FOR A rustic with a inhabitants of lower than one million, Guyana has produced some notable boxers. The better of them is the nice Joe Walcott, not the ex-heavyweight champion who took his identify as a result of he admired him a lot, however the welterweight who turned skilled in 1890 and whom Nat Fleischer, the founding father of the Ring journal, rated as one of the best ever on the weight. Dennis Andries, Wayne Braithwaite, Howard Eastman and Adrian Dodson are others with Guyanese heritage, they usually may all battle a bit.
The Tanner brothers have been the first from the nation to make an impact on these shores and it was the eldest, Richie ‘Kid’ Tanner, who was probably the most profitable. He arrived in 1938, after boxing professionally for simply two years, and when he ended his profession, in 1950, he had gained 104 of his 175 contests.
The Kid made his UK debut at Liverpool Stadium towards among the best flyweights in the UK on the time, Tut Whalley, and he amazed the massive crowd by successful simply. In his third UK bout he boxed on the undercard of the Benny Lynch-Peter Kane scrap at Anfield soccer floor, and once more he gained with out fuss. In 1940, he boxed towards Jackie Paterson, that nice Glaswegian who was British champion on the time and who would go on to win the world flyweight title in 1946. Boxing for the Commonwealth title, Paterson and Tanner placed on a terrific present with the Scot’s southpaw fashion presenting massive issues for Tanner and thus he misplaced the choice after 15 rounds.
During the conflict Tanner served as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery and continued to field on the highest stage, showing frequently on the few reveals then being promoted, lots of which have been in assist of the conflict effort.
His youthful brother, Allan, turned skilled in 1949, only a yr earlier than the Kid bowed out. Allan died in 2001 and that nice ex-pro, Ricky Porter of Swindon, paid tribute to him in Ron Olver’s Old Timers column. Sadly, aside from stories of his contests, this appears to be the one time that Allan’s profession as an entire was commented upon in BN, and thanks to Ricky, his reminiscence has been preserved inside these pages, “Allan amassed a total of around 100 bouts, boxing in various parts of the world, including a fight against Sandy Saddler in 1948, just six months after Sandy won the world featherweight title. Allan was still in his teens.”
While lively in the UK, between 1949 and 1955, Allan gained 38 of 67 contests. Like his elder brother, he began out on the Liverpool Stadium. He gained his first six, culminating in a one-round knockout of Wishaw’s Jim Findlay, a fairly respectable fighter himself. Allan was managed by Dom and Tony Vairo, each ex-fighters from an earlier time and large gamers in the sport in and round Liverpool. The pair additionally managed Johnny Hazel and Ivor Germain, from Jamaica and Barbados respectively.
The Vairos have been all the time eager to assist the various Commonwealth lads then arriving in nice numbers to field in Britain. Allan beat some nice fighters, together with Jimmy Toweel, Laurie Buxton, Ellis Ask, Tony Lombard and, in 1951, Tommy McGovern, who grew to become British light-weight champion later the identical yr. BN reported that “Allan Tanner knew too much about inside work for Tommy McGovern and gave the Bermondsey boy a rare beating about the body that slowed him down and paved the way for a decisive points victory after eight rounds. McGovern was buffeted from pillar to post in the final session.”
Ricky Porter reported that after his boxing profession had ended Allan grew to become a coach who, in addition to taking care of Porter himself, additionally skilled Des Rea, Victor Paul and Nojeen Adigun. Let’s depart it to Ricky to pay the ultimate tribute: “He was a fine gentleman and it was a privilege to know him.”
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