BoxRec

I saw on Calendar news last night that the former British heavyweight contender Paul Sykes died yesterday. Think it was from pneumonia and liver problems.
Theres been a few posts about Sykes on here, I can remember seeing the documentary about him about 15 years ago, and they showed clips of it again on Calendar last night.

dr_devious wrote:I saw on Calendar news last night that the former British heavyweight contender Paul Sykes died yesterday. Think it was from pneumonia and liver problems.
Theres been a few posts about Sykes on here, I can remember seeing the documentary about him about 15 years ago, and they showed clips of it again on Calendar last night.

Unlike Duran, Sykes never got over turning and quitting.

If you ever get to watch the Paul Sykes documentary then watch it because it is pure class.

He seemed a very bright guy though not one you messed with, he was cock of the estate and then prison and he turned to boxing at the age of 32. His dad was a screw which was a bugbear of his.

He travelled the world and told a story about punching a shark on the nose off the coast of Indonesia 'and it just swam off like' pure class!

Thats a shame really, he came across as a person with a lot of issues, but he was a very interesting character and intelligent, his book 'sweet agony' was very good... its a shame that he couldnt have kept off the drink and sorted himself out...

In his book Sykes hinted that he was given a iffy injection before his fight with Gardner... dont know if its true but makes you think!...

mercman wrote:

Thats a shame really, he came across as a person with a lot of issues, but he was a very interesting character and intelligent, his book 'sweet agony' was very good... its a shame that he couldnt have kept off the drink and sorted himself out...

True. But make no mistake Paul Sykes was a nasty piece of work and a man best avoided - a time bomb waiting to go off.

He seemed highly intelligent in that documentary "Paul Sykes: At Large".

I got the impression he wasn't any type of bully but had problems with authority figures, especially when drinking.

Are you saying if you walked past him in the street, a bloke he'd never seen, just Mr Ordinary going for a walk, he might suddenly belt you for no reason?

Collins2000 wrote:

mercman wrote:

Thats a shame really, he came across as a person with a lot of issues, but he was a very interesting character and intelligent, his book 'sweet agony' was very good... its a shame that he couldnt have kept off the drink and sorted himself out...

True. But make no mistake Paul Sykes was a nasty piece of work and a man best avoided - a time bomb waiting to go off.

He seemed highly intelligent in that documentary "Paul Sykes: At Large".

I got the impression he wasn't any type of bully but had problems with authority figures, especially when drinking.

Are you saying if you walked past him in the street, a bloke he'd never seen, just Mr Ordinary going for a walk, he might suddenly belt you for no reason?

Maybe if you were a traffic warden or something!...

Didnt his son go down for murder a while back?.... does anyone know what happened to him??... Sykes seemed to have a problem relating to his kids in that Doc and I felt sorry for them... I think lots of his problems came from his relationship with his parents, especially his father... I remember Sykes saying something like 'if you love your son why would you let him get punched around at 6 years old'....

silkov wrote:

Collins2000 wrote:

mercman wrote: True. But make no mistake Paul Sykes was a nasty piece of work and a man best avoided - a time bomb waiting to go off.

He seemed highly intelligent in that documentary "Paul Sykes: At Large".

I got the impression he wasn't any type of bully but had problems with authority figures, especially when drinking.

Are you saying if you walked past him in the street, a bloke he'd never seen, just Mr Ordinary going for a walk, he might suddenly belt you for no reason?

Maybe if you were a traffic warden or something!...

hahahhahhahha, Nice one!