Boxing: Howard Winstone - champ at last

Jan 24 2008 David Williams, Merthyr Express

40 years ago this week Howard Winstone fulfilled his dream and the dreams of thousands of fight fans across Wales when he finally won the World Featherweight Title...

THE DEBATE of who is the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time will go on forever.

Names like Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano and Roy Jones Jnr will always be in many peoples top tens of all time greats.

But there is no doubt that if you were to make a list of fighters with the biggest hearts to go with all the talent, Howard Winstone would be at the top of most.

Forty years since the Welshman won the world featherweight title, on January 23, 1968 and for many it seems like only yesterday.

While compiling this special pull-out it is abundantly clear just how highly thought of Howard Winstone was and still is.

Included in this eight-page look back at the Merthyr man’s fight with Japan’s Mitsunori Seki are pictures from the contest, reproductions of reports of 40 years ago from the Merthyr Express and the memories of friends, journalists and former boxing champions, including Sir Henry Cooper and close friend of Winstone, Ken Buchanan.

We also look back on Winstone’s amateur days, his three gruelling encounters with Mexican Vicente Saldivar and his life after boxing which sadly ended at the age of 61 in 2000.

Close friend of Winstone and his manager Eddie Thomas was Don James, himself an amateur boxer who sparred with the featherweight before the Seki fight.

He was there that night at the Albert Hall in London to witness Winstone achieve his destiny after three close calls against Saldivar.

“People say Howard took his defeats to Saldivar in his stride but he didn’t,” said James.

“Although he was a nice guy it broke his heart to lose those fights.

“A lot of the boxers Howard fought never fought again which says a lot about the man.

“Howard was an artist in the ring, no doubt about it with possibly one of the best left hands in the world.”

Of course, what made Winstone’s achievements of Amateur, British, European and World titles all the more amazing was that he was virtually a one-handed world champion.

As a teenager working at the Line’s factory in Merthyr an accident left him without the tips of three fingers on his right hand.

Despite this Winstone went on to do Wales proud, adding to the country’s tradition of world class boxers and his name would not be out of place along with Wilde, Welsh, Driscoll and latterly Jones, Robinson and Calzaghe.

His ninth round win over Seki showed just what could be achieved through sheer grit and determination and provides a lesson to anyone who has been knocked back, as Winstone had been in and out of the ring.

The long climb from factory floor to champion of the world
Winning a world title didn’t come easy to Howard Winstone.

Born at 96 High Street, Penydarren, months before the start of the second World War the young Howard soon learned the value of hard work and an industrious outlook.

Selling groceries off the back of his parents Howard and Kate's horse and cart business helped to combat the austerity of a post-war Merthyr Tydfil although the rationing at the time wasn’t the way you would expect the physical building blocks needed by a world class sportsman to be put in place.

Howard, however, had a great, natural, physique.

After leaving school aged 15 he spent his days working as a delivery boy on a pop lorry and in the evenings it was off to Merthyr ABC's Georgetown gym.

If boxing was a hobby for the teenage Howard it soon became a passion after he moved to the gym run by his mentor, soon-to-be manager and friend Eddie Thomas.

By the early 1950s Eddie Thomas was a Merthyr legend.

Already a British, European and Empire Champion, the gym run by the miner's son from Collier's Row soon became the place to be for aspiring boxers.

Howard, who was to become the biggest name on the Thomas roster, eventually lived a few doors away from the gym on Penydarren High Street.

Under Thomas's tutelage he became a gifted amateur fighter winning Welsh and British schoolboy titles by the age of 17 and further successes looked certain before disaster struck.

On May 19, 1956, the young Winstone was earning £3 0s 9d a week working at Line's Brothers Toy Factory in Cyfarthfa when the metal press he was operating slammed bown on his right hand.

Hospitalised for two weeks Howard must have known he was seriously injured.

What he didn't know to start with was that he had lost the top of three fingers.

The £1,900 Howard received was, at the time, little compensation to the boxing prospect.

But showing the guts that was to typify his career Howard saw a target, and no injury was going to prevent him reaching his goal.

That target was the 1958 Empire Games, made more special for the valleys lad as they were held just down the road in Cardiff.

By the time the Games came around Howard had progressed from the schoolboy to senior ranks and held the Welsh and British ABA titles.

Coach Eddie Thomas knew his protege would need to work even harder on his speed, stamina and punching power if he was to overcome his disability.

And that hard work and dedication paid off on July 25 when Howard took to the ring in Sophia Gardens to face Australian Ollie Taylor for the Empire Games bantamweight gold medal.

A few short minutes later the 19-year-old’s hand was being raised to the sky recording Wales’ only gold medal of their homeland games and taking his country’s first boxing gold for 20 years - professionalism was just around the corner.

Tough clash leads to featherweight crown bid

HOWARD Winstone was 26.

He was lauded throughout Wales and revered in Britain and Europe whenever boxing was the topic of conversation.

Wales own boxing Beatle he was on the top of his game and he simply needed one more title cement his place in fistic folklore.

A win over World No 6 Eduardo ‘Lalo’ Guerreo in June set up a pre-title fight against Cuban Jose Legra – a name that will feature large later in the Howard Winstone story.

Promoter Harry Levene, the man who set up the Winstone/Spinks British title fight in ‘61, joined forces with matchmaker Micky Duff to set up the fight at the Blackpool Winter Gardens – Howard only agreeing to the fight five days before the bout.

Legra also had World title aspirations and the seaside scrap was to be Howard’s toughest fight to date.

A natural nine-stoner Legra was on top in the early rounds before the jab of Winstone wore him down.

It was down to the judges who would get the chance to fight world title holder Vicente Saldivar.

The tension was palpable as the result was announced. Winstone had faced his toughest ever opponent and had been badly cut in the second round however his prodigious work rate was to win through as he shade the decision after 10 arduous rounds.

Within 10 weeks Howard was to face the man who was to be his biggest part adversary the Mexican Bull Vicente Saldivar.

Saldivar was easily the best featherweight on the planet. With 25 wins in 26 fights the southpaw had taken the world title against Cuban Sugar Ramos in Mexico City September 1964.

He defended it twice more again in Mexico and then, in his first fight outside his homeland, in the States before he was ordered to face No 1 challenger Winstone.

This would be Saldivar’s first fight in Europe and confidence was high that the Merthyr maestro could match and master the Mexican magician.

More than 12,000 Welshmen travelled to Earl’s Court in London for the fight on September 7.

Special trains were chartered to take the fanatical fight fans to watch their boy take on the master.

Saldivar was four years younger than Winstone and in superb condition.

His southpaw stance against Winstone’s machine gun like left jab was to be a clash of styles.

Few could separate the boxers with 13 rounds gone however Saldivar’s ‘left hand of gold’ was to prove decisive in the 14th.

Despite prestigious training in the Brecon Beacons and hours of road work the work rate of the champ started to tell on the challenger with massive sapping body shots taking their toll on Winstone.

Saldivar had powered on and knew that solid 15th should be enough to retain his title, and so it proved with referee Bill Williams raising the Mexican’s hand after 15 exhausting rounds.

The £10,000 Howard pocketed from the fight was of little comfort to Winstone - but Eddie Thomas knew the fight had shown that his boy had it in him to take the title.

It would be two years before the pair met again.

In the intervening time Saldivar defended his WBC and WBA title against Floyd Robertson and Mitsunori Seki, twice. Winstone sought to re-establish his battered reputation with European title defences against Andrea Silanos in Sardinia and Jean de Keers in London before beating Tonyrefail’s Lennie ‘the Lion’ Williams in Afan Lido for a joint European British title fight.

Reputation restored Howard was to enter the seminal 13 months of his career – 13 months that would see him fight for the world title on four occasions.

Page 2 - A hard life on the professional circuit
Page 2 - The boxing Prince of Wales
Page 2 - Now it is a second chance and a little closer to home

Page 3 - On top of the world
Page 3 - Champ celebrates with his family

Page 4 - Home a hero to fight again
Page 4 - Celebrity status for Wales' hero
Page 4 - Tributes from a fellow boxing great

Page 5 - The legend lives on
Page 5 - He did so much for Welsh boxing