By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
They say if you remember the 1960s then you weren’t really there. The implication being that it was a time when people were right out of it. We all have decades where our youth gave us free reign for excess. For me it was the 1980s. I was 15 at the start and about to become sober by the end of it. In between was a voyage of discovery, but it was also a time when I remembered everything but knew, without a shadow of a doubt, I was there.
And so was British bantamweight Ray Gilbody, 11-4-1, 8KOs, who, also like me was born in the 1960’s. Unlike me he was off to have a distinguished career in boxing and represented Great Britain at the Olympics and England at the Commonwealth Games in 1980 and 1982 respectively.
In the professional game he was the British champion in the middle 80s and fought twice for European honors. By the end of the decade, he was a retired fighter but had been for a time one of our prospects in the ring.
It was in the amateurs; however, he really made his mark as he collected three schoolboy titles nationally, losing only 2 of his junior bouts apparently and won no less than three ABA national titles along the way – flyweight in 1979 and then, at bantamweight in 1980 and 1982. In the first two he was a podium winner alongside his brother, George, the first time that brothers had both won ABA titles.
1980 saw him at the Olympics, as the British boxing captain, and having been given a bye in the first round he scored a points win against Joao Luis de Almeida of Angola. That meant he got to the round of 32 but came up against Mexican Daniel Zaragoza and he lost that on points.
Perhaps his biggest achievements came in Brisbane, Australia when in 1982, representing England in the Commonwealth Games he managed a bronze medal.
A year afterwards he was in a professional ring for the first time and made his debut against George Bailey on the 1st of March in the Royal Albert Hall and stopped him in the second round. By December that year he was fighting for the Central Area bantamweight title in Liverpool, but that ended in a draw against John Farrell.
On the 20th of February 1984, Gilbody stopped Dave George in a British bantamweight title eliminator, in London. Unfortunately, a year later on the 1st of February 1985, Gilbody’s progress was derailed as he suffered a dislocated wrist in his fight against Sandy Odanga in Warrington, and his march towards the British title was delayed until the 13th of June of 1985 when in Hartlepool he beat the defending champion John Feeney on points.
It led to a successful defense and discussions around the next step for him which was to be Europe. That defense happened in York Hall on the 28th of November 1985 when he stopped John Farrell in the eighth round, from cuts.
As for glory in Europe, he was in Cosenza in February 1986 when he faced Ciro De Leva, the defending champ. Gilbody lost on points though one judge saw it as a draw, however the timekeeper was clearly asleep as many of the rounds were reportedly beyond three minutes in length giving the Italian an unfair advantage! He came back to try and win the European bantamweight title again in October of the same year when a vacant opportunity arose, and he faced Antoine Montero in Paris. This time, Gilbody was stopped in the first round.
Gilbody came home and in February of 1987, he defended his British title again, this time against Billy Hardy. In what was to be is final fight he was stopped in the third round with Hardy taking the title. He was never to fight again.
But he was not to turn his back on the sport. Ray Gilbody became a very distinguished and respected coach in the northwest of England. Like many fighters the toughness of the life and the ring had taken their toll and Gilbody was reported as saying that he was, “fed up with boxing, I had been fighting since I was 10-years old, and I had enough of being in London and away from friends and family.” Fortunately that fire returned and he gave to the young of the northwest, the same passion he had shown in the ring and which got him to represent his country as an amateur and youngster reputedly over 50 times!
Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt
