mercman wrote:Last I heard of Sykes he was still living in Wakefield and due to drunkenness and violence was banned from virtually every pub in the place. Despite a certain creative flair - apparently he is a good writer - he has always been a violent man and spent large chunks of his life in prison. Various members of his family have also been in trouble with drink, drugs and crime. I think one of his sons was jailed for murder a few years back. Although he must be over 60 by now he is still a man best avoided. It's not a pretty story unfortunately.
Thats a sad story....
i first came across Sykes on a itv docu called first tuesday. he wrote a book and it wasnt that bad. I saw a video of him fight for a area title but he turned his back on the fighter from doncaster and the fight was stopped. His manager at the time had high regard for him and was touting him as the next big thing. His father was a prison officer and as you rightly say he was in and out of prison most of his life. His son is called paul also and he is serving life for murder. Its a shame. i have a job where i come into contact with lots of people from all over the place and occasionally when in conversation, and if they have a yorkshire twang i ask them where they are from. If from south yorks and wakefield i usually ask for info on Sykes because he has a notorious reputattion everyone know him, and unfortunaltly i usually hear the same story.
Dave Garside was the very first pro boxer i ever saw, fighting John Westgarth, Dave went on to fight Horris Notice, but was out classed.
All i know about Henry Wharton is that he plays a good game of golf at York, he plays off around 9 or 10 handicap.
Steve Gee was the very first boxer i ever met, at a fight at the Mayfair in Newcastle. He was a great guy with a great boxers figure, shame he didnt have the same tools.
Mick Corden was a heavyweight journeyman from Doncaster and i travelled to a fight with him in the 80's.
Steve Black was also a heavyweight, he lost his only pro fight, but boy could he not fight. There is a Newcastle Falcon coach called Steve Black and they really do look alike, so i guess he is a rugby coach.
Gerry O'dowd is Boy George's brother, he had his only fight on the george foreman bill in London back in the 80's, he looked the part, but was beaten on points. The last i heard was he was a schitziophrentic and killed his wife around 15-20 years ago and was in a secure hospital.
Its a shame how boxers lives turn out when they don't fulfill their potential, but on the brighter side we have had some great fighters in the 80's and 90's.
