Remembering Boxer Evan Armstrong (1943 – 2017)

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Right now, boxing is filled with the big match ups – Indongo/Crawford or Canelo/Golovkin or Lomachenko/anyone. It’s a time when the big fights are being made and the fans love it.

For me there has been a more important time when the big fights were not being made and the scraps we watched were no less interesting and no less evenly matched. The headliners give us debating points, the lesser known fights give us the stories.

During the week, quietly and with less fanfare than he deserves, one Scottish boxer who never fought for world glory but fought throughout the world, left us as he slipped off the canvas for the final time. We can look back at a legacy as rich in stories as any boxer to grace the square ring.

What makes this more poignant is that I went to school with his son so this takes me on a little piece of nostalgia. I cannot claim that his son was my best friend as our interests and paths never matched but I was always aware of him – and of who his dad was. We met at Mainholm Academy in Ayr, me from a more academic school whilst his rural upbringing from the proud village of Tarbolton meant his cohort were looked on with less than glowing academic promise by the teachers and educators charged with making us better citizens.

Evan Armstrong, 39-14-1, 30 KO’s, his father, shared his name and his pride. Obituaries have given Ayr as his home town, however we always associated them both with the wee village from which they hailed and Ayr was probably the easiest large conurbation to find on a map for those who might have been unable to spell or pronounce Tarbolton.

When I started at the school I was quickly aware that Evan Armstrong was in my year as people talked about his dad with great pride. At physical education, it was clear that the son had inherited some of his father’s physical prowess and he was the target at times of the teachers who would point out how he would be expected with his lineage to achieve so much more than us ordinary kids.

The reason for such reverence came because his father was a ferocious veteran that took on all comers throughout the world. His fights abroad were never quite a successful as the ones he had in the UK but he did manage to win a Commonwealth featherweight belt in Australia that stands as his biggest achievement, though he had already held amassed titles at bantamweight and featherweight at Scottish level and featherweight at British level. He did fight for European honours but was unsuccessful against Jose Legra in 1973.

Active between the years 1963 and 1974, he achieved 39 wins with his highest honours being the British and Commonwealth belts at featherweight.

He debuted at the Paisley ice rink in 1963 and in his first 10 fights he lost twice. As we consider the new found desire for fighters to be protected and the debate over the likes of Mayweather being THE BEST EVER due to his unbeaten record it is fascinating to see a man who lost a couple of times still being hailed as a legend – and rightly so.

His first career title was the Scottish bantamweight fight against Jackie Brown at Glasgow’s Central Hotel in September 1966 – a hotel, well known to anyone who catches a train at Central Station in the city – where he knocked Brown out in the 4th round.

In pursuit of British honors, and in a British title eliminator, in 1967 he went back to that ice rink in Paisley and beat Jim McCann but his career defining fight, for many, was in Mexico in 1968 where he managed the full 10 rounds with Jose Medel, losing by unanimous decision.

1968 was an eventful year but for the wrong reasons as Armstrong went to California in August and lost to Chucho Castillo, knocked out in only the 2nd round before ending the year, competing for that British bantamweight title, at the Empire Pool in London and being stopped in the 4th round. In 1969, in his 37th professional fight he got another shot at the British bantamweight crown against Alan Rudkin but was retired in the 11th round of 15.

The new decade saw him move up in weight to featherweight and there started the period of success for which he became better known. He won the Scottish Area title against Jimmy Bell at Grosvener House in London in 1970, and then the British title against Jimmy Revie at the same hotel in 1971 before failing to add both the Commonwealth and European crowns thanks to subsequent defeats to Toro George in Melbourne and then Jose Legra in the Royal Albert Hall – both points decisions over 15 rounds. The Commonwealth belt came when he nipped to Australia and took it off Bobby Dunne in 1974 in Brisbane.

Evan Armstrong’s final professional fight was in Accra Ghana when he lost his Commonwealth belt to David Kotey when he was stopped in the 10th round of a 15 round fight – it was his 54th professional fight in 11 years.
Once retired his boxing career left him with the legacy of head injuries that meant his post boxing career was cut short. Clearly the effects of his boxing added to the dementia with which he later suffered and puts some of the recent comments about boxers quitting in a real context.

Armstrong was not forgotten by his fans and in 2004 a gala was held in his honour in Ayr where he was graced by the presence of no fewer than five former world champions! In attendance were flyweights Walter McGowan and Charlie Magri, lightweights Ken Buchanan and Jim Watt, plus middleweight Alan Minter as well as the Scottish Olympic and European lightweight legend Dick McTaggart.

In 2013 Armstrong achieved the Benny Lynch Certificate of Merit Awards for his career in Glasgow and there would have been no prouder family than his. Recognised for services to boxing he was lionised alongside such greats as Ken Buchanan and Dick McTaggart.

And so, with sadness his final fight was lost but the grace with which he ferociously fought we salute him as a true legend of Scottish boxing. A wee man whose achievements were greater than his height, but no better than his stature demands – RIP Evan Armstrong.

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