Ken Buchanan: Hard Times & Remembering the Great Ones Too!
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
A short few months ago I was at an MGM Scotland show where a legend of the boxing world was introduced. My natural shyness overcame me and I sat in awe. No disrespect to the boxers who were on the bill that night but this guy, drawing the raffle, won the prize as top of any Scottish fighting bill of any era.
In his time, he fell out with Muhammad Ali in a dressing room, won world and European honors abroad, topped the bill in Madison Square Garden not once, but twice and gave up his belt to some young whippersnapper named Roberto Duran.
He is now 71 years old and had fallen so far on hard times a few years ago that rumor has it that he applied for his boxing licence back so he could go and fight again to earn a living. When the outcry reverberated throughout the nation he told people he would go onto the white collar or semi pro circuit instead. Surely, he must have thought, there would be people out there who would pay to see me, a former Scottish world title fighter in a ring? Yes, they would, but only if you drew the raffle, Ken.
And why? Because his professional record shows 69 fights with 61 wins, as he became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world in the 1970’s.
Who is he?
Ken Buchanan MBE (An honor bestowed by the Queen for services to sport, it stands for Member of the most extraordinary order of the British Empire) lit up the dark nights of the 1970’s with his exploits and took us floating on his dreams.
That those dreams feel far distant are backed by the news that during this summer Ken has been hospitalized for help with his drinking. It follows a very difficult spell for him over the last 2 years in particular that have seen him in and out of psychiatric facilities in an effort to help him with the demons that came to park themselves on his shoulder after he retired. With failed marriages and bad businesses as part of that all too familiar narrative, Buchanan sought help to keep him straight and on his feet. Now just a short week ago I was writing about Benny Lynch yet another Scottish boxer who fell victim to alcoholism. The tragic death at an early age for Lynch is not being copied here as Buchanan is nearly twice the age that Lynch was when he died.
Buchanan hit the professional ranks in the year that I was born, 1965. Strangely he made his debut in his Scottish heartland in his 17th fight – against John McMillan in 1967. That means that for his first 16 fights and over 2 years he fought only in England. In 1968 his winning streak brought him the British lightweight crown but he faltered in Madrid in 1970 when he lost over 15 rounds to Miguel Velazquez for the European title; that was in January by September he was in Puerto Rica to face the world lightweight champion from Panama, Ismael Laguna. Buchanan returned triumphant and the WBA champion with a belt around his waist but an inability, due to a feud between the British Boxing Board of Control and the WBA to defend his newly crowned title in Scotland!
It was that same year he headlined at Madison Square Garden and ended up in the same dressing room as this young kid who was fighting Oscar Bonavena. A late addition to the undercard this was a dressing room you would have paid money to enter and stayed there during the fights! Due to a mix up and some shambolic organization by the promoter, none other than Muhammad Ali and Angelo Dundee needed somewhere to change. Buchanan was up against an Italian by the name of Donato Paduano and before he went out to put on a classy display he had to shake his fists and warn this young kid that this was HIS dressing room. If HE wanted to be the king of the dressing rooms HE needed, like Ken, to be a world champion! It was the beginning of a long and heartfelt friendship as Buchanan drew chalk down the center to keep Ali caged in his own half – needless to say the stories tell us he didn’t quite behave by Ken’s rules!
In 1971 Buchanan became the undisputed world champion by beating Ruben Navarro in Los Angeles for the WBC version of the title. With the WBC belt he returned home, at last, to knock out Carlos Morocho Hernandez in the 8th round to defend his world title. The WBC then stripped him of his title for failing to defend it but he continued with the WBA belt.
In 1972 it was time to headline, once again, at Madison Square Garden. His opponent, a 21-year-old kid called, Roberto Duran. The 15 round fight ended in highly controversial circumstances. At the end of the 13th round with Buchanan behind on all 3 cards both fighters traded blows after the bell. Buchanan’s corner claimed Duran’s blow was highly illegal, low and came from a knee to the groin. No matter the cause, the effect was that the referee stopped the fight, claimed that the blow was to the abdomen and awarded the fight to Duran on the basis that Buchanan was unfit to continue. The whole episode has hit the silver screen in the Duran biopic, Hands of Steel.
Buchanan’s love affair with MSG was far from over and he fought again at the Garden with a 6th round knockout of Carlos Ortiz in his very next fight!
By 1973 his career was beginning to show signs of getting closer to the end but it still had some flurries to come. He went head to head with Jim Watt and beat him in Glasgow for the British title before going back out on his travels that saw him win and then defend the European title abroad and then get in the ring for the WBC championship. In Japan he faced Guts Ishimatsu but lost on points. He returned to defend his European title before retiring in 1976, returning in 1978 before a run of defeats saw him retire again in 1982.
He is Scotland’s most recent Hall of Famer, managing entry in 2000 – the very FIRST living British boxer to do so. But once again for this wee country we seem to produce wee men that stand tall in the world of fighting. They also land hard in the gutter but we all hope that Buchanan has a short stay there and returns to light up many rings again but keep the gloves off, Ken… it’s harder to pick the prizes with them on!
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