Lew Yates (born June 1947 in

Sutton, St Helens Sutton is an area of St Helens, Merseyside, and Ward of the metropolitan borough of the same name. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 12,003. Historically within Lancashire, it is one of the four townships along with Ecc ...

) also known as Wild Thing, was a

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, doorman,

bareknuckle Bare-knuckle boxing (or simply bare-knuckle) is a combat sport which involves two individuals throwing punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time without any boxing gloves or other form of padding on their hands. It is a regulated ...

and unlicensed fighter and all-round hardman, associated with the fighting and criminal fraternity.

Early life

Yates was born June 1947 in Sutton, St Helens. As an

amateur boxer Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

he trained under George Gilbody Snr. and Herbie Golding. Yates once fought British boxer, Billy Aird, who was the European heavyweight champion, but Yates was disqualified for head-butting Billy. In response, he threw the referee across the ring, earning a ban from boxing.

Life

Yates has had a long career as one of the south of England's best and most feared doormen. Yates ran doors on clubs like Room at the top ( Ilford),

Stringfellows Peter James Stringfellow (17 October 1940 – 7 June 2018) was an English businessman who owned several nightclubs. Early life Stringfellow was born in the City General Hospital, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on 17 October 1940, to Elsie Bowers a ...

, (

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. Yates has made acquaintances with several infamous fighters such as Lenny McLean, Cliff Fields, drug dealer

Mickey Green Mickey Green (born 1942 in Holloway, London – 13 July 2020) was an English gangster and drug lord who had also held Irish nationality. A convicted armed robber he had allegedly been one of Britain's leading drug dealers for many years and wa ...

, great train robber, Charlie Wilson, among others.

Wild Thing vs Prettyboy

Yates heard a

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

interview with the then governor of the unlicensed fighting world, Roy "prettyboy" Shaw. Shaw challenged anyone in England to fight him. Yates intended to take the title from Shaw and, thus, moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. For the next 5 years Yates challenged Roy but Shaw's handlers did not agree to this until 1981. Yates had to raise a stake of £10,000 for the fight. He only got a few weeks to train. On the night of the fight Yates overpowered Shaw in the 2nd round. The round was ended with 1 min 12 seconds of the round left. By the end of the 3rd round Shaw appeared. The referee declared the fight in Shaw's favour, claiming that Yates' eye was too badly cut so the fight had to be terminated. Yates' fans suggest that the referee's statement was inaccurate as Yates' eye was not even bleeding. They claim that, on the night of the fight, there were at least three cameramen filming the contest yet not one copy of the fight has been found to date.

Later life

In 2007 Yates released his book ''Wild Thing: The True Story of Britain's Rightful Guv'nor'', written by Lew Yates and bestselling author,

Bernard O'Mahoney Bernard O'Mahoney (born 15 March 1960, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England) is an English author, security detail, and former soldier. After taking control of security at a nightclub he became associated with Tony Tucker, a drug dealer who was shot ...

. It was published by

Mainstream Publishing Mainstream Publishing was a publishing company in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1978, it ceased trading in December 2013.Charlotte WilliamsMainstream to cease publishing 1 March 2013, The Bookseller.com' (Retrieved 30 December 2016) It was ass ...

. Yates now lives in Ely,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

where he is a boxing and personal trainer.

References

*http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/wild-thing-by-lew-yates-1515239.html ndependent article on wild thing bookbr>amazon wild thing bookamazon new small paperback bookhttps://libraries.wiltshire.gov.uk

External links

* http://www.lewwildthingyates.co.uk * https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1436813405&v=feed&viewas=824108990 * https://web.archive.org/web/20110111110233/http://www.billyboymartindale.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Yates, Lew 1947 births Living people Sportspeople from St Helens, Merseyside Security guards