed him throughout his career

[palooka]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

Seems a recurring theme there...trying to work it out!

:) Yeah, one of McCrackens brothers was well thought of in the Zulus (so it said in Tills biography).

[cobbler80]

It was the Foster v McCracken bout that brought the Zulus; Foster was from Salford. It went off at McCracken v Till and in an amateur bout, McCracken v McCreash - Geoff dived out of the ring to get stuck in and got disqualified.

Seems a recurring theme there...trying to work it out!

:) Yeah, one of McCrackens brothers was well thought of in the Zulus (so it said in Tills biography).

Where was Till from?

[TerribleTerry]

Seems a recurring theme there...trying to work it out!

:) Yeah, one of McCrackens brothers was well thought of in the Zulus (so it said in Tills biography).

Where was Till from?

Watford I think.

Yes one of Robs brothers is pretty well known around Kings Heath/South Brum

[mickey1975]

I was there. Wharton boxed. No trouble from the travellers...

[TerribleTerry]

I was there. Wharton boxed. No trouble from the travellers...

Nice one Mickey - good to get that clarified!

It isn't just travellers who cause trouble at fights - plenty of football hooligans and general wannabe hardmen do to!

[Monte Fisto]

I just commented on this on the other thread about crowd trouble this weekend.

This was particularly bad! I felt sorry for the fighters who must have been aware and wanted to have a gander.

How do people think the crowd trouble should be controlled today, or is it impossible to stop the trouble in the UK?

[cobbler80]

And Jimmy Lennon Jr was the MC at this one too

He's clearly a trouble magnet

[Coco]

I remember fighting in Birmingham on the same bill as Spencer, there was a proper team of coppers there, nothing to do, so I asked one what the score was and he said they always turned up team handed when one of the McCrackens was on.

[manno]

Yeh I was there, saddest part for me was when after introducing micheal watson at ringside to a standing ovation it all kicked off and he was hurriedly wheeled away. I remember thinking at the time that not one of those mugs throwing chairs deserve to be in the same room never mind same arena as the "bravest of the brave".

[liamlion]

Only last week I was told a story by a senior copper, who is a brummie and also former steward for the bbboc.

Funny enough we talked (amongst a range of boxing issues) about McCracken and the trouble at the Foster fight and he told me that McCracken was known to follow the blues home and away and on one occassion had to pull out of a scheduled fight claiming an ankle injury. The suggestion however was that he injured himself fighting on the terraces. The Zulus were mentioned.

McCracken and his brothers are actually very well known around the Small Heath/Moseley/Kings Heath areas of a Brum. Some good stories.

[mickey1975]

Only last week I was told a story by a senior copper, who is a brummie and also former steward for the bbboc.

Funny enough we talked (amongst a range of boxing issues) about McCracken and the trouble at the Foster fight and he told me that McCracken was known to follow the blues home and away and on one occassion had to pull out of a scheduled fight claiming an ankle injury. The suggestion however was that he injured himself fighting on the terraces. The Zulus were mentioned.

McCracken and his brothers are actually very well known around the Small Heath/Moseley/Kings Heath areas of a Brum. Some good stories.

Surely not Saint Robert of Sheffield?

[ste1983]

Froch v Dodson was another too Notts/Liverpool lads at it.

[Counter-puncher]

Only last week I was told a story by a senior copper, who is a brummie and also former steward for the bbboc.

Funny enough we talked (amongst a range of boxing issues) about McCracken and the trouble at the Foster fight and he told me that McCracken was known to follow the blues home and away and on one occassion had to pull out of a scheduled fight claiming an ankle injury. The suggestion however was that he injured himself fighting on the terraces. The Zulus were mentioned.

McCracken and his brothers are actually very well known around the Small Heath/Moseley/Kings Heath areas of a Brum. Some good stories.

and some bad ones.....

[palooka]

Pray tell the stories good and bad.

[bennie]

I was at the McCracken-McCreesh encounter in Birmingham in 1990 and had to listen to a photographer telling me that he thought it best not to take photos of the incident; i.e., he bottled it. McCracken, fighting in his home city and adorned in an England vest, 'screwed' McCreesh at the bell to end the first round; McCreesh took exception to this and followed McCracken back to the Brummie's corner, where McCracken decided to be nice and the two men touched gloves. McCreesh then went to his own corner.
However, McCracken's amateur boxing clubmates, some of whom were standing quite close to McCreesh's corner, responded to Rob's loss of face in the interval and one of them cleared his throat as if he was about to 'goz' on McCreesh. Geoff's father then got involved. No punches were thrown but the boxers began pushing and shoving McCreesh Snr when his son climbed on to the top rope and dived like superman on top of them. This had the desired effect and things broke up. McCreesh climbed back into the ring before the bell to start round two and sat down on his stool as if nothing had happened. Nevertheless, after a delay, it was announced that he had been disqualified for leaving the ring.

[danamba7]

I was at the McCracken-McCreesh encounter in Birmingham in 1990 and had to listen to a photographer telling me that he thought it best not to take photos of the incident; i.e.; he bottled it. McCracken, fighting in his home city and adorned in an England vest, 'screwed' McCreesh at the bell to end the first round; McCreesh took exception to this and followed McCracken back to the Brummie's corner, where McCracken decided to be nice and the two men touched gloves. McCreesh then went to his own corner.
However, McCracken's amateur boxing clubmates, some of whom were standing quite close to McCreesh's corner, responded to Rob's loss of face in the interval and one of them cleared his throat as if he was about to 'goz' on McCreesh. Geoff's father then got involved. No punches were thrown but the boxers began pushing and shoving McCreesh Snr when his son climbed on to the top rope and dived like superman on top of them. This had the desired effect and things broke up. McCreesh climbed back into the ring before the bell to start round two and sat down on his stool as if nothing had happened. Nevertheless, after a delay, it was announced that he had been disqualified for leaving the ring.

Good story!

Out of interest, does anyone know of any trouble with other nations? From my limited live boxing experiences I've seen a bit of trouble city v city but never nation v nation. Probably because most nations don't follow boxing like we do but there was about 800 Romanians / British Romanians for the Bute fight but didn't see any trouble there.

[liamlion]

Only last week I was told a story by a senior copper, who is a brummie and also former steward for the bbboc.

Funny enough we talked (amongst a range of boxing issues) about McCracken and the trouble at the Foster fight and he told me that McCracken was known to follow the blues home and away and on one occassion had to pull out of a scheduled fight claiming an ankle injury. The suggestion however was that he injured himself fighting on the terraces. The Zulus were mentioned.

McCracken and his brothers are actually very well known around the Small Heath/Moseley/Kings Heath areas of a Brum. Some good stories.

and some bad ones.....

Agreed. 'Good stories' translates to actually meaning interesting which actually translates to dangerous.

[TerribleTerry]

I was at the McCracken-McCreesh encounter in Birmingham in 1990 and had to listen to a photographer telling me that he thought it best not to take photos of the incident; i.e.; he bottled it. McCracken, fighting in his home city and adorned in an England vest, 'screwed' McCreesh at the bell to end the first round; McCreesh took exception to this and followed McCracken back to the Brummie's corner, where McCracken decided to be nice and the two men touched gloves. McCreesh then went to his own corner.
However, McCracken's amateur boxing clubmates, some of whom were standing quite close to McCreesh's corner, responded to Rob's loss of face in the interval and one of them cleared his throat as if he was about to 'goz' on McCreesh. Geoff's father then got involved. No punches were thrown but the boxers began pushing and shoving McCreesh Snr when his son climbed on to the top rope and dived like superman on top of them. This had the desired effect and things broke up. McCreesh climbed back into the ring before the bell to start round two and sat down on his stool as if nothing had happened. Nevertheless, after a delay, it was announced that he had been disqualified for leaving the ring.

Good story!

Out of interest, does anyone know of any trouble with other nations? From my limited live boxing experiences I've seen a bit of trouble city v city but never nation v nation. Probably because most nations don't follow boxing like we do but there was about 800 Romanians / British Romanians for the Bute fight but didn't see any trouble there.

There was brutal crowd violence when the Polish fans supporting Golota clashed with the Brownsville/New York natives there to support Riddick Bowe at the first of their 2 infamous fights as recorded in this contemporary account..

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/12/sport ... ctory.html