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A fighter inside and outside of the ring
JOHN WIGHT tells the story of boxing legend Len Johnson, barred from title fights because of the colour of his skin and who then fought injustice
(L to R) Fight between Len Johnson and Jack Hood at the Ring, Blackfriars Road in 1928, Len at Prescot in 1936.
[PA / Creative Commons]
LEN JOHNSON was born on October 22 1902 in Clayton, Manchester, to an Irish mother and a father from Sierra Leone.
In a boxing career spanning a decade between 1923 and 1933, at middleweight he fought an astounding 134 bouts, winning 95, losing 12 and drawing 7.
Yet despite this remarkable record, he was prevented from fighting for a British title by the British Boxing Board of Control under the board’s then racist rule 24, which mandated that only fighters born from white British parents could do so.
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