BoxRec

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/ ... g-14579397

http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/376

Great article

What a nice read.

Have met him a couple of times, and he is one of those guys that just commands respect.

The writer of the article, Mike Lockley, is a former Boxing News staffer who was at ringside in Los Angeles when poor Johnny Owen fought his last fight against Lupe Pintor.

Nice that. Bunny’s a true gentleman.

Bunny could have been a serious light-heavyweight but he turned pro in 1968 with Leicester manager George Biddles, who was obsessed with heavyweights, so Bunny fought up there and for decent money but when you look at his long career today, it was a mistake to give his best years away to the heavies because the Birmingham man, barely 6ft and 13 stone, left it too late to drop down at 29 and still proved destructive for a time.
Make no mistake about it, Bunny also wiped the floor with many of the big boys and achieved a dream when he stopped the dangerous Danny McAlinden in nine rounds to wrest the British heavyweight title on a dinner show in London in January 1975. Clever and with a big left hook, Bunny kept busy in four non-title appearances, then defended against Bradford's improving Richard Dunn, a man he had both won and lost to previously, and found himself on the receiving end as southpaw Dunn outpointed him over 15 rounds at Wembley in September 1975. Dunn was just too big.
Nine months later, Bunny travelled to Munich to face hulking American Duane Bobick on the undercard to Dunn's shot at world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, which Ali won in five rounds after a brave British effort. Bobick had a record of 35-0 (30) and he could punch but Bunny, after going down in the second round, moved, boxed and made Bobick look absolutely awful until the heavier 'White Hope' came through on sheer brute strength, forcing Bunny to retire on his stool at the end of the eighth. (A year later, Bobick was nearly decapitated by Ken Norton in a 59-second disaster at Madison Square Garden.)
Bunny got the message and now managed by George Francis, he dropped down to light-heavyweight and really showed what he could do when he stopped Moss Side's Phil Martin in 10 rounds in an eliminator and then sparked Leicester's Tim Wood for the British light-heavyweight title in 103 seconds in Wolverhampton, before another crushing knockout of the Scot Rab Afflek in defence of the title in Glasgow in 1979 (four rounds). He won a Lonsdale Belt outright in a 15-round nightmare with Dennis Andries a year later in Burslem, where Bunny's age (pushing 33) and the lumbering aggression of Andries turned the fight into a desperate, horrible maul before Bunny took the decision.
He entered another nightmare when he ventured all the way to Rahway State Prison in New Jersey to face the feared and incarcerated James Scott in a 10-rounder televised coast to coast in the States. It made for a unique backdrop as prisoners and guards mingled with the media and Bunny fought well until he ran out of steam and retired at the end of the seventh round. Again, his age let him down. As for Scott, nobody knew what to do with the man as he kept on winning and winning in world class company but eventually he suffered defeat and TV, bored of the prisoner theme, moved on.
Bunny moved on himself after a few more fights but he retains a place in British boxing history – the first black man to win the British heavyweight title and also one of the nicest.

Great fighter was bunny and a real nice guy as well he really is spent many hours in his company when we were both on the midlands area council