Jim Watt: Thanks for the Memories…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

I remember Billy Connolly once saying that one of the reasons he believed that it was all right for him to get into comedy was hearing, for the first time, Scottish voices on the radio. Having the opportunity to hear people who came from similar backgrounds and share the same nation as yourself is a particularly important part of feeling part of any culture. Up until he heard them on the radio there had only been English posh voices that were used in high brow films.

Once the Scots voice was heard, all hell did break loose.

And so it was with boxing. When I heard of all the fights of Muhammad Ali and the great American boxers, we all thought that the sport was just held in America. For us little people there was no reason for the likes of us Scots to think for a second that we should have any chance of making any form of way in that world. Then came Ken Buchanan. Now a Hall of Famer, he showed that being from Scotland should never be a barrier to world honors. It was the 1970’s and things were bleak back in the UK so having a world champion in any sport was a welcome relief. For it to be a Scot was the icing on a very surprising cake.

I was a bit young for Buchanan though at school we also had the son of a former British and European champion, Evan Armstrong in our class. Armstrong never fought for world honors though he did tour the world, winning his Commonwealth title in Australia and losing it in Ghana so the exotic came to Ayr.

That made the next leap all the more remarkable as I knew we could be world beaters, I just didn’t know if we should – or if it was even allowed – as the myths of Buchanan were not followed by the reality of Armstrong.

Scotland in the early 1980’s was also getting past the horror of the Football World Cup of 1978. You have to know the psyche of the UK to understand how sore this whole episode was. In the UK there is England and many people see the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as England. Well it aint…

The dominant force and the largest country in the UK is England so we are never surprised when people call us English. But to be Scots and be the only soccer nation at the World Cup – again – in 1978 we had heavy expectations. The media in the UK celebrate England’s winning of the World Cup in 1966 all the time… Our manager of the team, Ally McLeod had whipped us up to a frenzy and we thought – we could win this and shut the English media up. Of course we didn’t and failed miserably. The media in the UK got their revenge as their headlines told of a British team full of hope sent out and welcomed back a Scottish one in disgrace. We felt very ashamed.

Then came Jim Watt.

Having been beaten by Ken Buchanan in Glasgow in 1973 for the British title, he was ready to lift our spirits. We just didn’t know he was ready – yet… Watt was a southpaw lightweight who fought 46 times, losing 8 and winning 38 in a career that lasted from 1968 to 1981. He was already the British and Commonwealth champion though had accomplished this mainly under the radar of the general public.

Now 68 years old, he has just announced his retirement form commentating for Sky Sports but for us Scots he is best remembered for nights in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall, filled with smoke and full of spark where he beat world champions and defended a title that he only lost because he went to England to defend it. I am sure that is far from true but for some that is precisely what they think.

His progress to world honors came in 1979 when Roberto Duran, who had beaten Buchanan, vacated the WBC title and Watt found himself opposite Alfredo Pitulua in Glasgow – he knocked him out in 12 rounds. With a record that included beating the likes of Sean O’Grady, Perico Fernandez, Charlie Nash and Howard Davis, JR. Watt became heralded as the lightweight Ring champion. In 1981, 2 years or so after winning the world title he lost it in a 15 round fight to Alexis Arguello in London, then retired from the sport.

After hanging up his gloves, he took up the microphone and went on to have a second distinguished career. His personal life has however been marred by tragedy as he has buried 2 adult children.

As I have mentioned before on Ringside Report he lives at the end of my street and despite the call from “Bad” Brad for me to get an interview this very private man is seldom seen outside in the street. I nearly did bump into him in the supermarket but when you meet people who are your idols, sometimes you just get tongue tied. I shall get that interview one day because for two bleak years our lives were lit up by a world champion who made it OK again to believe that the Scots could take on the world and win.

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