{"id":119515,"date":"2023-04-26T11:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T16:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=119515"},"modified":"2023-04-26T11:30:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T16:30:42","slug":"boxing-is-alive-and-well-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=119515","title":{"rendered":"Boxing is Alive and Well In Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=119515\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=119515\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-110215 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/cropped-B-Ring-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/cropped-B-Ring-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/cropped-B-Ring-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/cropped-B-Ring-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/cropped-B-Ring-730x485.jpg 730w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/cropped-B-Ring.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donald \u201cBraveheart\u201d Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As we are in 2023, there is something occurring in Wales: boxing. A proud country with plenty of dragons as fighters, this is a country where British broadcasters have woken up to the fact that there are new names to be added to the ones of yore. As people speak in hushed tones of Barry Jones, Enzo Maccarinelli and Joe Calzaghe, names like Joe Cordina and Gavin Gwynne are being added.<\/p>\n<p>But Wales has always had depth in their boxing pools and one name does not often get a nod from the casual observers but is known to the boxing fraternity, Cardiff native Maurice O\u2019Sullivan. One of the reasons, of course, that people do not always mention his name is that he fought exclusively in the amateur code.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But he did go to the Olympics in Munich in 1972.<\/p>\n<p>Representing the Roath Youth Amateur Boxing Club his amateur record was distinguished and he was a teenage winner of the Welsh Amateur title at flyweight. The year that he made the Olympics O\u2019Sullivan won the Welsh light flyweight title again, against Michael Pickett, and also won the British Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) flyweight title.<\/p>\n<p>When he got to Munich he won his first fight \u2013 but his journey as to be halted by the eventual finalist Ugandan Leo Rwabwogo, who went on to take the silver home with him. Rwabwogo had already won bronze at the 1968 Olympics and the silver at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, in Edinburgh in 1970. He was a seasoned campaigner, so the loss, though keenly felt, was nevertheless one O\u2019Sullivan was expected to struggle in.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Sullivan was one of a team of nine in the British Olympic boxing squad, who did not have a great deal of experience and there was more hope than expectation when they arrived in Munich. Of the nine only two were champions at their weight \u2013 O\u2019Sullivan being one of them \u2013 though three of them medalled: Alan Minter\u2019s bronze at light middleweight, George Turpin\u2019s bronze at bantamweight and Ralph Evans\u2019 bronze at light flyweight.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2018Sullivan\u2019s first fight was up against the Frenchman Rabah Kaloufi. It was a points win for O\u2019Sullivan and set up the fight with the Ugandan, though not immediately. In an Olympics that was not shy of tragedy and controversy, Argentinian boxer, Jose Viccario was withdrawn after a fight in the Olympic village. O\u2019Sullivan, having been drawn to fight Japanese boxer, Fujio Nagai, when things were reorganised, O\u2019Sullivan faced the 1968 bronze medallist, Rwabwogo, instead.<\/p>\n<p>It lasted all of 80 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Rwabwogo stiffened O\u2019Sullivan with a right, O\u2019Sullivan hit the canvass, got up, was ready to go again and got hit once more forcing the referee to step in and stop the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Returning from the Games, O\u2019Sullivan continued to box and in 1974 became the ABA flyweight champion once more.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps his most notable fight came in an all Welsh affair against Johnny Owens for the Welsh title. It was a controversial win for him, and O\u2019Sullivan reportedly offered the trophy to Owens though Owens, who tragically died in the ring, six years later, refused to accept it.<\/p>\n<p>The controversy was because O\u2019Sullivan was clearly outboxed. Though a vastly more experienced boxer, according to Rick Broadbent, in The Big If, the Life and Death of Johnny Owen, \u201cO\u2019Sullivan felt his face being torn with slashing blows, the whiff of leather being merged with the smell of defeat.\u201d But it was not to be. The judges, one of whom later admitted, according to Broadbent, that they had wanted O\u2019Sullivan to go to the Commonwealth Games that year gave the title to O\u2019Sullivan, and the judging was tilted towards O\u2019Sullivan. Owens was gutted, O\u2019Sullivan shame faced.<br \/>\nThere is no record of O\u2019Sullivan going to Auckland for the Games.<\/p>\n<p>Recently however there has been footage of the Roath Youth Amateur and Athletic Club unearthed by a local budding film maker. Believed to be from 1978, though O\u2019Sullivan isn\u2019t identified as being in the footage it is a reminder of how important these clubs were and are to their local community and to the development of their famous boxers. Calzaghe gets a mention as former trainer Gerry Watts remembers fondly \u2013 who would not do so of a guy who walked in and beat all the people brave enough to enter the ring with him when he was in the gym. It also reminds us that the depth of a sport is dependent upon the dedication of those who do not have the riches, share the limelight or make the headlines. Maurice O\u2019Sullivan is one such fighter and for that the former Olympian shall be remembered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Donald \u201cBraveheart\u201d Stewart As we are in 2023, there is something occurring in Wales: boxing. A proud country with plenty of dragons as fighters, this is a country where British broadcasters have woken up to the fact that there are new names to be added to the ones of yore. As people speak in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30808],"class_list":["post-119515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing-is-alive-and-well-in-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119515"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}