From puncher to preacher
Posted: 26 Apr 2018, 09:28
Former domestic middleweight banger Carlton Warren is a member of the God Squad these days, bellowing his profound messages through a loudspeaker on the mean streets of Brixton and you have to wonder if a brief but violent boxing career played a role in his total religious conversion because the beautifully built Londoner had it harder than a Sonny Liston sparring partner and probably needed a friend to call on.
Quite simply, Carlton was too good for his own good and after bombing out his first three opponents in the pros in the mid-1980s, he couldn't get a fight and was eventually thrown to the wolves against the daunting likes of Michael Watson, Errol Christie, Anthony Logan and Prince Rodney in contests that can only be described as chilling. Christie smashed him clean through the ropes to win in four rounds, while Logan had his legs twitching uncontrollably before finishing him coldly and clinically in round two - just a month after nearly icing Nigel Benn in the same round. The Watson clash was brutal, with both men giving and taking heavy shots until the classier Watson came through on a decision and Rodney survived a shaky start to grind all the resistance out of Warren in the seventh of a breathtaking affair.
The graphic trend continued in Europe where Carlton went in with dangerous, more seasoned men such as Jan Lefeber, Enrico Scacchia and Agamil Yilderim, this time with real success. He stopped Lefeber in six painful rounds, a Dutchman who went on to win the European light-heavyweight title, and he crunched Scacchia in three rounds, a burly fellow from Switzerland who had previously outscored him in a fierce 10-rounder. He held the grizzled Yilderim to an eight-round draw in the man's own Germany, where a draw speaks for itself.
Back in the UK, Carlton survived a desperate fifth round to end the big-hitting run of Bedford's Branko Pavlovic a round later and he overwhelmed Brummie Paul Wesley in two rounds in Wandsworth, prior to outscoring Camberwell's canny Newton Barnett over eight rounds at the Albert Hall, the only time he ever won a fight on points. Carlton's very last outing came in Madrid in April 1989 against Spanish middleweight champion Victor Fernandez, who stopped him in four rounds.
Still in his 20s, Warren drifted away from the sport with a meagre record of 8-6-1 (7) but he packed a lot of living into that record and still looks like he could go a few rounds today.
Quite simply, Carlton was too good for his own good and after bombing out his first three opponents in the pros in the mid-1980s, he couldn't get a fight and was eventually thrown to the wolves against the daunting likes of Michael Watson, Errol Christie, Anthony Logan and Prince Rodney in contests that can only be described as chilling. Christie smashed him clean through the ropes to win in four rounds, while Logan had his legs twitching uncontrollably before finishing him coldly and clinically in round two - just a month after nearly icing Nigel Benn in the same round. The Watson clash was brutal, with both men giving and taking heavy shots until the classier Watson came through on a decision and Rodney survived a shaky start to grind all the resistance out of Warren in the seventh of a breathtaking affair.
The graphic trend continued in Europe where Carlton went in with dangerous, more seasoned men such as Jan Lefeber, Enrico Scacchia and Agamil Yilderim, this time with real success. He stopped Lefeber in six painful rounds, a Dutchman who went on to win the European light-heavyweight title, and he crunched Scacchia in three rounds, a burly fellow from Switzerland who had previously outscored him in a fierce 10-rounder. He held the grizzled Yilderim to an eight-round draw in the man's own Germany, where a draw speaks for itself.
Back in the UK, Carlton survived a desperate fifth round to end the big-hitting run of Bedford's Branko Pavlovic a round later and he overwhelmed Brummie Paul Wesley in two rounds in Wandsworth, prior to outscoring Camberwell's canny Newton Barnett over eight rounds at the Albert Hall, the only time he ever won a fight on points. Carlton's very last outing came in Madrid in April 1989 against Spanish middleweight champion Victor Fernandez, who stopped him in four rounds.
Still in his 20s, Warren drifted away from the sport with a meagre record of 8-6-1 (7) but he packed a lot of living into that record and still looks like he could go a few rounds today.
