Skip to main content
Advertise Buy the paper Contact us Shop Subscribe Support us

Error message

An error occurred while searching, try again later.
The Fight
JOHN WIGHT tells the story of boxer Cuthbert Taylor, who was deemed ‘not white enough’ to be British champion, and how a Welsh theatre group have chosen to keep his name alive

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.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Men's Boxing / 17 January 2025
17 January 2025
JOHN WIGHT writes on legendary boxing trainer and philosopher, Cus D’Amato
Men’s boxing / 20 December 2024
20 December 2024
JOHN WIGHT discusses how top-flight boxing is today a ‘late stage capitalist entity’
Mixed Martial Arts / 6 December 2024
6 December 2024
JOHN WIGHT discusses the globally known fighter’s dramatic fall from grace
Men’s boxing / 22 November 2024
22 November 2024
JOHN WIGHT reacts to last weekend’s bizarre spectacle between the veteran boxer and the upstarting social media influencer in Dallas, Texas