Lloyd Honeyghan Remembered

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

If I have not mentioned before, then let me say again – the 1980’s were a kind of blur to me. Having got into the University in 1982, I went on a spree of alcohol haziness that lasted till the dawn of the nineties.

There are good memories that exist in amongst the haze though, in a sporting sense, much have to do with following my local soccer team who, by this time were beginning to show remarkable signs of being able to win things. Personally, I was living a nightmare of one crisis leading deftly into another and then hoping to become a teacher when in 1986, the world welcomed a new British super star in boxing that shattered America.

It was September – the 27th, when Lloyd Honeyghan managed to achieve the dream of breaking into America. Thing is he not only broke in but took the WBA, WBC, IBF, Ring and lineal welterweight titles in full view of the paying public at the same time.
It cannot be underestimated just how important to the British – particularly the English – that it is to break into the US.

At times, it appears like they are avenging the Mayflower, but “breaking America” has been a halcyon cry long before the Beatles managed it in the sixties. Even now as we prepare in Manchester and Glasgow for massive world title fights for Anthony Crolla and Ricky Burns, rewards are talked about in terms of Las Vegas headlines and massive nights in the capital of boxing’s dreamland.

Honeyghan showed them how to really so it as he was one guy who went over a contender and came back a King.

His fight, against Donald Curry, in Atlantic City was both a classic and a massive upset.

We knew Honeyghan well – he was already the British, European and Commonwealth title holders at welterweight. We knew Curry – he was just a legend – unbeaten and undisputed.

Traveling abroad to win world titles was hardly new and Honeyghan had been out to the US before to fight in 1983 and had won – we should have been more confident – his promoter struggled to find any bookmakers that would give him odds on Honeyghan winning.
You could certainly have scoured the UK and several other countries to find anyone who gave Honeyghan a chance. Well this scruff went out to Curry’s backyard and dominated him from the first bell. Having come close to dropping him in the 2nd round, Honeyghan eventually managed to make the champion retire by the end of the 6th.

Before the fight, Curry had called him a ragamuffin and from then on, he lived on the legend of that night under the legend of the name that Curry gave him as the ragamuffin man.

The whole night had gone to heel in a hand cart for Curry. Honeyghan hand been handpicked to fight the younger Curry. Both may have been undefeated though Honeyghan was to be the fall guy, the step over, the doormat; problem was, they forgot to tell the patsy that. To be fair, the boxing world knew that Curry was probably the best fighter of the time but he was hardly popular. The hall was tiny, the care and attention of a world title fight missing and the expectations of anything happening worth reporting low.

Much of the media attention was about a possible Marvin Hagler/Donald Curry $10 Million Bob Arum sponsored showdown after Honeyghan had been sent back to London; their attention elsewhere it was forcibly made to pay attention back to this new shiny word champion who had wrecked all their plans.
Thoughts of anything that big were vanquished from the first Honeyghan onslaught. Curry was rag dolled and beaten to a pulp: Curry ended the fight with a broken nose, torn lip and 20 stitches above his left eye.
One young man, sitting close by at ringside, who was mesmerized by the sight was Mike Tyson, who was shocked and in awe of the new champion. It was widely reported that he said at the time, “Lloyd doesn’t fight like a British guy, he’s mean and nasty.” Weeks later Tyson showed the world how nasty he could be in winning his own world title for the first time.

Honeyghan though was a man of principles and when the WBA ordered him to fight a South African during Apartheid’s heyday, he dumped the belt in a bin and refuse to do so, this relinquishing his belt; Honeyghan has always been a man of singular views and attitudes – he fought with more than one major promoter during his career.

A few years later, in order to fight for another WBA belt, he had to apologize to that governing body though that was not as successful as his first assault on the world scene though he was to win another world title in his career.
It has led to much by way of eulogizing Honeyghan, who still struts round boxing halls in England as a figure to whom we gratefully owe hangovers and nights of pure joy. His ragamuffin persona now replaced by a resplendent couture that causes people to stare, point, even snugger but in September 1986, there was nobody able to laugh more heartily than he.

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