Colin “The Gorseinon Gravedigger” Jones: A Look Back at a Former Champion Who Didn’t Get Enough Credit During his Heyday – Part I

By Roy “Sharpshooter” Bennett

“Remember him, then, for he, too, is a winner of wars, Enduring like a tree under the curious stars.”– R. S. Thomas

The Welsh countryside can be harsh and austere. The rural landscape can be bleak and forbidding. But in the Welsh valleys there must be a special ingredient in the clear waters that flow near small close knit village communities, nourishing the surrounding acres of green earth, bog, and peat.

The fresh air and climate are conducive to the kind of robust health anyone would benefit from. A traveler passing through these parts might arrive at the conclusion that the rutted faces, ruddy complexions, and hardy physiques of the farmers, laborers, and hill men are the result of hard work and long exposure to the environment.

Similarly the boxers who have emerged from this small proud country are no different. They too have also been shaped by its unyielding rugged beauty.

A long line of elite fighting men – pale, lean, hard, skilled, humble – have come out of this nation with their hands up balled into fists and more than held their own against the best professional pugilists in the world. Take a moment to imagine yourself as a young boxer starting out in a small Welsh town contemplating the nation’s storied prizefighting heritage. Jimmy Wilde, Jim Driscoll, Freddie Welsh, Tommy Farr, Eddie Thomas, Howard Winstone, Johnny Owen, and more recently Joe Calzaghe, have all left a considerable mark on boxing history with their fistic achievements.

Add welterweight hard man Colin Jones to that esteemed line up and you’d have plenty to shout about.

Origins…

Colin Jones was born in Gorseinon, Wales, on March 21, 1959, one of eight children. He started learning boxing at the Penyrhoel Boxing Club as a nine year old and trained solidly for two years before engaging in his first amateur contest at the age of eleven. The hard work paid off. Jones was a precocious amateur winning most of the junior competitions he entered. As a senior he went on to twice become national Amateur Boxing Association welterweight champion in 1976 and 1977 and represented Great Britain at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, as a fresh faced 17 year old where he made it to the quarter finals.

Jones recounts the story behind his selection to the Olympic boxing team.

“At the age of 16 I won the Welsh junior title. There was no British championships for the juniors at that time. The chairman of the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association realized I was too young to enter the seniors. You had to be 17. So, they had a special meeting and they decided they would allow me, at 16, to enter the Senior Welsh Championships. It was because I had already won so many junior titles on the way up and the style in which I was winning my fights was stopping people. Knocking people out. So they made a special exception for me.”

Jones rewarded their faith in him by winning the Welsh Senior Championships then – when he became 17 years old – turned his intense gaze toward the British Amateur Boxing Association Championships. “I went on to win the Senior National ABA Welterweight Title at Wembley Arena. Now, The British Boxing Olympic Team selection committee thought I was too young. So they fetched a crack USA Team, just a month later, to see if I came through that unscathed. I boxed a Marine by the name of Rocky Flatto, and he was a 23 year old tough guy, Golden Gloves champion, and they wanted to see how I would deal with him. I had him down a couple of times but he went the course and I won unanimously. I think that’s where I actually earned my ticket to go to the Olympic Games.”

Jones was the youngest member of the British team. He fought his way through to the quarter finals where he faced Victor Zilberman of Romania.

“He was 29 years of age. An old campaigner on his third Olympics. First round, Bingo! I hit him with a left hook, had him down. But I think his experience and strength was the main factor and he came through to win the bout. There was no argument about that. Victor went on to win the bronze medal. At 17 years of age it was one of the best experiences of my life. That was the pinnacle of it at the time. It set me in good stead for the rest of my life.”

When his amateur career had come to a close Colin Jones had fought in over 100 contests with only 6 losses.

Early Professional Career…

As a young man Jones worked underground in the coal mines and also dug graves in cemeteries for the local authorities hence his ring name “The Gorseinon Gravedigger.” Jones turned pro at 18 with Eddie Thomas – who both trained and managed him. Thomas had himself fought as a professional and won the Welsh, British, Commonwealth, and European welterweight championships during his own career in which he was known as “The Merthyr Marvel.”

Prior to working with Jones the great man had taken none other than Howard Winstone and Ken Buchanan all the way to world title honors at featherweight and lightweight. What Thomas had forgotten about boxing wasn’t worth knowing. When Jones started punching for pay his amateur boxing coach – Gareth Bevan – was also kept on to assist Thomas in the training duties. They made a good team. The Gorseinon native had been well taught. And it showed. Jones was as pure a puncher as you will ever see. To look at him you’d never think it. A red haired, quiet, humble man with a calm almost shy face, he struck fear into no one on first appearance. Only his slightly bent nose and intense blue eyes hinted at some unknown story left untold.

But upon closer inspection his professional boxing record, 26-3-1, 23 KO’s, told you all you needed to know. The man had hammers for fists. Jones’ artifice was not the kind to inspire poetic platitudes about grace and beauty. His was a much more fundamental talent, not visible to the untrained eye. It was almost as if – beneath the blue overalls of a factory worker – Jones kept the perfect mechanics for punching far above his weight hidden from view. His power was generated by efficiency of motion, a sniper’s timing – in boxing parlance the correct muscles firing in sequence – and excellent balance. Leverage coming out of the feet and exiting at the point of the fist with no telegraphing. When he hit you with a clean shot it was curtains. And he could do it with either hand.

Title Shot…

In fighting his way into British title contention Jones racked up a record of 13-0, 10 KO’s in his first two years as a professional. During this period Eddie Thomas mainly kept Jones fighting in Wales on shows he promoted and kept his charge away from the prying eyes of the big London promoters as he learned his trade on the small hall circuit. But Jones would eventually have to travel down to London in England for his big opportunity against the reigning British welterweight champion, Kirkland Laing.

In 1980 weigh-ins were held on the day of the fight at 1.00pm. Laing, 18-0-1, 8 KO’s, oozed confidence. Jones remembers, “I was only a small welterweight. I came in around 10st 4lbs (144lbs). As far as the other lads, like Laing, they were boiling down to the division. When we arrived at the weigh-in Kirkland Laing said to me, “Listen now son. Doesn’t your manager like you?” Jones asked him what he meant and Laing said, “You know you’re going to get a terrible beating from me tonight. You haven’t got the physique, you haven’t got the physical attributes that I’ve got. Look at the difference in the size of us. You look anemic. You’re going to take a whipping tonight.”

Jones continues, “This really turned me and I said – and I’m not that type of person, “Well, we’ll see about that tonight son! We’ll see about that tonight!” The stage was set for classic battle of skills the gifted boxer versus the big puncher. Many a fan would be unable to get a decent night’s sleep on the eve of the contest. Such was the excitement surrounding it. In British boxing circles the anticipation was almost palpable. But would the fight live up to feverish expectations? Yes it would. In fact it would far surpass them.

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