Bobby Neill

Last updated

Bobby Neill
Born
Robert Neill

(1933-10-10)10 October 1933
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died(2022-02-15)15 February 2022 (aged 88)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Statistics
Weight(s) Featherweight
Boxing record
Total fights35
Wins28
Wins by KO23
Losses7

Bobby Neill (born 10 October 1933) [1] was a Scottish boxer who was British Featherweight Champion between 1959 and 1960.

Contents

Early life

Born in Edinburgh, the son of Andrew Neill, a bookmaker [2] and Sarah Richardson. He had an older brother Frank, a younger brother Andrew, and two younger sisters, Myra and Marcella. Neill attended Trinity Academy, and boxed out of the Sparta Amateur Boxing Club, representing Scotland at amateur level despite suffering serious injuries in a car crash. [1]

Boxing career

He made his professional debut in May 1955 with a second round stoppage of Denny Dennis. He won his first 15 fights, including an eighth round stoppage of Matt Fulton in September 1956 to take the vacant BBBofC Scottish Area featherweight title, and a first round stoppage of Charlie Hill in December. [2] He was named 'Best Young Boxer of the Year' in 1957 at the British Boxing Writers Awards. [1] He suffered his first loss in January 1957, when he was stopped by the then unbeaten Jimmy Brown. His second defeat came three months later against Victor Pepeder. Later that year he was again seriously injured in a car crash, the resulting surgery shortening one of his legs, with surgeons telling him that he would never box again, but despite this Neill regained his fitness and continued to have success in the ring. [1]

He challenged for Hill's British featherweight title in April 1959 at Nottingham Ice Rink, stopping the defending champion in the ninth round after knocking him down nine times. [1] [2] Two months later he knocked out Terry Spinks in the ninth at the Empire Pool, Wembley. His next fight was a loss to Davey Moore, the American stopping him in the first round.

Neill started 1960 with wins over Alberto Serti, Germain Vivier, and Jimmy Carson, but was stopped in the fifth round in June by Johnny Kidd. In September he made the first defence of his British title against Spinks at the Royal Albert Hall. The fight was stopped in the seventh round due to cuts sustained by Neill. They met again for the title in November, Spinks this time knocking out Neill in the fourteenth round, leaving him in a coma and requiring surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. [1] [3]

Post-fight career

Neill subsequently retired from boxing, and within a few years began a second career as a trainer, working with Spinks and other boxers such as Alan Minter, Lloyd Honeyghan, Alan Rudkin, and Vernon Sollas. [1] [3] He also worked as a boxing adviser on television shows including Minder .

Personal life

Neill married Laurie Steadman in May 1961, they had a daughter Michelle born in 1962 and a son Fraser born in 1965. After Laurie died he married Maria Zola.

Death

Neill died of complications related to COVID-19. His funeral was held at Enfield Crematorium on 10 March 2022.

Honours

In 2004 he was inducted into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubén Olivares</span> Mexican boxer

Rubén Olivares Avila is a Mexican former professional boxer and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame., Olivares was a world champion multiple times, and considered by many as the greatest bantamweight champion of all time. He was very popular among Mexicans, many of whom considered him to be Mexico's greatest fighter for a long period. He currently holds the record for the most wins in unified title bouts in bantamweight history, at 6. Olivares has also had both starring and cameo appearances in Mexican movies, and he participated in more than 100 professional bouts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benny Lynch</span> Scottish boxer

Benjamin Lynch, known as Our Benny, was a Scottish professional boxer who fought in the flyweight division. He is considered by some to be one of the finest boxers below the lightweight division in his era and has been described as the greatest fighter Scotland ever produced. The Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer rated Lynch as the No. 5 flyweight of all-time while his publication placed him 63rd in its 2002 list of the "Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years". Like Fleischer, both Statistical boxing website BoxRec and the International Boxing Research Organization also rank Lynch as the 5th greatest flyweight ever. He was elected to the Ring Magazine hall of fame in 1986 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998.

Danny Lopez is an American former professional boxer who was the WBC featherweight champion of the world from November 1976 to February 1980. His nickname was Little Red.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Winstone</span> Welsh boxer

Howard Winstone, MBE was a Welsh world champion boxer, born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. As an amateur, Winstone won the Amateur Boxing Association bantamweight title in 1958, and a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.

Scott Harrison is a Scottish professional boxer who held the WBO featherweight title twice between 2002 and 2005. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth featherweight title from 2000 to 2002 and the British featherweight title in 2001. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the featherweight division at the 1996 European Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Spinks</span> English boxer

Terence "Terry" George Spinks MBE was an English boxer, who won the gold medal in the flyweight division at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. In the final he defeated Mircea Dobrescu of Romania on points. He was also British featherweight champion from 1960 to 1961.

Paul Appleby is a Scottish former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2014. He held the British featherweight title from 2008 to 2009 and once challenged for the Commonwealth super featherweight title in 2011. He is the youngest ever British featherweight champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Gomez</span> British boxer

Michael Gomez is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to London and later Manchester, England, with his family at the age of nine. In boxing he was affectionately known as "The Predator", "The Irish Mexican" and "The Mancunian Mexican".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricky Burns</span> Scottish boxer

Ricky Burns is a Scottish professional boxer. He is one of only three British boxers to have won world titles in three weight divisions and the first from Scotland, having held the WBO super-featherweight title from 2010 to 2011; the WBO lightweight title from 2012 to 2014; and the WBA light-welterweight title from 2016 to 2017. At regional level he held the Commonwealth super-featherweight title from 2008 to 2009, and has challenged for the British and European super-featherweight titles.

John Simpson is a Scottish former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2015. He held the British featherweight title twice between 2006 and 2010 and the Commonwealth featherweight title from 2009 to 2010.

Stephen Foster is an English professional boxer fighting in the super featherweight division. He is the former European super featherweight champion and is a former holder of the English and WBU titles at featherweight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Dickie (boxer)</span> Wales boxer

Robert Dickie was a Welsh professional boxer, fighting at both featherweight and super-featherweight. He was Scottish champion at featherweight, British champion at both weights and became WBC International super-featherweight champion in 1988. He is one of only four Welshmen to hold a British boxing title at different weights, the others being Johnny Basham, Pat Thomas and Jack Petersen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liam Walsh (boxer)</span> British boxer

Liam Walsh is a British professional boxer. He challenged once for the IBF super-featherweight title in 2017. He held the Commonwealth super-featherweight title from 2010 to 2017, and the British super-featherweight title from 2014 to 2016. Liam has two brothers, both of whom are also professional boxers, most notably his twin Ryan Walsh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac Dogboe</span> Ghanaian boxer

Isaac Zion Dogboe is a Ghanaian-British professional boxer who held the WBO junior-featherweight title in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Cordina</span> Welsh boxer

Joe Cordina is a Welsh professional boxer. He is a two-time super-featherweight world champion, having held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title since April 2023 and previously in 2022. At regional level, he held the British and Commonwealth lightweight titles between 2018 and 2019. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and gold at the 2015 European Championships, both in the lightweight division. He also represented Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

James "Tancy" Lee was a Scottish professional boxer who competed from 1906 to 1926. He held the IBU world, EBU European and the National Sporting Club’s British flyweight titles in 1915, becoming the first Scot to hold a British title.

Drew Docherty is a Scottish former boxer who was British champion at both bantamweight (1992–1997) and super bantamweight (1999). Married to Caroline Bradshaw and has two children.

Vernon Sollas is a Scottish former boxer, businessman and music manager, who was British featherweight champion between 1975 and 1977.

Charlie Hill was a Scottish boxer who was British featherweight champion between 1956 and 1959.

John Doherty is a British former boxer who was British super featherweight champion for three periods between 1986 and 1992.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Hall of Fame beckons for ring legend Neill", The Scotsman , 11 September 2004. Retrieved 18 May 2016
  2. 1 2 3 "Obituary: Charlie Hill, boxer", The Scotsman , 12 July 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2016
  3. 1 2 Jones, Ken (1998) "Boxing: Old boxers don't always fade away, some succeed in real life", The Independent , 12 February 1998. Retrieved 18 March 2016