BoxRec

I thought I recognised the name from somewhere, but I had no idea that Gary Stretch from the fantastic film "Dead Man's Shoes" was an ex-professional boxer that even fought Chris Eubank.

He is wicked in that Dead Man's Shoes film and although I haven't seen it, I hear that he was good in Alexander too.

His boxing career seemed to have only lasted 23 fights, but I just wondered if anybody really remembered him? Was he a good boxer?

http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=003911

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0834282/

http://www.gfx.filmweb.pl/p/49896/po.85453.jpg

So, I then decided to use the search function and found some info, sorry!

From what I can gather he was a bit arrogant. Anything else to note?

jeej wrote:So, I then decided to use the search function and found some info, sorry!

From what I can gather he was a bit arrogant. Anything else to note?

Yeah, very arrogant. He thought he was a cross between a hollywood great and a gangster.

Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

KO Atrist wrote:

jeej wrote:So, I then decided to use the search function and found some info, sorry!

From what I can gather he was a bit arrogant. Anything else to note?

Yeah, very arrogant. He thought he was a cross between a hollywood great and a gangster.

Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Is that a verified story? Hadn't heard that.....

I remember reading some story about a fight in a bar - some guy started throwing punches at him, and Stretch tried to duck and dive to make him miss, but the guy kept hitting him... then stretch ran out of the bar...

E wrote:

KO Atrist wrote:

jeej wrote:So, I then decided to use the search function and found some info, sorry!

From what I can gather he was a bit arrogant. Anything else to note?

Yeah, very arrogant. He thought he was a cross between a hollywood great and a gangster.

Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Is that a verified story? Hadn't heard that.....

I remember reading some story about a fight in a bar - some guy started throwing punches at him, and Stretch tried to duck and dive to make him miss, but the guy kept hitting him... then stretch ran out of the bar...

Very gansterish wouldnt you say

You don't get many mugs who are British champions.

But, as my mate would say, if he was made of chocolate he'd eat himself.

I just had a read of some of his films on the IMBD link and came across this one....and laughed.

Shergar
Plot Outline: Shergar is based on the true story of a champion race horse, abducted by IRA terrorists, then rescued by an orphaned boy.

Yeah but he did get to shag Lionel Blairs daughter, very tasty

Stretch had a good fight against Gary Cooper for the british title, Cooper pushed him all the way in that one.
Also another good win was a 1st round stoppage of Derek Wormald.

Against Eubank he did ok for the first 4 rounds , but once Eubank started to load up a bit you could see that there was going to be one winner.

Stretch was in my corner when i had a white-collar boxing match at Gleasons Gym in NYC in April 2000. Adrian Dodson was also in my corner that night too.

Gary's a nice bloke, didn't seem too arrogant to me, but I didn't know him back in the day. I thought he was very good in Dead Man's Shoes - an all-round excellent film BTW.

Stretch was a good fighter, but was just short of World class in my opinion.

For what it's worth a good friend of mine used to drink in the same clubs and bars in London that Stretch did, for a while. My mate how can be a bit flash and pulls far too many good looking women for my liking , used to say Gary seemed a bit flash but was an ok bloke when you got to know him.

E wrote:

KO Atrist wrote:

jeej wrote:So, I then decided to use the search function and found some info, sorry!

From what I can gather he was a bit arrogant. Anything else to note?

Yeah, very arrogant. He thought he was a cross between a hollywood great and a gangster.

Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Is that a verified story? Hadn't heard that.....

I remember reading some story about a fight in a bar - some guy started throwing punches at him, and Stretch tried to duck and dive to make him miss, but the guy kept hitting him... then stretch ran out of the bar...

I saw it happen

KO Atrist wrote:

E wrote:

KO Atrist wrote: Yeah, very arrogant. He thought he was a cross between a hollywood great and a gangster.

Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Is that a verified story? Hadn't heard that.....

I remember reading some story about a fight in a bar - some guy started throwing punches at him, and Stretch tried to duck and dive to make him miss, but the guy kept hitting him... then stretch ran out of the bar...

I saw it happen

Given the way the courts come down HEAVY on boxers he did the right thing.....
if he had knocked the guy out he would have been serving a few years like Dean Francis

KO Atrist wrote:Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Was this the post-Hagler version of Mugabi?

KOJOE90 wrote:

KO Atrist wrote:Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Was this the post-Hagler version of Mugabi?

Post Hagler.

If I remember rightly it was the summer of 1993

Stretch also knocked out George Collins in one round when Collins was the biggest name in Amateur boxing.

Thanks for all the info guys.

If you haven't seen Dead Man's Shoes, you should definitely get it watched. Top film. http://www.godwillforgivethem.com

Hey, check this out: http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php?t ... tch:003911

Says James Toney tried to sue him!?

KOJOE90 wrote:Stretch was a good fighter, but was just short of World class in my opinion.

Well, it's nice to be nice. I think that's generous. I seem to remember Eubank mullahed him and Stretch did well to last as long as he did. Then again, Eubank was naturally much bigger.

E wrote:

KO Atrist wrote:

jeej wrote:So, I then decided to use the search function and found some info, sorry!

From what I can gather he was a bit arrogant. Anything else to note?

Yeah, very arrogant. He thought he was a cross between a hollywood great and a gangster.

Thought he owned the gym. Till he sparred with John Mugabi.

He had a good kip after that session.

Is that a verified story? Hadn't heard that.....

I remember reading some story about a fight in a bar - some guy started throwing punches at him, and Stretch tried to duck and dive to make him miss, but the guy kept hitting him... then stretch ran out of the bar...

I've told this story before, but it's true. At the time Stretch was British champ, St Helens rugby league had a very large, hard man playing for them. Stuart Evans, from South Wales, a guy who, when he was playing union, the All Blacks refused to play against. Seriously hard and damn dirty with it.

Evans was waiting in a queue at a chip shop one night when Stretch walks in with a bit of crumpet in tow and went straight to the front of the queue. Evans tapped him on the shoulder and pointed out the long line of people, and Stretch gave it the big 'I am'. Evans sparked him with one shot and went back to his place in the queue.

I've heard this exact story from two separate but entirely credible sources. I think it's funny.

jeej wrote:Thanks for all the info guys.

If you haven't seen Dead Man's Shoes, you should definitely get it watched. Top film. http://www.godwillforgivethem.com

I thought it was OK but nothing like as good as people had told me it was.

Greg Nicholas wrote:Hey, check this out: http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php?t ... tch:003911

Says James Toney tried to sue him!?

Famously came along as an unknown amateur and knocked out 75-0 George Collins, Collins had to win the fight to break a world record and the fight was shown live on TV programme Guinness Record Breakers.

Known for being a male model and as the former Glamour Boy of British Boxing.

James Toney's sparring partner in the late 1980's.

I'd forgoten about the Collins breakthrough. I remember Gary was brought in as the patsy, as George was the 1980's Golden Boy with Warren waiting in the wings to sign him up once he broke the 75-0 record ( held by Errol Christie I think? ).

Warren still signed Collins, but must have been slightly gutted at the Stretch result.

Gary was a decent British level fighter, but never even made European level, let alone world class.
Undeserved shot at Eubank, much like a lot of Eubank's unknown WBO challengers.

Not a bad actor now, thought he good enough in dead man walking.

He was also married to this delightful young creature for a short while

http://rosalynsanchez.celebscentral.net/

I rather liked the strapline for his fight with Eubank - BEAUTY Vs THE BEST.

Which is fair enough as Eubank is no looker. I mean there is ugly, but he abuses the priviledge.

Slapsie

mercman wrote:

George Collins

What ever happened to Collins? He seems to be a forgotten character nowadays but there was a time when he was seen as the 'next big thing'. He never lived up to what was expected of him though. I remember Kirkland Laing giving him a real boxing lesson and stopping him in a British Title fight. I think Collins packed it in not long after that. Does anyone know what Collins is up to nowadays?

In prison??

mercman wrote:

In prison??

You serious Kojoe?

Didn't he get sent down for GBH about two years ago for beating up a guy he thought was a nonce (but wasn't)?

Or is my lack of sleep playing tricks with my mind?