Dick Richardson

Dick Richardson
Data
Birth Name	Richard Alexander Richardson
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	British
birthday	June 1, 1934
place of birth	Newport , Wales
Date of death	July 15, 1999
style	Left-hand boom
Combat Statistics
Struggles	47
Victories	31
Knockout victories	24
Defeats	14th
draw	2
Profile in the BoxRec database

Dick Richardson (born June 1, 1934 in Newport , Wales , † July 15, 1999 ) was a British (Welsh) boxer . He was the European professional boxer champion.

Career

Dick Richardson came from a family where no one boxed before him. His three brothers did not practice this sport either. Richardson therefore began as a teenager with another sport, namely rugby . Boxer Johnny Basham , who lived next to his family and was European champion as well as British and Empire champion of professional welterweight boxer in the 1920s, turned his interest in boxing .

Amateur career

Dick Richardson initially fought a few fights in Newport as a teenager. In 1953 he joined the British Army and continued to box. In 1954, he defeated a boxer named Brian Harper in the Royal Army Service heavyweight corps championships. This was none other than Brian London , with whom he would cross his fists six years later as a professional. Dick Richardson thus became Corps Champion.

Profile career

After his discharge from the British Army, Dick Richardson worked briefly as a bricklayer and worker in a steel mill. But he soon went to London and signed a professional contract with manager Wally Leslie. He was trained by a fellow Welsh fellow, Johnny Lewis, in Blackfriars in central London.

Dick Richardson fought his first professional fight on September 14, 1954 in London against Jim Cooper , the twin brother of Henry Cooper . He lost that fight over six rounds on points. Richardson then remained undefeated for the next nine fights. He defeated u. a. in the revenge also Jim Cooper by technical knockout in the 2nd round. In his 11th fight against Hugh Ferns in Cardiff , Dick Richarson was disqualified for head butting. It already indicated the hard, sometimes even exaggeratedly hard fighting style, which Richardson engaged in in his further career.

In the next nine fights, Dick Richardson celebrated mostly short-term victories against opponents, almost all of which came from the European continent. Among them were three Belgian heavyweights, Marcel Limage , Alain Cherville and Robert Eugene , who had quite a good name in the European boxing scene. On May 7, 1956, Richardson suffered his second defeat in Cardiff against Joe Erskine . He lost over ten laps on points.

Dick Richardson had been on the top ten European heavyweights for some time. Almost all of the opponents he faced later belonged to the European and even the world elite. It is therefore not surprising that Richardson suffered not only many victories but also some serious defeats.

Dick Richardson u. a. against the US former world champion Ezzard Charles and Bob Baker , another US world numbered boxer. He received defeats from the Americans Willie Pastrano , Cleveland Williams and Howard King .

In a fight for the British Empire Heavyweight Title he fought on May 27, 1957 in Cardiff against Joe Bygraves , who kept this title. On March 27, 1960, Dick Richardson then won the fight for the European heavyweight championship in the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund against the German champion Hans Kalbfell by technical knockout in the 13th round. He defended this title on August 29, 1960 against Brian London with a knockout victory in the 8th round and against the German ex-European champion Karl Mildenberger on February 24, 1962 in Dortmund with a knockout. Successful victory in the 1st round.

Dick Richardson played his last two fights on June 17, 1962 at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg and on March 26, 1963 at Wembley Stadium in London. In Gothenburg he lost the European heavyweight title in front of 50,000 spectators to ex-world champion Ingemar Johansson by knockout in the 8th round and in London he failed in an attempt to win the British Championship and the British Empire Heavyweight Title against Henry Cooper . Cooper beat Richardson in this fight in the 5th round knockout and thus ended his career.

After finishing his boxer career, Dick Richardson lived as a businessman in Surrey . He died in a traffic accident in Switzerland in 1999 .

literature

• Box Sport magazine from 1954 to 1963

Web links

• Dick Richardson in the BoxRec database
• Dick Richardson in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia