For individuals who had by no means seen Johnny Owen carry out, the impossibly skinny and impossibly pale man who made his strategy to the ring within the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles didn’t seem to pose a lot risk. Provided that his opponent was the hard-hitting, extra robustly-built bantamweight world champion Lupe Pintor, the Welshman appeared particularly outmatched. However Pintor vs Owen defied expectations. Certainly, few might have predicted the younger Welshman’s astonishing toughness; fewer nonetheless might have foreseen the terrible penalties of that toughness.
Courageous Johnny Owen, after giving Pintor certainly one of his most grueling battles, was knocked out within the twelfth spherical. He lapsed right into a coma and a few six weeks later, he died. He was solely 24.
Hailing from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, Owen was nicknamed “The Merthyr Matchstick” on account of his slender body. After a stellar beginner profession, he had captured the Welsh belt, adopted by the British, Commonwealth and European titles. He had misplaced simply as soon as in 27 professional bouts, the sufferer of an egregious hometown choice towards Juan Francisco Rodriguez in Almeria. After that combat, the Spanish authorities held again the Matchstick’s purse, that means that he went dwelling, fairly actually, empty-handed. This wrestle, towards the disadvantages inherent to a person modest in each background and manner, was to mark his profession. However the backside line was that nobody ought to have doubted his having earned the prospect to problem Pintor for a world title.
However Lupe Pintor hadn’t come up the simple manner both. Hardened by a tough childhood in Mexico Metropolis, he had turned to boxing as a way to push back the bigger boys who bullied him. He ran away from an abusive father, selecting the streets and fascinating in fight, each licensed and unlicensed, as he sought to flee poverty. Turning professional whereas nonetheless a youngster, he rose up the ranks earlier than securing a title problem towards the legendary Carlos Zarate in June 1979. Pintor edged a controversial cut up choice, however the methodology of victory was irrelevant: he was now a world champion.
Quick ahead fifteen months and Pintor vs Owen was the principle occasion for an overflow crowd and whereas the title-holder could have been from Mexico, the dominant Hispanic contingent of town handled him as if he had been certainly one of their very own. In contrast, Johnny Owen and his staff, together with his father Dick, had been jeered at and pelted with garbage from the stands as they entered the venue.
However within the first few rounds, the slim Welshman shocked the gang by bringing the combat to the heavy-handed Pintor, aggressively pursuing and out-working him. Given his benefits in peak and attain, most anticipated him to attempt to out-box the Mexican, however as a substitute Owen initiated a fast-paced slugfest. Within the fifth, the gutsy challenger reduce his opponent over each eyes, although he himself sustained a nasty gash on his lip, inflicting him to swallow a major quantity of his personal blood.
Pintor got here again within the sixth, throwing hooks and uppercuts with malicious intent, and whereas the indomitable Owen maintained his personal excessive output, none of his blows carried the Mexican’s damaging energy. The champion scored with heavy proper fingers within the early a part of spherical seven, prompting joyful chants and firecrackers from the gang, however Owen, undaunted, simply saved coming ahead and throwing leather-based. And within the eighth it was extra of the identical, toe-to-toe warfare, with Pintor touchdown the extra telling photographs, however Owen refusing to take a backward step.
Then, within the ninth, the start of the top. Seemingly main on the scorecards at this level, Owen was now clearly slowing down and a vicious proper hand put him on the canvas on the finish of the spherical, the primary knockdown of his skilled profession. His delight drove him to rise instantly, somewhat than take the rely and provides himself time to recuperate.
Having been saved by the bell, Owen fought on, insisting to the daddy who educated him that he couldn’t stop now that he was so near successful a world title. Pintor proceeded to stalk the challenger, raining down exhausting proper fingers and concentrating on his badly-marked face. Owen was knocked down twice extra within the twelfth, first by a straight proper after which by a brief proper hook. That blow was the final motion of the combat and could be one of the haunting punches ever caught on movie. Watching it now, Owen crumples, nearly in slow-motion, earlier than reaching the canvas. One modern author claimed that the Welshman fell like “a marionette that had had its strings reduce.”
Each fighters had been picked up after the ultimate bell. The champion hoisted onto the shoulders of his staff and paraded across the ring. The challenger was ultimately lifted onto a stretcher, which had not been available, then carried out of the auditorium. As Owen’s entourage frantically rushed via enemy territory, some members of the frenzied crowd lobbed down particles. A number of members of Owen’s staff had their pockets picked and opportunistic thieves stole nook tools and provides, rendering a troubling scene even uglier.
Owen had two mind operations and spent a month and a half on life assist earlier than he handed away on November fourth, having contracted pneumonia in hospital. It was later found he had an abnormally fragile cranium, an affliction which might solely have exacerbated Pintor’s harmful blows. His funeral introduced 1000’s of mourners, lots of whom knew him, others who had solely watched his brilliance from afar. Boxing reporters centered afterwards on Owen’s shy character as a lot as his pugilistic expertise. For Hugh McIlvanney, it was a poignant irony that this “inaudible and nearly invisible [man] … discovered himself articulate in such a harmful language.”
Pintor was left distraught by the combat’s consequence, just for the Owen household to encourage him to maintain boxing. In any case, they mentioned, it might at all times have been the opposite manner spherical. The Mexican champion went on to retain his title one month after his opponent’s demise and competed till 1995.
A statue of Johnny Owen was erected in Merthyr Tydfil in 2002. It was unveiled by Lupe Pintor. — Rob Lownie
