Wild Thing by Yates Lew & Bernard O'Mahoney

Author:Yates, Lew & Bernard O'Mahoney [Yates, Lew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2011-04-14T23:00:00+00:00

ROUND EIGHT

AFTER HIS VICTORY OVER MCLEAN ROY SHAW KNEW THAT PEOPLE WERE unlikely to place a bet on him losing the rematch, so he wagered approximately £12,000 of his own money on Lenny McLean beating him. The much-hyped second fight was staged at the same venue as the first, Cinatras in Croydon. McLean entered the ring looking sharper and much fitter than he had at his first fight with Shaw. When the bell went to signal the start of round one, McLean steamed into Shaw, hammering him to the canvas. Shaw got to his feet, only to be knocked down again. McLean, who appeared to lose control, began stamping on Shaw’s head. Dazed but unbeaten, Shaw got to his feet, only to be knocked clean through the ropes into row B of the audience, where he remained. Shaw later told Jon Hotten that McLean hadn’t knocked him out of the ring; he had in fact fallen out and remained in row B so that he could collect his winnings. ‘He hit me, I went down and he was jumping on me,’ Shaw said. ‘I got up and my corner rang the bell, made the round short. He hit me again and I fell out the ring, so I let him have that one. Got about twenty-four grand.’

After two very lucrative encounters, both fighters had swelled their bank accounts and scored a victory. Neither could claim they were better than the other. There was only one course of action open to them: a third, even more lucrative decider would have to be arranged to find out who really was the Guv’nor. A date was set, a venue was arranged – The Rainbow in Finsbury Park, north London – and fans of unlicensed fighting lapped up the hype that Joe Pyle and others created around it. Tickets for the fight were in great demand and sold out within hours of going on sale. Graphic descriptions given by both boxers of what they intended to do to each other appeared in the newspapers and on television. On the black market the tickets began to exchange hands for three times their face value. No wonder the promoters of the fight were laughing and joking as the boxers made their way to the ring.

Shaw, who had told reporters prior to the second fight with McLean that he was retiring, looked drunk when he entered the ring. He later claimed that he had overdosed on ginseng, but it looked to me like he had been celebrating the financial success of the bout with champagne. Whatever it was he had taken or drunk, Shaw certainly didn’t look like the man I had challenged five years previously. When the bell rang, McLean launched himself at Shaw, unleashing a flurry of devastating blows. Shaw tried to move around the ring to avoid punishment, but McLean continued to club him with his giant fists until Shaw fell to the canvas and remained there. I am not sure how hard McLean

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