Boxing legend Ken Buchanan forced to sell his championship belts

Published on Monday 16 February 2009 09:21

BOXING legend Ken Buchanan has been forced to sell all the championship belts he won during his glittering career.

The Edinburgh-born 63-year-old – widely regarded as Britain's greatest boxer – has been living with friends in Leith after falling on hard times.

He has now taken the difficult decision to sell his full set of championship belts to scaffolding magnate Willie Garriock.

The former world, European and British lightweight champion's honours may now go on display at the National Museum of Scotland.

Buchanan has experienced several problems since retiring from the ring in 1982 but friends say he has recently been in better shape.

He has even returned to sparring with young hopefuls at Leith's Sparta Club, the club where he first made his name as a boxer.

One close friend said: "We know he's had his problems over the years, but in more recent times he has picked himself up.

"He's had a lot of bad things happen to him and even though he still takes a drink, he looks a lot better now, clean shaven and well presented."

The friend said he believed Buchanan simply felt he needed more cash to get by.

Mr Garriock, a former Scottish boxing champion, is understood to have been motivated to buy the belts by a desire to see them on public display.

The National Museum of Scotland said it was in talks with the businessman about including the belts in its sporting hall of fame.

Mr Garriock – who knows Buchanan from their days at the city's Sparta Boxing Club – declined to comment when contacted by the Evening News.

It was unclear today how much he has paid for the belts.

However, a Lonsdale Belt won by Leith featherweight Tancy Lee in 1919 was recently sold on eBay for a reported 16,000.

Buchanan's spoils include a Lonsdale belt won as British champion in 1968 and world title belts won in the early 1970s in Puerto Rico and the United States.

He is the only living British fighter to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Buchanan was also voted Greatest Ever British Boxer in a 1978 poll organised by the sport's British trade newspaper Boxing News.

A National Museum of Scotland spokesman said: "We are in the early stages of discussions with Mr Garriock about the possibility of his lending boxing memorabilia to the National Museum of Scotland."

Ken Buchanan could not be contacted for comment.

RISE AND FALL OF A FIGHT LEGEND

KEN Buchanan was born on June 28, 1945 in Northfield.

He joined the Sparta club aged eight and turned professional in 1965. After winning 23 consecutive bouts he knocked out Maurice Cullen in 1968 to become British Lightweight Champion.

In February 1968 he won the British lightweight title but two years later missed a chance to take the European title when he lost to Miquel Velazquez.

In September 1970 he won his first world lightweight title when he beat Ismael Laguna and a year later he became undisputed world champion when he beat Ruben Navarro in a 15-round contest in LA. In 1971 he was awarded the MBE and beat Laguna in a rematch in New York

However, his career took a nosedive in 1972 when a below-the belt-punch after the bell landed Buchanan in hospital and handed the title to opponent Roberto Duran.

He hung up his gloves in 1982. In June 2000 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.