JOEY SINGLETON was the primary man to win the Lonsdale belt outright at light-welterweight. Now often called super-lightweight, this division was filled with expertise through the Nineteen Seventies after it had been revived in 1973. The division had a quick incarnation within the late Nineteen Sixties when it was often called junior welterweight. Males boxing at 10 stone have, subsequently, held titles in a weight division that has been identified by three completely different names since 1967.
Singleton got here from Kirkby, to the North of Liverpool, the identical place that had produced the nice John Conteh. Joey was an excellent beginner, as most experts had been at the moment, profitable the ABA light-weight title in 1971 whereas boxing for Kirkby BC. That yr, three boxers from this membership boxed within the finals, for in addition to Singleton and Conteh, Tony Byrne competed at middleweight, dropping out to a younger Alan Minter.
In 1973, each Singleton and Byrne turned over, signing for Charlie Atkinson, the main supervisor in Liverpool on the time. Atkinson had massive plans for Liverpool Stadium, a venue that had not hosted an expert boxing event for almost 5 years. In September 1973, he ran his first present on the Stadium with each Singleton and Byrne that includes. Each received, and Joey was significantly spectacular in profitable nearly each spherical towards Jess Harper to select up the Central Space light-weight title in solely his third skilled contest.
A reduce eye loss to Coventry’s Jim Montague later that yr didn’t derail his plans and in 1974 he featured in two vital contests. He knocked out Jim Melrose on the stadium in solely two rounds to win a British light-welterweight title eliminator after which, on the similar venue 11 weeks later, he outpointed Pat McCormack to win the British title.
Beneath the headline ‘Joey the Champ’, BN reported that: “Talent and subtlety overcame energy and slugging as 23-year-old Joey Singleton outscored Pat McCormack to grow to be Britain’s new light-welterweight champion in a memorable 15-rounder on the Stadium. Native favorite Singleton was floored within the first spherical and appeared on the sting of defeat. However he pulled himself collectively and ignored bruised fingers to achieve a stirring victory in solely his eighth skilled battle.” By the top of the bout, Joey was effectively forward and he had overwhelmed an actual exhausting man in McCormack.
The next yr two extra victories earned him the belt outright. He had appeared out of kinds when beating Peckham’s Alan Salter in a non-title 10-rounder on the Royal Albert Corridor in June 1975 however, when the pair met once more for the title in October, Joey actually turned it on, hammering the Londoner in 9 rounds in a convincing show. Six weeks later, Joey made the belt his personal by profitable a 15-round determination over Des Morrison, a former champion on the weight, at Belle Vue, Manchester.
Sadly for Singleton, an up-and-coming lad from the Fens was actually making a reputation for himself by 1976 and, when Dave Boy Inexperienced (pictured, beneath proper) met Joey for the title on 1 June 1976, the Royal Albert Corridor crowd noticed the start of a brand new star. Singleton was slowly dismantled by the ‘Fen Tiger’ with BN stating that Singleton was courageous in defeat, going out like a champion.
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Joey’s profession by no means fairly hit the heights after that, he misplaced three British title eliminators, towards Charlie Nash, Des Morrison and Kirkland Lang. He boxed up and down the nation in good high quality eight-rounders towards the likes of George Turpin, Colin Powers, Tommy Glencross, George McGurk and Terry Petersen, after which in 1980 he received the Central Space welterweight title earlier than dropping to the Dane, Jorgen Hansen, in a contest for the European welterweight title.
Joey was a nice instance of the kind of fighter who abounded within the Nineteen Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties, and when he packed it in 1982 it was with a file of 27 wins from 40 hard-fought contests. He deserves to be remembered as certainly one of Liverpool’s best.
