10. Pat Cowdell
Active years: 1977-1988
Cowdell was a tidy technician from the Midlands who had the misfortune to run into a pair of greats when he challenged for world honours. Salvador Sanchez beat him on a split decision in 1981 – Cowdell had been given no chance – and four years later, Azumah Nelson iced him inside a round with an uppercut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5SokttA7dM
9. Kirkland Laing
Active years: 1975-1994
Beating Roberto Duran in 1982, in what had been considered a mismatch, made Laing one of the best welterweights in the world. Laing being Laing, he then went missing for a year. Laing claimed he stayed in the gym, but no fights came up, while the late Mickey Duff told a different story. When Laing did fight again, he lost and he continued to frustrate until the end of his career. He was a talent – known as ‘The Gifted One’ – but you never knew which Laing would turn up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hsjyV9jkU
8. Chris Finnegan
Active years: 1968-1975
Finnegan, gold medallist at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, gave one of the greatest light-heavyweight champions in history, Bob Foster, one of the hardest fights of his career at Wembley Pool in 1972.
The Ring magazine named it their fight of the year. Finnegan, a cut-prone southpaw from Buckinghamshire, was beaten in 14 rounds.
Finnegan died in 2009.
7. Tony Sibson
Active years: 1976-1988
A pro on his 18th birthday, ‘Sibbo’ as he was known to his fans – and there were loads of them – had three shots at world honours. Marvin Hagler was too good, Dennis Andries too big and by the time he fought Frank Tate, Sibson was too old. Sibson was a bit mentally fragile, but when he held himself together, he was good enough to beat Mark Kaylor and Alan Minter, the latter win revenge for a punishing spar when ‘Sibbo’ was just starting out.
He won the Lonsdale belt outright, along with Commonwealth and European honours.
Sibson never did like the business and following his retirement, he has seldom been seen at shows.
6. Colin Jones
Active years: 1977-1985
An Olympian in his teens, Jones, a flame-haired left hooker from Wales who twice chinned Kirkland Laing, fought out a draw with the Kronk’s Milton McCrory for the WBC welterweight title vacated by Sugar Ray Leonard in Reno in March, 1983 – and the rematch five months later was also desperately close. The difference between them was a flash first-round knockdown Jones suffered. He lost a split verdict. Jones did get another shot at world honours, a horrific nose injury ending his challenge to Donald Curry. He has since gone on to coach the Welsh amateur team.
5. Alan Rudkin
Active years: 1962-1972
Rudkin was another who, in another era, would have surely won world honours. His three world-title challenges all came away from home against great fighters. Fighting Harada beat him on points in Japan, Lionel Rose outpointed him on a split in Australia – possibly the Liverpudlian’s best performance – and Ruben Olivares whacked him out in two in Los Angeles. Rudkin died in 2010, aged 68.
4. Herol Graham
Active years: 1978-1998
Branded “a limbo dancer” by domestic rival Tony Sibson, Graham was a rubber-limbed exponent of Brendan Ingle’s unconventional philosophies who failed in three world-title bids. Graham drew with Mike McCallum for the vacant WBA middleweight title after having a point deducted, ran onto Julian Jackson’s punch-of-the-century when on the brink of a stoppage win and at 38, he twice dropped IBF super-middleweight champion Charles Brewer before being stopped in the 10th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INT4T7sa6Tk
3. Jock McAvoy
Active years: 1927-1945
His punch earned McAvoy, real name Joseph Bamford, the nickname ‘The Rochdale Thunderbolt’ and he hit hard enough to whack out world middleweight champion Eddie ‘Babe’ Risko inside a round in Madison Square Garden in 1935. But the American’s title wasn’t on the line – and McAvoy never got his rematch.
He did get a world-title shot – and was outpointed by classy light-heavyweight champion John Henry Lewis. Following his retirement, McAvoy, bested three times in four fights by Len Harvey, contracted polio and took his own life on his 63rd birthday.
2. Dave Charnley
Active years: 1954-1964
“The Dartford Destroyer” was a strong, relentless southpaw who was out of luck when he fought for world honours.
In his first challenge for the world lightweight title, Charnley was ruled out against Joe ‘Old Bones’ Brown by a cut – and he lost an agonisingly close decision to Brown in front of 18,000 fans at Earls Court in the rematch.
Many, Charnley included, felt he deserved better and the referee, who scored the fight, needed an escort from the ring to protect him from angry fans.
Charnley did have the satisfaction of knocking out Brown when they fought for a third time – but by then, the American was an ex champion.
Charnley moved up to welterweight and fought the great Emile Griffith in 1964, retiring after a nnth-round stoppage defeat.
Charnley died in 2012, aged 76.
1. Jim Driscoll
Active years: 1901-1919
There’s not much footage of the Welshman to be found, but what footage there is shows a masterful boxer with lightning reflexes, feet and hands. Not for nothing was Driscoll known as ‘Peerless Jim.’
He reportedly dominated world featherweight champion Abe Attell when they fought in 1909 in a non-title fight – most of the newspaper reporters had him winning – and missed out on a rematch, choosing instead to keep a promise to attend an exhibition in aid of local orphans.
The performance against Attell did earn Driscoll recognition in Europe as world champion, but not elsewhere and he never got a shot at the title. Driscoll died in 1925, aged 44.