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Simeon Desvignes as Cuthbert Taylor in Theatr na nOg's The Fight
[Dimitris Legakis Athena Picture Agency] 
CUTHBERT TAYLOR was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1909. A superb amateur boxer, he competed for Great Britain at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam in the flyweight division. Given that he was born with brown skin at this point in Britain’s social history, the boxing ring was the least of his worries.
Racism has long informed and plagued British culture in all aspects. To be black or brown was designated to be less than on these shores for generations. The country’s sordid legacy of slavery and empire made it so, yet young men such as Taylor refused to let the colour of their skin make them feel less than.
Regardless, the colour bar was a shameful part of the reality of professional boxing in his era, which both he and Manchester’s Len Johnson — previously featured in this column — found to their cost.
From Manchester pubs to global arenas, Ricky Hatton embodied working-class pride in and out of the ring, but his last round was fought in solitude, writes JOHN WIGHT
Vilified by the public after defeating Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner’s remarkable career and tragic decline reflected the era’s attitudes as much as the man himself, says JOHN WIGHT
Amid riots, strikes and Thatcher’s Britain, Frank Bruno fought not just for boxing glory, but for a nation desperate for heroes, writes JOHN WIGHT
In recently published book Baddest Man, Mark Kriegel revisits the Faustian pact at the heart of Mike Tyson’s rise and the emotional fallout that followed, writes JOHN WIGHT
