A Boxing Memory: Tony Sibson

A Boxing Memory: Tony Sibson

It was in many ways the way his career was always seemingly destined to end. A love-hate relationship with boxing did seem to indicate the end would come when the body and mind would finally give in to the inevitable. Tony Sibson was still in his twenties when the final bell chimed. A young man. An old fighter.

“I just melted away after the 8th round,” Sibson would say after his final fight predictably ended in defeat. His third challenge for a work title had ended like the previous two. Three times, he had failed to climb the summit of the sport that had tested many things in its twelve year existence.

The professional career started in 1976 with a 2nd round stoppage of one Charlie Richardson and ended when the American Frank Tate ended everything in 1988.

The build-up to the fight with Tate had been problematic. The IBF middleweight title was on the line, and arguments had raged over if the fight should be twelve or fifteen rounds. The fight was in real danger of being called off until the IBF had to give way and concede after a court hearing the day before the fight ruled in favour of the British Boxing Board of Control who had abandoned the traditional in favour of improved safety.

The troubled soul of Sibson would have been further tested by the political shenanigans going on in the background, even more so with the ongoing issues in his mind from his previous team. The end had been coming for quite some time. Tate just delivered the final blow when he stopped Sibson in the 10th round. Despite fleeting thoughts of a return, Sibson wisely never fought again.

Sibson never really recovered after Marvelous Marvin Hagler ended his maiden attempt at world glory in 1983. There were flashes of a new dawn. The comeback fight after Hagler when he smashed the unbeaten John Collins to a sensational two round defeat in Atlantic City. The victory over Brian Anderson in 1987, a win that earned him the Lonsdale Belt outright, was a gentle reminder of past glories. It offered hope that Sibson could finally win a version of a world title. But his time had gone.

The fight with Tate and his ill-advised attempt at the WBC light-heavyweight in 1986 against Dennis Andries were frustrating affairs. Fights that Sibson was fighting himself as much as the men in front of him.

The momentum of his impressive win over Collins, the supposed next big thing in the middleweight ranks, was almost immediately undone by losing an up and down thriller to the dangerous American Don Lee. Sibson was dealing with illness leading up to the fight and should have pulled out. The loss to Lee was a big setback, and despite a good win over Mark Kaylor in a triple-title domestic showdown, the remainder of his career flattered to deceive.

The early stages of the boxing career of Tony Sibson had blemishes. Lotte Mwale stopped and knocked Sibson unconscious inside a round in 1978 in a senseless fight made at light-heavyweight and a further defeat to Eddie Smith the same year further derailed the early signs of progress. The defeat to the capable Smith was avoidable. He’d gone on holiday to Corfu and came back overweight. Sibson called it an embarrassment. But two fights later, the Leicester fighter got his revenge over Smith and that led to a late call up to fight for the vacant British middleweight title against the unpredictable wild man Frankie Lucas at the Royal Albert Hall in 1979.

Sibson was the underdog, but he overcame some difficult moments to stop the talented but erratic Lucas to claim the prestigious British title. Kevin Finnegan knew a little too much for Sibson and took away his British bauble by the narrowest of margins. But Sibson wouldn’t lose again for another four years and added the Commonwealth and European titles to his name. A win over Alan Minter in 1981 gave Sibson a signature victory on his resume, and when he beat the top-ranked American Dwight Davison the following year, a world title opportunity against the fearsome Hagler was very much on the horizon.

Sibson went to Worcester, Massachusetts on a blizzard hit night in 1983 and probably caught Hagler on his finest ever night and was stopped in six largely one-sided rounds. The British challenger was incredibly brave, but it was a fight that demonstrated levels.

Hagler said: “I was just dipping into my toolbox. I was enjoying my work.”

Harry Mullan reporting for Boxing News said, ‘Hagler’s performance was quite flawless. It was cold, ruthless perfection.’

Sibson battled on after his night of education with Hagler, but he was battling issues outside of the ring as much as any opponent. He always thought he was being short-changed. Sibson attracted a large vocal following and resented that he wasn’t offered a bigger slice of the pie. At the tail end of his career, Sibson left his manager Sam Burns and the Mickey Duff cartel connections to sign with Frank Warren. But enough of the fire had left his body, and the fights with Andries and Lee were sad affairs that had little resemblance to the Sibson of old.

But as ever, you should remember the prime and not the decline. At his best, Sibson was some fighter who sadly just fell short at world level. Far lesser fighters than Sibson would leave the sport calling themselves a world champion. In another era, Sibson would have done the same.

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