Ringside Report Pays Tribute to Recently Passed Former Middleweight Champion Alan Minter (1951-2020)

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

The recent news that our former world middleweight champion, Alan Minter had lost his life comes amidst the growing death toll and misery spread by the current pandemic.

For Minter, the 70’s were principally his decade, Alan Minter was to represent us at the Olympics in 1972 and when he entered the 1980’s to briefly become the undisputed middleweight champion. No matter what he became later, Minter was a class boxer.

A middleweight – doesn’t the UK produce some quality ones – Minter fought on 49 occasions, winning 39 of them, 23 by way of knockout, with 9 losses, 1 no contest and no draws.

Coming off that Bronze Medal at Munich in 1972, he became British champion 3 years later, European champion twice and world champion by 1980, after two big wins. Then his first defense in the UK hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

His start in the professionals was not without its issues. Five wins by knockout, followed by a distance fight over 15 rounds before back to knocking guys out was the start. It was then that cuts, cut short 3 fights and highlighted an issue with which he was to wrestle from then on; he cut easily. In 1974 he had added that no contest against Jan Magiarz. It was his third fight with Magiarz who had beaten him twice in a row in 1973.

His trajectory towards titles continued in 1974 which saw him fight abroad, in Hamburg, Germany, for the first time and win. It was in 1975 which saw the biggest fight of his career come against Kevin Finnegan as he took the British middleweight title. Having fought and lost a few times it showed just how tough the scene was at the time and as he headed towards the end of the decade one of the biggest names in world boxing would be waiting for that fateful night at Wembley.

In the meantime, 1976 gave Minter two successful defences of his British title and after beating the American Olympic Gold medallist, Sugar Ray Seales, he was put in the top 10 middleweights in the world. If he kept his win rate up a world title shot was surely around a corner.
The European belt came to him in 1977 as he knocked out Germano Valsecchi in the 5th round in Italy. The rest of 77 was a rollercoaster. He lost to a former world title challenger, Ronnie Harris, beat former two weight world champion, Emile Griffith, then lost his European title before retaining his British one. That win rate was not being kept up so he fell a little down the rankings and under the radar.

In 1978 there was tragedy of the worst sort as he regained the European title by knocking out Angelo Jacopucci; Jacopucci died afterwards due to injuries sustained in the fight. Minter also went to Las Vegas and fought on the Muhammad Ali/ Leon Spinks first fight and won on US soil for the very first time.

Despite that tragedy his work in 1979 got him back into contention for World honors and this came his way in 1980 as he took Vito Antuofermo’s WBA and WBC world titles at Caesar’s Palace. Minter was the first Brit since 1917 to go to America and win a world title. He then retained the title in a rematch in the UK but then the sport of boxing and the British fans disgraced themselves in one night in September 1980.

It was Minter’s defense against Marvin Hagler that was stopped after only 3 rounds. The fans who had turned up in their numbers to applaud their hero started a riot. The world was treated to images of Hagler being defended by his entourage as beer bottles were thrown into the ring. It was an image we didn’t need.

Alan Minter was now associated with one of boxing’s all-time lows. The WBA and WBC belts may have been contested in the ring but what was also being contested was the racial tension spilling over in a night that shamed boxing.

The records show that Hagler took under 8 minutes to dethrone Minter; it would take a lot longer to rub out the images of the riot.

Hagler became the champion, his crown not delivered until after he had been escorted form the ring for his own safety.

The story of how that reaction rained down upon him on a night where supreme boxing skill should have been celebrated and the birth of a true legend was born goes back to 1979. Firstly, and prior to the fight Hagler’s people had been seething. Hagler had been robbed in his 1979 title fight with Vito Antuofermo which was deemed a draw, leaving Antuofermo with the belts. Hagler had then to sit and watch Minter take the belts and then defend them in a rematch as he waited his turn. Hagler stoked the fie of resentment by strangely taking credit for Minter’s world title win by claiming Minter was only champ because he had softened Antuofermo up for him.

Tension was already high as Hagler had not shaken Minter’s hand when Minter had come to see the 1979 world title fight between Hagler and Antuofermo. Minter responded by claiming that he had not worked this hard to lose to a black man, and this left Hagler fuming once more. Minter claimed to have been misquoted but the reality was they were both happy to share the ring in anger.

It also led to demands that were hard to fathom including Minter’s insistence that Hagler shave his beard; less it was used to cut him in the fight. Hagler’s team warned Minter’s in response that they would be watching the cuts man to ensure he only applied legal substances to Minter’s face during the fight.

Legendary British boxing commentator Harry Carpenter described it as “my low point of my many years at British ringsides”. He continued, obviously sickened by the scenes, “Wembley Arena was reeking, not so much of nationalism, but had a decidedly rancid smell of racialism.”

Minter had lost to a future legend. On the night his cuts were bad, bad enough to stop the fight. It led to him receiving 15 stitches later that evening. The promoter for the evening, Micky Duff was mortified and apologized to Hagler, commenting publicly, “There were 10,000 there and there were a maximum of 15 to 20 people involved. They were animals”.

One of the more interesting facts of the night was when one of the “animals” decided to pick a fight with former world champion, Antuofermo, who was taking part in an interview on Italian television. Antuofermo explained, “He punched me on the shoulder and I straightened him out on the floor with just one punch. What else could I do?”

By 1981, Minter was to retire from the sport which took him to highs and gave him more than a few lows too.

Minter was to lose a fight with cancer at the end despite many years of having battled the bottle. We have lost a man who dared and with him we dreamed. Now he has joined his late partner and the many who have graced the four corners of truth. For Alan Minter, the bells have tolled and we bow our heads in appreciation.

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