Colin “The Gorseinon Gravedigger” Jones: A Look Back at a Former Champion Who Didn’t Get Enough Credit During his Heyday – Part II
By Roy “Sharpshooter” Bennett
You plan your conversation to impress the college bar. Just talking about your mother and daddy’s Jaguar. Wear your political t-shirt and sacred college scarf. Discussing the world’s situation but just for a laugh. –The Specials
Who Dares Wins…
In 1980 Britain was a restless country undergoing profound change. A large percentage of the electorate had grown tired of the post-war, left wing socialist political agenda and voted with their feet, sweeping Conservative Party leader Margret Thatcher into power in May of the previous year. A massive tide of economic change was on its way and all Britain would feel the resulting turmoil of social, political, and cultural counter-revolution in its wake. Unemployment stood at 1.6 million and would rise to over 3 million by 1983. Across Britain pitched battles were being fought. Police forces clashed with miners and steelworkers. Rival football fans ran riot at stadiums up and down the country. And the ugly specter of racism reared its ugly head on the streets of the inner cities in the shape of far right wing groups like the National Front and the British Movement.
And there was more. The British public got its first close look at the tactical abilities of the SAS – Special Air Service – in action, an elite special forces unit of the British Army, when a terrorist group captured 26 hostages in a siege at the Iranian Embassy in Knightsbridge, London.
Footage of SAS soldiers masked in balaclavas, rappelling down ropes, throwing grenades through broken embassy windows, and shooting live rounds in broad daylight flashed across the nation’s TV screens. The beginning of the 1980’s grabbed the British by the scruff of the neck, shook hard, and wouldn’t let go.
The Fight..
Amid the upheaval engulfing the nation, Nottingham’s Kirkland Laing – the British welterweight champion – and Gorseinon’s Colin Jones met for the first time in April, 1980, at the Wembley Conference Centre in London. Any keen observer of the Noble Art would have noted the contrast between the champion and the challenger’s boxing styles could not have been more stark.
Laing displayed a fluid, dusky muscularity, with cat like reflexes at his beck and call. Smooth footwork brought him in and out of range like a dancer, and with his hands down by his sides he had an almost contemptuous air as he speared Jones with blistering combinations and ripped in uppercuts from underneath as Jones tried to get into range. Jones – pale, grim, resolute – tucked up behind a high guard as he walked forward absorbing shot after shot to the body and head, round after round.
It would be no exaggeration to say Laing had won at least 7 of the first 8 rounds going into the 9th frame. Jones remarked, “He had bags of ability. They were looking for Kirkland Laing to go on to do great things, and of course, there’s this Welsh kid in the way, and for 8 rounds it looked like that, because all credit to him, I couldn’t get to him with my big shots and he gave me a bit of a seeing to.”
The bell for the 9th round sounded and Jones, a mile behind on points, came out looking to land a big punch in an effort to change the course of the one sided action. The Welshman doggedly continued to stalk the champion, marching forward into a constant volley of punches. And then it happened.
Jones crossed a perfectly timed right over Laing’s left lead. The punch crashed heavily into his jaw. The champion’s legs betrayed him as he tottered backwards. Jones pounced with the instincts of a predator who had severely wounded prey in his sights. Slashing, digging, into the injured Laing with all his strength.
The Welshman smashed several unanswered punches into Laing’s head and body. The referee jumped in to save Laing from further punishment. He had seen enough. In his 14th professional fight Colin Jones had become the new British Welterweight Champion. He had only just turned 21.
No Love Lost…
In April 1981 Jones and Laing met again in a rematch at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Laing had been vociferous in his disdain toward Jones in the months after their first contest stating, “I still can’t believe how he beat me. How could I lose to a guy so far below me in terms of skill?”
But the need for revenge sometimes proves its own executioner. And Laing would once again suffer defeat at the heavy hands of the Welsh hero in nine unforgettable rounds. After dominating the first 8 rounds and sending Jones to the canvas twice in the 8th – from low blows – it looked, for all intents and purposes, that the British Title would return to the Nottingham man’s trophy cabinet.
The Welshman had taken a shellacking for the duration but his grit and determination saw him through. Jones could swing for the rafters with the best of them when the occasion called for it, and a sweeping left hook in the 9th sent Laing crashing to the canvas unable to beat the referee’s count.
“That was the turning point. Title fights were fifteen rounds which suited me. They suited a puncher and they suited me because I loved the game. I lived the game. I prepped hard. Everything I did was right, was for the boxing. He boxed my head off for eight rounds, let’s make no bones about it. The video evidence is there. I’d been on the deck twice in the eighth. It was unique, it was like déjà vu. Bang! I hit him with a big left hook. He’s down. The referee’s counted to eight, nine and that was it. It was all over. It really was a dream come true.”
After winning the British Title outright – Jones had crushed Peter Neal in 5 rounds between the two Laing fights – greener pastures beckoned for the Gorseinon native. Next he travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark to dethrone Hans Henrik Palm – the reigning European Welterweight Champion. A thunderous short left hook separated Palm from his senses and his title in the second round. Palm never fought again.
Coming To America…
After Jones had won the European title he was matched with Milton McCrory for the WBC welterweight championship Sugar Ray Leonard had vacated upon retirement. McCrory, a tall rangy long armed puncher, sporting an impressive 20-0, 17 KO’s record, had come roaring out of the famed Kronk Gym in Detroit, hot on the heels of illustrious stablemate Thomas Hearns, in a bid for welterweight world title supremacy.
Jones made the decision to vacate his British and European Titles to completely focus on the task at hand. And he went to America for the fight because the money being offered was much larger than the amount offered to fight in England at Wembley. As Jones tells it, “I told Eddie Thomas when we met with promoter Mickey Duff in London to knock out a deal, If I hit him on the chin in Las Vegas, or I hit him in on the chin in London, we’re going to have the same result, so let’s take the gamble.”
McCrory and Jones would meet in two hard fought battles in 1983 for the vacant world crown with the first – at the Convention Center in Reno, Nevada – ending in a draw. “At the time they’d reduced the rounds from fifteen down to twelve, which was little bit gutting for me, because when you’re looking at the prestige of a world title I think fifteen rounds is the right distance. Then you see who the true champion is.”
He continued, “It was a little bit of a controversial decision, the draw, but as far as I was concerned, to get a draw in the States was as good as a win. It’ll never show in the history books but as far as all the people that were there that afternoon, I think the majority thought that there had been an injustice.”
In August 1983 the rematch was fought at the Dunes Outdoor Arena in Las Vegas. The thermometer soared to 120 degrees and in a torrid back and forth battle in the sweltering heat Jones would lose a split decision.
“Devastation, a lifetime of dreams, a lifetime of hard work, all lost. But with what I’ve got today, the family, the home I’ve got, the lifestyle I’ve got, then no, I don’t regret it. The difference in the wages with those two fights, back in 1983 it was life changing amounts of money.”
Last Chance Saloon…
Back in Britain the emergence of the young entrepreneur Frank Warren onto the promotional boxing scene meant Jones would get one more opportunity to win a world title. Only this time he would get his chance in England.
In January 1985 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, before a crowd of 11,500, Donald Curry – the reigning WBA and IBF welterweight world champion – put on a boxing clinic stopping Jones on cuts in 4 rounds. A deep gash across the bridge of the Welshman’s nose brought an end to the proceedings and his professional boxing career. When the ringside physician ordered the fight stopped Jones sagged against the ring post and wept openly in his corner – title honors at the highest level denied him once more.
After the loss to Curry, Colin Jones would decide to retire. “I took a break, went on holiday for a bit. By the time I came back I was still reluctant to box again. My body was telling me it had had enough. From the age of 9 to 25 is a long time, and when you love boxing as much as I did, I gave it everything, every opportunity, every chance, I gave it my all. Anyway I said to my manager Eddie Thomas, ‘I’ve finished.’ ‘Good for you,’ he said, and that’s how it ended.”
Asked to describe three important underlying qualities that contributed to his success Jones says, “I only ever had one boxing club, only ever had one coach, only ever had one manager, and – up to this point – only had one wife. So I think loyalty is one. Honesty and good discipline.”
Read: Colin “The Gorseinon Gravedigger” Jones: A Look Back at a Former Champion Who Didn’t Get Enough Credit During his Heyday – Part I
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