George Feeney – one of the best British. It’s official.
Hartlepool’s Lonsdale Belt holder has been named fifth in the top 50 Greatest British fights of all time,
For the last five weeks, Boxing News, noted for being the bible of the sport, has counted down from 50 to one in a compelling series with Feeney’s incredible British lightweight title triumph over reigning champion Ray Cattouse in 1982 coming in at number five.
Feeney v Cattouse beat some of the most famous contests ever staged in the UK, such as McGuigan-Pedroza, Lewis-Bruno, Froch-Groves 1, Benn-Watson, Joshua-Klitschko and Hatton-Tszyu to name just six.
Chris Eubank’s stoppage victory over arch-rival, Nigel Benn, in Birmingham in 1990 came out on top.
The 50 Greatest British Fights feature was written by boxing historian, Miles Templeton, who is chairman of the British Boxing Board of Control’s Northern Area council.
George’s victory came at the Royal Albert Hall in a battle shown by the BBC, legendary referee Harry Gibbs halting the classic in the penultimate round.
Miles wrote how Feeney “finally wore down the incredibly brave Cattouse to stop his man in the 14th.
“Before that the two had engaged in a battle of unending intensity in which the champion, Cattouse, was kept under pressure by the accuracy, brilliance and variety of Feeney’s punches.”
George made three successful defences, including this reporter’s favourite Feeney fight, a first-round dismantling of Olympic medalist, Tony Willis while he went the distance with two US greats, Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini and Howard Davis.
Feeney was forced to retire after an unsuccessful European title challenge against Germany’s Rene Weller in Frankfurt, his final record standing at 19-10.
He was trained to the top by outstanding coach, George Bowes, who had been one of the country’s most exciting bantamweights, challenging for the British and Commonwealth titles.
It’s fitting therefore that ‘Geordie’ was also included in the top 50, coincidentally for a bout at the Albert Hall, where he drew with Frankie Taylor over a 10-round “see-saw battle”, Miles rating it at 29.
That was the middle clash of a Durham v Lancashire trilogy fought over eight months in 1964-65 with honours shared after a win, loss and draw.
Those involved in boxing and those who love the art will have their own top 50 fights and three of this writer’s do not appear.
Michael Hunter achieved an amazing British, Commonwealth and European super-bantamweight unification triumph over Esham Pickering back in 2005 at Hartlepool’s Borough Hall while in the 2016 Commonwealth super-flyweight spectacular between Anthony Nelson and Jamie Conlan at the Copperbox Arena, ‘Babyface’ virtually had his challenger out in round seven, only for the Irishman to find a knock-out blow in the eighth.
In between, there was a bloody war between Martin Ward and James Dickens at Houghton in late 2015, Jazza defending his belt via a split decision in a British super-bantamweight war, which had more blood and gore than Saving Private Ryan.
Respect and thanks go to Miles Templeton for a superb series and top marks to the two legendary Georges who got their names up in lights.
Words: Roy Kelly
