Dave “Boy” Green: The Lad Who Loved a Dust Up – Part I

By Roy “Sharpshooter” Bennett

In the ten year span between 1970 and 1980 British boxing produced some of its most outstanding fighters and champions. In several weight divisions British fighters fought their way up the rankings to challenge for world title honors. Fights were shown free on network TV or broadcast live on the radio – at some ungodly hour – from a far flung destination. The time didn’t matter though. You stayed up to listen because you wanted to cheer your countryman on in the heat of battle on foreign soil.

Every national newspaper had a dedicated full time boxing journalist on its staff and it was the norm for boxing to be given front and center stage in the sports news when a big fight was on – especially if a British boxer was involved. It was a great time to be a fan of the sweet science. Lord Lonsdale – the original patron of the British title championship belt – would have been proud.

During this period British boxers Ken Buchanan, John Conteh, Chris Finnegan, Joe Bugner, John H. Stracey, Dave “Boy” Green, Jim Watt, Alan Minter, Johnny Owen, etc all fought for world titles. And Win, Lose or Draw they all gave mightily of themselves in the pursuit of fistic glory. None more so than Owen who paid the ultimate price for his extreme courage in the heat of battle against Lupe Pintor – the Mexican bantamweight world champion. In September, 1980 Owen was brutally knocked out in 12 rounds at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Welshman fell into a deep coma from which he never recovered. He died in the first week of November that year.

England’s Dave “Boy” Green – aka “The Fen Tiger” – was an immensely popular fighter who fought for world title honors on two occasions against outstanding titleholders in Carlos Palomino and Sugar Ray Leonard respectively. But what was it that made him such a crowd pleaser and enabled him to garner such a large fan following? Let’s take a closer look at the fighter and his career.

Dave “Boy” Green

37-4, 29 KO’s

Chatteris, England

If fighting is a kind of unspoken language Dave “Boy” Green fought with the determination of a man with a sledgehammer racing to knock down a wall against the ticking hands of a construction foreman’s stopwatch. A sense of raw urgency and straining sinew characterized his efforts. Weight on his front foot and hunched over like a coiled spring, Green would move forward after his man with measured steps while bringing constant pressure to bear on his opponent. He had a decent jab when he elected to use it but his primary method of attack was the use of wide hooks to the body and looping punches over the top of an opponent’s guard.

Green was a physically very strong and relentless fighter who would keep coming at you until you started to crack. And when you weakened he would overwhelm you. He was a good puncher – though not a one shot KO kind of fighter – who broke you with an accumulation of blows and the pace he set. He had a good engine and plenty of grit and determination to back it up. His primary method of defending was to move his head on the way in and he kept a high guard at all times. Green liked to fight on the inside, when he could, and would bludgeon blows into an opponent’s midriff and ribs like a battering ram slamming into a castle gate. Green’s style of fighting left no doubt as to why he was nicknamed “The Fen Tiger.”

Tough, aggressive, and relentless Green’s thudding blows seemed to rain down on an opponent like rocks in a landslide. He may not have possessed a true knockout punch but he always turned up to the argument in top physical shape and was stronger than most at the weight. He was a grinder – pulling and shoving you in the clinches, bashing and digging into you with a cascade of blows when in punching range, and as you began to wilt he would lock onto you and cause whatever held you together inside of yourself to come apart.

Green ignored pain from incoming blows and returned it in kind to his opponent twofold.
If anything punishment drove him forward even more relentlessly. He was impossible to discourage and only the best fighters were able to turn back the advances of his continuous and insistent pressure.

The Path To A Championship Career

Dave Green was born on June 2nd, 1953, in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, a small fenland town in the agricultural heart of East England. He took up boxing at the age of 13 and as an amateur won 3 Eastern Counties championships and reached the semi-finals of the national ABA championships. Under the amateur code he amassed a reported 74 wins with 33 KO’s in a 105 fight record.

Green turned professional in 1974 under the management of Andy Smith. In December that year he made his pro debut stopping Yotham Kunda in two rounds. Thereafter Green went on to rack up 15 straight wins before getting a shot at the British light welterweight title against former amateur stand out and defending champion Joey Singleton, 10-1-1, 2 KO’s.

At the Royal Albert Hall in London, Green stopped Singleton in the 6th round to capture the championship. Green pounded the game Singleton from the opening bell, cutting him over both eyes and Singleton’s corner refused to let him come out for the 7th stanza. “The Fen Tiger” had arrived in the championship class and had ripped the domestic light welterweight crown from Singleton’s brow in scintillating style. Fans sat up and had taken notice.

Green racked up five more victories – including a points win over the very experienced American Jimmy Heir, 51-11-1, 27 KO’s, who had been in with Argentinean great Nicollino Locche and would go on to meet the likes of Pete Ranzany and Roberto Duran – before meeting Jean-Baptise Piedvache of France, 39-1, 18 KO’s, for the vacant European title.

When asked what fight was his career highlight Green replies,

“Probably the Jean-Baptiste Piedvache fight for the European title. That was the hardest one. He had won 39 out of 40 fights to that point. It was a very tough fight for me.”

On December 7th, 1976 over 4,000 of Green’s fans travelled up to London to support him in his bid for European title glory against Piedvache – The Pride of Paris. After a strong start from the Englishman, where the Frenchman was forced to ship heavy punishment in the early going, Piedvache roared back in the middle rounds behind a sharp left lead and bursts of combination punches to check Green’s advance. But the Frenchman’s left eye was badly swollen from up top and one wondered how long he would be able to see out of it. The two fought toe to toe in rounds 8 and 9 and it looked as if it would turn into a grueling 15 rounds distance fight, however, with the eye now swollen shut and grossly misshaping the left side of his face the Frenchman decided to retire from the contest and not come out of his corner for the 10th frame. Green was now the British and European light welterweight champion and unbeaten as a professional with 22 straight wins to his credit.

Green and his manager would now look to ascend to the very top of the pugilistic mountain and challenge for a world title. But first there was a domestic rival and former world champion to take care of.

In 1975 John H. Stracey had done the unthinkable and beaten the great Jose “Mantequilla” Napoles for the WBC welterweight world title, on away ground, in the partisan cauldron of Mexico City. Stracey had to pick himself up from the canvas in the first round to fight his way back into the contest and pull off a memorable victory by 6th round stoppage. In the interim he had made a successful defense of the championship against American contender Hedgemon Lewis before losing the title to Carlos Palomino of Mexico by TKO in 12 rounds.

Green – moving north to welterweight – and Stracey would lock horns at Wembley on 29th March, 1977, in a fight billed as a world title eliminator and eagerly anticipated by the British boxing establishment as a potential fight of the year. And it did not disappoint.

In a ferocious first round fought at blistering pace Green tore into Stracey from the opening bell. Green was relentless throwing punches from all angles and threatening to overwhelm the former world title holder with his aggression and pressure. Stracey weathered the early onslaught and halfway through the round started to find his range and unleash hard counter shots to the head.

Stracey ripped in classy uppercuts and left hooks and well timed straight rights in an effort to keep the marauding “Fen Tiger” at bay but Green would not be denied and kept coming forward. At the end of the 2nd round the two boxers touched gloves in mutual recognition of each man’s fighting quality.

In one of the greatest battles between domestic rivals seen on British soil, Green and Stracey waged a torrid back and forth war for ten rounds. As much as he tried Stracey could not stem the tide of Green’s continuous assaults and in the middle rounds Green’s physical strength was beginning to tell. Green was digging hard to the body now and roughing Stracey up on the inside. He was warned more than once for bumping his head into Stracey’s face by the referee Harry Gibbs.

Green’s looping right hand was beginning to land more often as Stracey began to tire. Green was walking the ex world champion down and at the end of the 5th he trapped him in a corner and let both hands go. Green was ratcheting up the pressure with each passing round and Stracey was now forced to box exclusively off the back foot. Green hurt Stracey with looping overhand rights and left hooks to the body in the 7th and the ex champion was beginning to show signs of distress.

In the 8th and 9th rounds Stracey dug deep into his reserves and mounted a last ditch effort to stem the tide of Green’s assaults. The Londoner dug his heels in and fired back for all he was worth. He managed to stagger Green with a left hook but the Chatteris man ate it up and kept coming. When Stracey landed flush Green would fire straight back and continue to advance. The 10th saw Green pin Stracey against the ropes and tear into him with both hands. Stracey was hardly firing back now and the referee hovered over the action closely watching Stracey’s reactions. Green could sense victory was close and poured on the pressure. As Stracey staggered back Gibbs intervened to stop the contest at 1 minute 40 seconds of round 10.

In the end Green had broken Stracey’s spirit and the spoils of war were his for the taking.
It had been a classic crossroads fight between the young up and coming fighter and the older fighter – and ex champion – trying to fight his way back into title contention and another shot at the big time.

Dave “Boy” Green had emerged victorious and a shot at Carlos Palomino and the world welterweight championship would be next. And all of England would be behind its native son when the time to do battle came.

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