BoxRec

an awkward clubbing brawling fighter of the late 70's....dominant domestically...never met bugner !!!.......he was absolutely battered by mike dokes in his big step up.....dokes was a fierce up and comer at that time..... John l's return was a bit rubbish ...a dire disc win over the chapmanesue lou benson ............then lost to quarless who was coming off an upset 1st round stoppage of unbeaten anders ekland.....this was the era of major terrestrial tv boxing...quarless... bruno..bugner ...rocky kelly :P gr8 stuff

amazing what effect having a 'john L' or a 'sugar' can do for a boxers rep

A throwback to the era of the white, brawling, fragile chinned, sideburn sporting Brit heavy of the 70's.

Matching him up with Mike Dokes must've been one of the biggest mistakes of Mickey Duff's career. The finishing combo was picture perfect...and brutal!

Workrate and fitness got him through at domestic level (he made Aird and Sykes turn and quit). But he was floored and exposed by a fat Jimmy Young when they tried to move him up.
Despite his win over Zanon (notoriously glass-jawed), John had no power.

He would have lost to Skelton, Sprott and a fit Williams, and probably even Audley. Gardner would have beaten Gammer

John L was a good value for money honest fighter, no shame in losing to Dokes, who was one of the best in the world at the time and probably at his peak before his lifestyle started catching up with him... Gardner was unlucky to miss out on the Cruiserweight division where he would have done a lot better imo... if he was around today I doubt that he;d be fighting at heavyweight, he would probably be at cruiserweight... if he did fight at heavy then I think Williams would be too big and powerful for him, but he would probably do ok against the rest of todays domestic heavies, he;d be too gutsy for Harrison and I think he would outwork Sprott... I would have liked to have seen Gardner fight David Pearce... that would have been an interesting and entertaining matchup between two very simular and well matched fighters...

Boxrec's British All Time Heavyweight Ratings


Name Points Career W-L-D

1 Lennox Lewis 790 1989 - 2003 41-2-1

2 Joe Bugner 489 1967 - 1999 69-13-1

3 Henry Cooper 366 1954 - 1971 40-14-1

4 Frank Bruno 342 1982 - 1996 40-5-0

5 Brian London 321 1955 - 1970 37-20-1

6 Tommy Farr 312 1926 - 1953 81-30-13

7 Bruce Woodcock 299 1942 - 1950 35-4-0

8 Bombadier Billy Wells 281 1910 - 1925 41-11-0

9 Phil Scott 265 1919 - 1931 65-13-5

10 Jack Bodell 260 1962 - 1972 58-13-0

11 Jack Petersen 260 1931 - 1937 33-5-0

12 Danny Williams 252 1995 - 2007 37-6-0

13 Dick Richardson 241 1954 - 1963 31-14-2

14 John Louis Gardner 235 1973 - 1983 35-4-0

15 Don Cockell 233 1946 - 1956 65-14-1

mercman wrote:

I would have liked to have seen Gardner fight David Pearce... that would have been an interesting and entertaining matchup between two very simular and well matched fighters...

Agreed. I've always thought of Pearce as a much more durable sort of fighter though.

Well, to be fair Pearce never faced anyone of Dokes calibre like Gardner did... Pearce took quite a lashing from Lucian Rodriguez (though he had him down twice) ...one of Gardners problems was that he was a slow starter I think rather than being 'chinny'.... Pearce had a tragically early death I believe....

I have always felt his stoppage win over Ossie Ocasio was very strange, it didn't look like a hard punch and Jaws was pretty durable, I think he quit to be honest.

Having read a few of these replys i had a search on Internet , and this was in the NY Times .
from Jan 1981

Muhammad Ali and the European champion, John L. Gardner of Britain, have signed contracts for a 10-round fight the last week of March, Harold Smith, president of Muhammad Ali Professional Sports Inc., said yesterday.

Smith told The Associated Press by telephone from Los Angeles yesterday that he had a probable site for the fight but did not want to disclose it at this time.

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Ah the infamous Harold Smith. I remember reading about there being talk of John L fighting Ali at one time in the late 70's early 80's.

Of course the fight never happened (thankfully) but they did box an exhibition whilst Ali was over here in the UK around that time.

bennie wrote:But he was floored and exposed by a fat Jimmy Young when they tried to move him up.

bennie, do you know why there is no film of this fight doing the rounds?

mercman wrote:Yes, Pearce did die young. His is a pretty tragic story: found to have brain irregularities and banned from fighting after losing to Rodriguez, he camapaigned for years to be allowed back in the ring. Apparently he died in his early forties, broke and living with his old dad. Perhaps his death was omething to do with his alleged brain irregularities?

I remember Pearce knocking Rodriguez down but my perception of the fight was rather different to yours Silkov. I seem to remember thinking Pearce was unlucky and Rodriguez got a bit of a 'home town' decision.

Yes Dave Pearce losing his licence to box and passing away young is a very sad story. There was talk of him fighting on unlicenced cards and then there was talk of him going to the USA to fight Leon Spinks, but nothing came of either. I think he may have turned to the bottle towards the end of his life but I am not sure. Not being able to box seemed to break this guys heart, the final straw I heard was when he was told that the WBA & WBC would never rate him ragardless who or where he fought.

I have never seen his fight against Rodriguez so cannot comment, but didn't he get screwed money wise that night? Didnt he have to sleep in a train station on the night of the fight?

Back t to John L Gardner, anyone got a decent picture of him they can post?

Wasnt Pearce partially trained by that guy that was a close friend of Ali (sorry cant remember his name, Monyhan?...) in his biog 'The sunshine in my life' he says that Pearce injured his hand badly in the run up to the Rodriguez fight and that his manager didnt want to pull him out and Pearce subsequently didnt do any sparring in the run up to the fight... which all in all makes his showing against Rodriguez all the more gutsy... I remember him doing the rounds of the morning shows talking about how he was trying to get his lisence to box back and saying how he didnt want to hand back his British title (was he able to keep the belt in the end?) it was heartbreaking to see and his tragic death does make you wonder whether he would have done better had he been allowed to carry on fighting, irregularity or not... he certainly seemed to love the game and being banned seemed to break him... bit like the story of the 147 contender of the 70s Gypsy Joe Harris who lost his liscence when it was discovered that he was blind in one eye and turned to drink and drugs when he couldnt fight anymore... he also died in his early 40s...

mercman wrote:Yes, Pearce's story is a sad one. Harris' too. But going back to the title of the thread - does anyone know what happened to John L Gardner after he retired from boxing? Hope he fared better than Dave Pearce.

About 10 years ago he was running a pub and was stabbed about 17 times in a vicious assault.

He recovered but I understand he doesn't leave his house much these days and his loving wife looks after him.

KOJOE90 wrote:

mercman wrote:Yes, Pearce's story is a sad one. Harris' too. But going back to the title of the thread - does anyone know what happened to John L Gardner after he retired from boxing? Hope he fared better than Dave Pearce.

About 10 years ago he was running a pub and was stabbed about 17 times in a vicious assault.

He recovered but I understand he doesn't leave his house much these days and his loving wife looks after him.

Yes thats a sad story in itself, I heard that he's not in great shape, mainly due to that awful attack... hope things maybe have improved for him since...

Yeah, its frightening what you hear going on today with all these knives etc... when I was at school 20+ years ago I had a scrap with someone (who was about twice my size as well) and when things didnt go how he expected he tried to stab me with a razor... everyone who was present pulled him off and called him a nutter (he was) ...my point is that back in those days it was thought that only 'nutters' went to school carrying knives and razors etc... now its all part of earning 'respect'... either the worlds gone mad or I'm just getting old...

silkov wrote:either the worlds gone mad or I'm just getting old...

Bit of both mate I think. I guess I am a simular age to yourself. But I remmeber being at school in the early-mid 80's and seeing a fair few skinheads, punks etc carrying straight razors, stanley knifes etc. It wasn't a 'rough' school either.

Then back in the 50's(?) there was the razor gangs of Glasgow etc. I think the difference today is kids brag about it more and the 24/7 media rolling along always looking for a story to hype help increase the publics concerns.

But gun carring is of course another story.

To cut a long story short, about 2 years ago some loser pulled a knife on my cousin, probably due to the fact my cousin is about 6"1 and 17st, so the knife weildind coward thought this would even things out a bit I guess.

Bad move scumbag, My cousin is an ex-amateur Heavyweight Boxer and now a Royal Marine Commando who has been highly trained in a number of unarmed combat techniques whilst in the forces.

My cousin quickly took the knife of the scumbag and went on to give him the mother of a kicking.

Unfortunatly few decent folk are capable of dishing out some rough justice like my cousin is.

I agree, when I was at school carrying a knife/razor was really looked down upon by most of the 'regular' sort of people... you would even get the piss taken out of you if you kicked in a fight... there seemed to be a different code than there is today... those that did carry weapons were usually the hardcase minority... today if you told some teens to settle their differences with just their fists they'd probably think you were mad... its a very sad situation....

Talking of Royal Marines, didn't John L Gardners son had
to quit the Royal marines because the NCOs kept picking on
him for having a famous fighting dad. Coming out with comical
crap such as...

"Your dad might have been british heavyeight champion but he never
won a green beret"

If it wasn't for the fact that Gardners son had to quit because of the
bullying off these arseholes then what they said would be laughable.

Carlos-Wigan wrote:Talking of Royal Marines, didn't John L Gardners son had
to quit the Royal marines because the NCOs kept picking on
him for having a famous fighting dad. Coming out with comical
crap such as...

"Your dad might have been british heavyeight champion but he never
won a green beret"

If it wasn't for the fact that Gardners son had to quit because of the
bullying off these arseholes then what they said would be laughable.

It just gets worse doesnt it... I'm sure there are plenty of 'brave men' in the army and Marines etc but I've always thought that the vast majority are simply dimwitted bullies... how many green berets have won a British title??.... not many I'd say....

silkov wrote:how many green berets have won a British title??.... not many I'd say....

Terry Marsh won the European and IBF World Title.

silkov wrote:

Carlos-Wigan wrote:Talking of Royal Marines, didn't John L Gardners son had
to quit the Royal marines because the NCOs kept picking on
him for having a famous fighting dad. Coming out with comical
crap such as...

"Your dad might have been british heavyeight champion but he never
won a green beret"

If it wasn't for the fact that Gardners son had to quit because of the
bullying off these arseholes then what they said would be laughable.

It just gets worse doesnt it... I'm sure there are plenty of 'brave men' in the army and Marines etc but I've always thought that the vast majority are simply dimwitted bullies... how many green berets have won a British title??.... not many I'd say....

As a former soldier there are too many of the type who are insecure with their masculinity and see someone like a boxing champion or a son of a boxing champion as an affront to their hardness. There wouldn't have been one man in 42/45 commando who would have gone 3 rounds with
John L Gardner in his prime, because someone can jump out of a plane
or scale a mountain means they can fight. Never mind a fighter who is a world class pugilist.

There will be US marines whose claim to fame and you can bet your life they will brag about it to anyone that will listen, that they made Riddick Bowe quit training after 10 days and these dipsticks will think they are tougher than Riddick bowe!

KOJOE90 wrote:

silkov wrote:how many green berets have won a British title??.... not many I'd say....

Terry Marsh won the European and IBF World Title.

Indeed, the exception that proves my point... really it is puzzeling that there are not more champion boxers coming out of the services... aside from Benn and Marsh I cant think of many top fighters that came out of the services...

silkov wrote:

KOJOE90 wrote:

silkov wrote:how many green berets have won a British title??.... not many I'd say....

Terry Marsh won the European and IBF World Title.

Indeed, the exception that proves my point... really it is puzzeling that there are not more champion boxers coming out of the services... aside from Benn and Marsh I cant think of many top fighters that came out of the services...

There must be a lot more. I assume you are not including active fighters who served in WW1&2.