Ringside Report Looks Back at Former World Champion Terry Downes (1936-2017)

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Terry Downes, BEM, 35-9, 28 KOs, is a fighter from a time when the world was significantly changing. Briefly, a middleweight world champion in the 1960’s, Downes was a product of a post-war era that was as fine a generation as any but had an unenviable job: to help rebuild a nation after a bitter conflict. And as Europe, and the world, was recovering from the Second World War of the century, Downes was part of a resurgence in confidence in British sport that began after the London Olympics of 1948 heralded the way.

In boxing, we were seeing the heavyweights of the likes of Henry Cooper starting to emerge as the Paddington Express, Downes was making his name and forging a pathway. Downes was to campaign professionally at both middleweight and light heavyweight, and having been just before the war, by the end of it he would have been old enough to vividly remember it. A native of the capital, his early years would have been filled with playing in bomb sites and derelict parts of London which showed the scars of battle, even though hand to hand combat never found itself on the streets: the Luftwaffe left its mark instead.

Born in the Paddington district of London, which later gave its name to a Peruvian Bear, Downes was from working stock, with his mother an assistant in a department store and his father a mechanic. Joining the Fisher ABC, Downes began his pugilistic journey as a boy amateur. But, unusually, his move into boxing for the YMCA happened not in the UK, but in the US. Still in his teens, Downes moved to the USA with his parents to be with his sister, Sylvia. As John Rawlings, veteran British boxing correspondent in the Guardian was to recall, Sylvia, an elder sister, had joined the famed Ringling Bros circus. Thrown from a bus on the way to the circus, she found herself trapped between the bus and a telegraph pole. That accident ended with Sylvia losing an arm which, as a trapeze artist, curtailed her career. Her family travelled out to be with her and this led to Downes serving with the US Marine Corps from 1954 to 1956 after having boxed for the YMCA. Downes was to win the all-service championships for the corps and the Golden Glove, and as an amateur was an impressive performer.

He was equally impressive with his wit, wisdom and tongue!

Having managed to never been sent to the canvas his prowess was to lead to consideration for the Olympics, but the obvious problem was, pretty clear: Downes was not an American, though had served in their military. He did box in the trials and the man he beat in the Golden Gloves; Pearce Lane was to go to the Olympics instead of him but irrespective of the campaign some of the media ran for him to be included he did not qualify due to a residency. He reflected, according to Rawlings, thus: “I was all right to be in the bloody Marine corps, catching bullets in the frontline, but with boxing gloves they said no, you can’t represent us.”

And so, he returned to the UK, to London and turned professional.

His debut came in Haringay Arena, where he floored Peter Longo three times in a first round knockout on the 9th of April 1957.

After just two contests he was pitched in against a future world champion in Dick Tiger but lost in Shoreditch on the 14th of May 1957 by 5th round knockout. Matchmaker Mickey Duff had decided that Tiger was a soft enough touch for his new charge but that was a massive mistake. After the fight, Downes was to give one of the most famous boxing quotes of then and since. When a reporter asked him who he thought he would like to fight next, Downes swiftly responded: “The fucker who made that fight.” Wherever Duff was when Downes was asked, it was not within earshot…

The British middleweight title came in 1958, on the 30th of September when he beat Phil Edwards in the Haringay Arena in London, stopping him in the 13th round. The legendary John “Cowboy” McCormack relieved him of that title in 1959 on the 15th of September in the Empire Pool, Wembley – on the line was also the Commonwealth title. But Downes got revenge and the title back beating McCormack in a rematch on the 3rd of November 1959 back in the Empire Pool, by stoppage – it was again for both belts – British and Commonwealth. He then defended the British title successfully against Edwards on the 5th of July 1960 in the Empire Pool by 12th round stoppage.

1961 saw his big chance as he was up against Paul Pender in Boston on the 14th of January for the world middleweight title: he lost by 7th round stoppage, after suffering an injury to his nose. He brought Pender then to London and in front of a home crowd in Wembley, on the 11th of July, Pender, cut over both eyes retired, making Downes the world champion!
Recognized by The Ring Magazine as the world champion, he became the Sports Writer’s Association Fighter of the year for 1961 but less than a year later in Boston, on the 7th of April 1962, Pender got his title back by beating Downes on points. He was not a happy man afterwards as people thought he would have needed a knockout to win – and so it proved with a points loss that plenty argued over.

Downes was hardly out of the game and recovered his career, going on a winning spree that included beating the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson, on the 25th of September 1962 in the Empire Pool, again, on points over 10 rounds. Downes beat a man of 41, rather than a Robinson in his peak and knew that. So when, after the fight he was asked how he felt about it, he famously replied, “I didn’t beat Sugar Ray, I beat his ghost.”
Downes moved up in weight to light heavyweight and tried to win another world title – both the WBA and WBC titles – when he faced Willie Pastrano in Manchester on the 30th of November 1964. Pastrano, well behind on the scorecards, knocked Downes to the canvas in the 11th round. The referee then controversially waved the fight off and Pastrano had retained his title when it looked likely that Downes would recover and become a two weight champion.
Downes, with a career that included fighting 6 world champions, then retired from the game. That he beat 3 of them is a pretty good average for any fighter.

After boxing, Downes went into acting and between 1965 and 1990 had a few roles including in a Roman Polanski film – The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) and Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio (1986). He didn’t leave boxing behind and though he also owned a night club, ran a chain of betting shops, managed in the sport including British title challenger, Colin Lake.

On the 6th of October 2017, having received the British Empire Medal for services to sporting and charity work in 2012, slipped away aged 81, following the onset of cancer. Not a relic of the past but a man upon whose shoulders much was placed as part of a generation of fighters emerging post war to bring some glory days back to the country and for that, his service is well remembered.

Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt