Fight Night was a popular boxing series that I presented and was shown to half of the UK on ITV. It was transmitted almost live every fortnight on Thursday evenings and was originated by Central TV in the Midlands and Granada Television in the North-west.
It featured small hall shows although we had some big names topping the bill including world champions Nigel Benn and Terry Marsh.
The idea was born in the early 1990s when Paul Doherty was head of sport at Granada and I had the same role at Central. Paul asked me if I would partner his plan for this series and I quickly agreed.
We asked ITV promoter Frank Warren to be in charge of the promotions in the small halls. In Birmingham, he used Paddy and Tommy Lynch while in Stoke the local promoter was Pat Brogan. In Manchester, Warren used Jack Trickett and in Scotland Alex Morrison.
The relationship was good and Frank did a good job but we decided to make a change.
So Paul brought in an amazing boxing man called Charles Atkinson who was based in Manchester and available on a day-to-day basis to make the matches and work with the individual small hall promoters.
Then an ITV ‘war’ broke out with London’s Thames TV, and their head of sport, Bob Burrows, who was peeved that we were not using Warren. I have always remained good friends with Warren who, for me, is still the best boxing promoter.
So Thames TV produced the equivalent show, Seconds Out, but our fellow northern ITV companies and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland stayed with us, as did the small hall promoters we had always been using.
It was certainly good for both sides. Boxing benefited with the exposure and money and the viewers with some very good contests.
Atkinson did a brilliant job with his matchmaking and organisation. He had the boxing pedigree and it has always puzzled me as to why British boxing has not found a role for him. His knowledge is wonderful and he did an amazing job in Thailand.
His story is worth telling.
Like a lot of successful football managers, he was not a superstar as a professional boxer. He had an average two-year career in Germany with fights in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne.
His father, Charles Snr, was an outstanding coach and trainer and formed the Kirkby ABC in the Liverpool area and trained future world champion John Conteh and British super lightweight title holder Joey Singleton, both of whom won national championships for the amateur club.
Charles Jnr became a promoter and manager with his brother Mike with eight years promoting in the Liverpool Stadium. He then became a trainer and coach and took boxers to 10 professional world titles including seven by the WBC. He has been involved in over 50 world title fights in five continents.
The other amazing fact is that none of these world champion, apart from one, experienced more than 10 professional fights before winning the titles. That is how good Atkinson was in this role.
Atkinson’s big break came after he promoted the WBC light heavyweight title fight in 1977 when John Conteh beat Len Hutchins by technical knock-out. It was in conjunction with Manny Goodall and the USA promoter Bob Arum.
Conteh’s agent was Atkinson’s close friend Bobby Naidoo, a WBC official. Thailand’s boxing was at a low ebb. Naidoo had recommended Atkinson to change their fortunes.
In 1982, Atkinson accepted an offer from the top Thai promoter Somphop Srisomwongse and WBC’s main man there, Edward Thangarajah – both of whom became good friends of mine as well when I travelled to Thailand to cover some of the boxers’ world titles fights, champions like Sot Chitalada, Saman Sorjaturong, Samart Payakerun and Napa Kiatwanchai.
One of his fighters, Sirimogkol Singwancha, achieved one of his two WBC titles at the age of 18.
I got to know two of these really well – Sot Chitllaada and Napa Kiatwanchai.
In Sot’s ninth professional bout, he defended the WBC flyweight title (he had won it in his previous contest) by stopping London’s Charlie Magri in only four rounds at Alexandra Palace on February 20, 1985.
I was present on February 28, 1992, when he lost his 31st and last contest at the Crocodile Garm in Thailand’s Samut Prakan – only his fourth loss.
One of the great fights was when I was with Saman and Charles in the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, USA, on July 15, 1995, when Saman stopped the outstanding Mexican Humberto Gonzalez in seven rounds to win the WBC and IBF light flyweight titles
It was judged the fight of the year with Gonzalez ahead on points on the three judges scorecards. Then in the seventh with Gonzalez’s face and left eye in a mess, Saman knocked him down and soon after he got up more heavy punches forced referee Lou Filippo to stop the contest after 58 seconds of the round.
It was the Mexican’s 46th and final fight and only his third defeat. Watch it on YouTube and see Atkinson in the ring afterward.
Great days! I loved it.
I return in the sports pages of the Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph in association with Utilita Energy on Tuesday with my comment column.
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