BoxRec

As usual I'm browsing through old dates & noticed that Tony Sibson fought in Leicester on the same night that Sugar Ray Leonard beat Dick Ecklund in LA (a Tuesday).

Anyway, Sibsons loss was to a 6-0 Zambian fighter named Lottie Mwale. Sibson was 24-0-1 at the time while Mwala had had five fights at home then gone to Norway to beat a journeyman.

2 months later he's in Sibsons hometown of Leicester and stops the Englishman in the very first round.

A few weeks later he's in Yugoslavia & beats future champion Marvin Johnson over 8 rounds.

Three months later he is back in Zambia beating world title challenger Lonnie Bennett in 1 (Bennett had gone five with John Conteh a few years earlier).

He then knocks out the Italian Light Heavyweight Champion Ennio Cometti in five rounds.

All this in just over a year & a half of professional boxing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottie_Mwale

he also beat the legendary captain cleopas marvel

pretty respectable career though, also won gold at the commonwealths as an amatuer

Sibson was a natural middleweight and conceded masses of weight to Mwale, an accomplished light-heavyweight who was holding his own with the likes of John Conteh and Bunny Johnson at the Highgate gym under trainer George Francis and absolutely poleaxed Sibson in front of his own fans in Leicester. Sibbo left his manager Carl Gunns soon afterwards, while Mwale went on to secure himself a world title shot at Matthew Saad Muhammad in the States and was poleaxed himself with one of the greatest left uppercuts ever thrown. He later suffered a similar fate against Eddie Mustafa Muhammad who had come in over the light-heavyweight limit and was made to sweat off the difference by Mwale's manager, Mickey Duff. "Now I'm gonna knock out your fighter," Muhammad warned Duff, and he did. Mwale had to spend the night in hospital.
A few years later Boxing News stated that Mwale had died in his native Zambia when he was in fact still alive.

Yeah, all brutal KOs. The Eddie one is painful to watch. The huge right hand knocks his mouthpiece out the stadium and the two follow up punches knock half his lower jaw out the ring in different directions.

bennie wrote: ↑12 Mar 2018, 03:53 Sibson was a natural middleweight and conceded masses of weight to Mwale, an accomplished light-heavyweight who was holding his own with the likes of John Conteh and Bunny Johnson at the Highgate gym under trainer George Francis and absolutely poleaxed Sibson in front of his own fans in Leicester. Sibbo left his manager Carl Gunns soon afterwards, while Mwale went on to secure himself a world title shot at Matthew Saad Muhammad in the States and was poleaxed himself with one of the greatest left uppercuts ever thrown. He later suffered a similar fate against Eddie Mustafa Muhammad who had come in over the light-heavyweight limit and was made to sweat off the difference by Mwale's manager, Mickey Duff. "Now I'm gonna knock out your fighter," Muhammad warned Duff, and he did. Mwale had to spend the night in hospital.
A few years later Boxing News stated that Mwale had died in his native Zambia when he was in fact still alive.

Is he still alive now? Wikipedia has him dead and I did remember BN running that piece on him.

Yeah, he is dead now which is a shame - great fighter, just shy of top world class. He looked a bit lucky to get the decision over Marvin Johnson on the Mate Parlov-John Conteh undercard in Belgrade in 1978 but southpaw Johnson is one of the most determined light-heavies in recent memory and destroyed Parlov just six months later for the world title so it holds up as a huge win for Mwale. who ran out of opponents here and was forced home for a few fights and then outscored clever Bunny Johnson back here in a battle of stablemates (both trained by George Francis) and scraped through against the perennial Jesse Burnett in a 12-round world title eliminator at Wembley. Mwale was hurt badly in that one and struggled to get over it on the way to a decision which was an indicator of things to come because Matthew Saad Muhammad nearly decapitated him, as did Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. To be honest he never really looked as good as his early career suggested but the light-heavyweight division was loaded with talent in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Cheers for the insights Bennie

I remember seeing Lottie Mwale when attending the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch 1974.
He looked to me to be the classiest fighter at the tournament.
I never got to follow his professional career as boxing news was pretty sketchy on this side of the world.
Nice to catch up with this sort of stuff via the forum.

BillW wrote: ↑13 Mar 2018, 01:31 I remember seeing Lottie Mwale when attending the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch 1974.
He looked to me to be the classiest fighter at the tournament.
I never got to follow his professional career as boxing news was pretty sketchy on this side of the world.
Nice to catch up with this sort of stuff via the forum.

Nice to have a decent poster from New Zealand for a change

Mwale was one of a host of world class African fighters who made their mark in European rings around the same time. Cornelius Boza-Edwards fled from war-torn Uganda to the UK and went on to win the WBC super-featherweight title while Joseph Nsubuga, another Ugandan, used Finland as his base and eventually took on Roberto Duran in Las Vegas. The Cameroon's Louis Pergaud, based in Germany, secured a world title shot at Matthew Saad Muhammad and Zambians Mwale and Chisanda Mutti both fought for world titles after many appearances in Europe. In Denmark, promoter Mogens Palle was showcasing the talents of Ayub Kalule, Steve Muchoki and Mustafa Wasajja. The gifted Kalule went on to win the WBA light-middleweight title in Japan in 1979, Muchoki earned a world title shot at Santos Laciar but was stopped in 13 rounds in Denmark and Wassajja lost to Michael Spinks for the WBA light-heavyweight title in the States. Nigerian light-welterweight Obisia Nwankpa also challenged for a world title around this time and someone called Azumah Nelson was on the way up, along with John Mugabi. It was undoubtedly a golden era for African fighters. Kalule, Muchoki and Nigeria's Davidson Andeh all won world amateur titles in the 1970s.

And shortly afterwards a little bloke with a porn star tach named Brian Mitchell* joined the pro ranks

* the bloke was named Brian Mitchell not the mustache

Taansend wrote: ↑13 Mar 2018, 12:13 And shortly afterwards a little bloke with a porn star tach named Brian Mitchell* joined the pro ranks

* the bloke was named Brian Mitchell not the mustache

Yeah, and Peter Mathebula won the WBA flyweight title in 1980 in the States but was wiped out by Santos Laciar in his first defence in his native Soweto, for which he's never been forgiven. Laciar had lost to Charlie Magri just months earlier, which shows you what a good fighter Magri was.