In a country where rooting for the plucky underdog is as much a part of the sporting culture as Wembley Stadium, the Lord’s Test and strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, the record of British boxer Peter Buckley takes some beating.
Or perhaps that should be losing.
Yesterday, Buckley was due to step into the ring in Birmingham, central England, for the 300th bout of a professional career that has witnessed 256 defeats.
Buckley, who hasn’t won for five years, a sequence encompassing 88 straight fights, has managed to earn a living as an opponent for rising stars.
In all, 42 future world, European, British and Commonwealth champions have defeated Buckley on the way to taking titles.
But after years of being the equivalent of a “human punchbag,” the 39-year-old Englishman has, not unreasonably, decided to hang up his gloves.
“I’ve had my eye on the 300 mark for a while, and it’s a little milestone I want to achieve, but I don’t want to fight on,” Buckley told the Times newspaper on Wednesday. “People keep saying to me that I’ll get a call in a few weeks’ time offering me a fight and I’ll say yes, but I mean it when I say this is it.”
Given his record, it is tempting to ask why the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), the governing body for the professional sport in the UK, has not revoked his licence.
After all, were he to be seriously injured his whole career would provide those who want boxing banned, such as the British Medical Association, with easy publicity for their cause.
However, given that Buckley has repeatedly passed BBBC medical tests, the Board has been powerless to prevent him continuing his career. Had they tried to ban him in those circumstances they might well have faced legal action for restraint of trade.
Buckley was not always regarded as fodder for talented opponents. In the early 1990s the super-featherweight won the English Midlands area title.
However, he then found he could make more money as an opponent for those on their way to greater things. Buckley rarely won, but he rarely got badly beaten up either. But with the passing of time and the slowing of his reflexes, he has become easier to hit.
Unlike those tilting at world championships, who go to training camps for weeks or even months, Buckley has been known to agree to a contest just hours before the opening bell.
“I’m always in the gym, so if I get a call a couple of hours before a fight, I usually say yes,” he said. “If you phone up a bricklayer and ask him to build you a wall, he doesn’t ask for three weeks to prepare.”
And whatever else Buckley wants, it’s certainly not pity.
“Boxing has been good to me over the years. When I was a youngster I was in trouble with the police, a really wild kid. But the sport has given me a focus in life,” he said.
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