Gary Newbon: World champion Frank still packs a punch with the fans

My long-time love of boxing increased when I moved to the Midlands in 1971. The latest chapter came last Friday when I interviewed one of the nation’s favourite sports personalities – former world heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno.

A packed-out Grand Hotel in Birmingham loved our banter during the Karl Ward ORS sports luncheon. Many of them queued in a long line afterwards for selfies with Bruno. Everyone loves him still!

He spoke frankly about his mental health problems, having been sectioned six times, and his desire through the Frank Bruno Foundation to help men with similar issues.

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Bruno had 45 professional fights and won 40 (incredibly 38 by knock-out) with four of the five losses in world title fights – two against Mike Tyson, one against Lennox Lewis and one against the USA’s hard-hitting Tim Witherspoon. He did win the WBC world title eventually, beating Oliver McCall at Wembley on points on September 2, 1995.

He retired after the mandatory defence, with a second fight with Tyson, when he was stopped again. He had to stop boxing because of the recurrence of a detached eye retina and went into pantomime acting and speaking engagements.

Back in the Seventies, I attended a lot of local shows in Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester. Alex Griffiths promoted at Wolverhampton Civic Hall with the likes of Larry Paul and Jackie Turpin junior, son of Jackie senior and nephew to world middleweight champion Randolph Turpin.

Griffiths, Coventry boxer Danny McAlinden and his manager George Middleton signed contracts with Jack Bodell from Swadlincote and his manager George Biddles in the ATV studios on my sports show for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight title at Villa Park.

McAlinden won them in 1972 with a two-round knockout. It was a tough fight reduced to wrestling at times and there were chaotic scenes in the ring afterwards!

The Midlands Sporting Club was a gentlemen-only exclusive club, mostly for rich businessmen, at Solihull Civic Hall.

It was run by the strict secretary Edgar Hiley and a very good friend of mine Leslie Keegan, who was the president. I was invited as a media man.

The members and their guests dined before the boxing.

The code was strictly dinner jackets and the boxing was in silence during rounds, which always seemed weird to me!

The boxers were well paid and fed with the same dinner after their bouts.

My future ITV co-commentator, former world lightweight champ Jim Watt, won the British title there when it was vacant by beating Coventry’s Tony Riley by TKO in the 12th and final round on May 3, 1972.

I had my wedding reception at The Civic Hall in 1973 but the building and the club are no more. It is now part of the Touchwood Shopping Centre!

Back to Wolverhampton, I fell out with Griffiths over a TV interview when I exposed McAlinden’s opponent Willie Moore, from the USA, at Solihull Ice Rink for not having the record they claimed, and that his medical record should not have allowed him to fight here.

Griffiths threatened to sue me when my studio guest George Biddles and I had speculated pre-fight that no-one in the know seemed to know this.

Griffiths was given the right to reply and was shocked when I revealed I had received documentation from New York to prove the facts. He never spoke to me again.

My source was a rival London promoter now dead. Good game boxing!

The amiable Ron Gray, a former heavyweight boxer, took over as a long-time promoter in Wolverhampton.

He also became matchmaker for Micky Duff, Barry Hearn and Frank Warren.

He had a long reign in both situations and is still a valued and long time friend.

He promoted and was manager of Warley’s Pat Cowdell – the best British boxer never to win a world title.

I was involved in the negotiations and did the interviews when ITV screened the Frank Warren-promoted Colin Jones, of Wales, in his unsuccessful challenge for American Don Curry’s WBA and IBF titles at Birmingham’s NEC in 1985, which ended in the fourth round.

A few months later, on October 12, I was involved when Cowdell was knocked out in the first round of his challenge to Azumah Nelson for his WBC featherweight title at the same venue – also live on ITV.

Then came the epic Chris Eubank-Nigel Benn world title clash, again in the same venue, which attracted a massive ITV audience on November 18, 1990. It was a terrific fight for the WBO middleweight title which Eubank won when referee Richard Steele stopped Benn with five seconds left of round nine.

Steele, from the USA, covered many fights but called this one ‘‘the most dramatic fight I’ve ever refereed’’.

In my ring interview, Eubank suddenly surprised me by looking into my camera and proposing to his girl-friend Karron: “Karron... marry me.”

They married on December 23 that year in Brighton and had four children before Karron divorced him in 2005.

Then Granada’s head of sport, Paul Doherty, and myself as head of sport at Central TV formed a partnership with a new boxing series called Fight Night, which included some great nights at Digbeth Civic Hall promoted by Pat and Tommy Lynch. I will look back at those next in the Sunday Mercury.

Tuesday brings my sports comment column with Utilita Energy in both the Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph and online.