John Henry Stracey
MBE Mbe may refer to:
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Molal ...
(born 22 September 1950) is a British former
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
who competed from 1969 to 1978. He is a former
welterweight
Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...
world champion, having held the
WBC
WBC may stand for:
Business
*Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS
*Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company
*Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...
and
lineal welterweight titles between 1975 and 1976. At regional level, he held the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
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welterweight titles between 1973 and 1975, and is ranked by
BoxRec
BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing.
The objective of the site is to document every profess ...
as the 8th best British welterweight of all time.
Amateur career
Stracey competed for Great Britain as a
lightweight
Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing.
Boxing
Professional boxing
The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing.
Notable lightweight boxe ...
at the
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos OlÃmpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...
. He was defeated in the
Round of 16
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
by eventual gold medallist
Ronnie Harris.
Stracey won the 1969
ABA light-welterweight championship.
Professional career
Early career
Stracey began his professional career on 17 September 1969, knocking out Santos Martins in two rounds. Stracey won his first twelve fights, eleven by knockout, but against obscure opposition. Fight number thirteen was against Teddy Cooper, on 19 January 1971. Cooper was not a big name in boxing either, but this fight ended in controversy when Stracey won by a fifth round disqualification. On 5 October 1971 Stracey drew (tied) in ten rounds against Frankie Lewis.
Stracey produced five more wins before being matched with Marshall Butler, on 25 May 1972, at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
, suffering his first defeat after being outpointed by Butler over eight rounds. He then put a string of four more wins together, before facing
Bobby Arthur
Bobby Arthur (25 July 1947 – 27 July 2023) was a British boxer who was national welterweight champion between 1972 and 1973.
Career
From Coventry, Bobby Arthur had a successful amateur career, including representing England and winning a si ...
for the British welterweight title, on 31 October, at the Royal Albert Hall. He lost the fight with another controversial ending: This time, Stracey found himself disqualified in round seven. Stracey then won five more bouts in a row. In February 1973, Stracey traveled to the United States, were he fought Danny McAloon on the undercard of the first
Ali vs. Bugner fight, at the
Las Vegas Convention Center
The Las Vegas Convention Center (commonly referred to as LVCC) is a convention center in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
As one of the largest convention centers in the world, it h ...
, on 14 February. Stracey won the bout via unanimous decision. He then met Bobby Arthur in a rematch on 5 June, this time winning the British title with a fourth-round knockout.
[Golesworthy, Maurice (1988) ''Encyclopaedia of Boxing'', 8th edition, Robert Hale Limited, , p. 229]
Stracey vs. Menetrey
On 27 May 1974, Stracey got his chance at the European welterweight title, fighting
Roger Menetrey
Roger Menetrey (born 16 June 1945) is a retired French professional welterweight boxer. On 4 June 1971 he won the European Boxing Union (EBU) title and defended it five times. On 23 June 1973 he unsuccessfully contested the WBC title against ...
at the
Stade de Roland Garros
Stade Roland Garros (; "Roland Garros Stadium") is a complex of tennis courts, including stadiums, located in Paris that hosts the French Open. That tournament, also known as ''Roland Garros'', is a Grand Slam tennis championship played annually ...
, in
Paris, France. Stracey won via eighth-round knockout.
On 29 April 1975, he defended his European title against Max Hebeisen, at the Royal Albert Hall, winning via RTD in the sixth round.
Stracey vs. Nápoles
During the 1970s, it was a common practice to give world title shots to boxers that held continental titles. For example, the OPBF (Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation) champion would be given priority over other challengers for world title fights. Stracey was not the exception, and, after winning five more fights in a row (including a win over
Ernie Lopez
Ernie "Indian Red" Lopez (September 24, 1945 – October 3, 2009) was an American professional boxer. He twice fought for the world welterweight boxing title, losing title bouts to José Nápoles in 1970 and 1973. He was a missing person from 199 ...
), he received his first world title shot: challenging
WBC
WBC may stand for:
Business
*Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS
*Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company
*Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...
welterweight champion
José Nápoles, in Nápoles' home-town of
Mexico City, Mexico, on 6 December 1975. Stracey was sent down in round one, but he recuperated to close Nápoles' eye and have referee
Octavio Meyran
Octavio Meyran Sanchez is a Mexican former boxing referee.
During his career Meyran officiated at over twenty-seven world title fights including the No Más fight between Roberto Durán and Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980, Wilfredo Gómez's WBC Feathe ...
stop the fight in the sixth round, Stracey winning the world championship by a technical knockout.
The new champion declared, "He
ápolescould have knocked me down in every round but I'd have won it anyway". It was Nápoles' last fight.
1976
On 20 March 1976 he retained the title against perennial world title challenger
Hedgemon Lewis
Hedgemon Lewis (February 25, 1946 – March 31, 2020) was an American professional boxer and trainer. He held the NYSAC welterweight world title in 1972 and challenged for welterweight world championships on three occasions; the unified WBA, an ...
by a knockout in round ten, but on 22 June, at
Wembley, he lost the world title, being knocked out in twelve rounds by
California-based Mexican
Carlos Palomino
Carlos Palomino (born August 10, 1949) is a Mexican former professional boxer. Palomino is a former World Welterweight Champion and member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Palomino is also an actor who has been featured in several tele ...
.
In his next fight, he lost to future world title challenger
Dave Boy Green, with a badly damaged eye in round ten. Stracey retired as a winner when he knocked out George Warusfel in nine rounds in
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
on 23 May 1978.
Outside the ring
Stracey bought the Three Horseshoes pub in
Briston
Briston is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk that contains the hamlet of Briston Common. The village is east north east of the town of Fakenham, west south west of Cromer, north north west of the city ...
, Norfolk, in 1975 and renamed it the John H Stracey. In 2011 the pub reverted to its original name. He also had, at one point, a boxing school in London.
John also had a bar in Bournemouth called The Ring Side.
Professional boxing record
See also
*
List of world welterweight boxing champions
*
List of British world boxing champions
This is a list of British boxers who have won a world championship by one of the four major sanctioning organisations–the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Or ...
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stracey, John H.
1950 births
Living people
English male boxers
Boxers from Greater London
People from Bethnal Green
Sportspeople from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
People from North Norfolk (district)
Sportspeople from Norfolk
Olympic boxers for Great Britain
Boxers at the 1968 Summer Olympics
England Boxing champions
British Boxing Board of Control champions
European Boxing Union champions
World Boxing Council champions
The Ring (magazine) champions
Welterweight boxers
World welterweight boxing champions