Low life
Hampstead kid
Jeffrey Bernard
caught up with him.
Yes, some fighters are given strange nicknames by their managers and the press. In 1956 I feigned flu and took the night off from the Globe Theatre where I was working as a stagehand to go to Haringey to see Ezzard Charles the Cinci- natti Cobra fight our Dick Richardson. He got disqualified for 'not trying', would you believe. To make things worse the next day someone grassed on me to the stage carpenter and I got the sack. All for five minutes of nowt. Then there was Al Phillips, known as the Aldgate Tiger. He had a good trick. When he saw a body punch coming in his direction he would stand on his toes and claim a low blow. He never paid me a penny for sparring with him although he did once dig deep to buy me a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich at the bar in Alf Klein's clapped-out gym in Fitzroy Square.
All of this had me flicking through the Ring Record Book and back into the past. There's some strange stuff in that book. Did you know that there was once an American welterweight called Bruce 'The Mouse' Strauss? Neither did I. It is also very important to all concerned to know where a boxer comes from, hence Billy Conn was known as the Pittsburgh Kid. One day in 1950 my manager asked me where I was born and I told him Hamp- stead. I thought he was trying to make polite conversation. Then, shortly after, to my horror and embarrassment I saw the word Hampstead under my name on a boxing bill. I ask you, Hampstead. No one is actually going to break out in a sweat faced by the Hampstead Kid. You wouldn't, I think, be very nervous going in with the Haslemere Assassin either, never mind the Chalfont St Peters Lion.
The best billing I ever saw a copy of was one that featured Fred Apostoli who won the middleweight championship of the world in 1937. It said, 'Fred Apostoli, the Fargo Express. Often Derailed But Never Stopped.' Some of them lived up to their tags though. Tony Zale was the Man of Steel because he came from the steel town of Gary, Indiana. But he was steel. Tem- pered steel. Where are they now, as they ask in the features room when they are desperate for something to write about?
Yes, where are they now? One hears sad things about Muhammad Ali cruising around Louisville in the hope of being stopped for an autograph by a fan and some people say he is on his uppers having been conned for most of his money by the Muslims. But I spoke to Henry Cooper recently and he said that Ali is not punchy and is pretty well-heeled. So what will become of Mike Tyson, still only 20 years old and on his way to earning something in the region of $50 million, if he does not run out of challengers? I'd fight him for a million but they don't allow you to smoke and drink in intensive care and it is very difficult to get served in a coffin.
And what did become of the Kid from Hampstead? Well there was never ever much hope for him. You must never trust a boxer who while doing roadwork on Hampstead Heath stops for the one at Jack Straw's Castle and who then ponders the future with a Capstan Full Strength. This week, according to the Times, a German boxer had to pull out of a European title fight because of injuries he sustained in a fight with his girlfriend. I would very much like to meet her. She is probably called Margaret.
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