Ground Breaking Boxers

Jimmy Price

Locally born Jimmy Price began his amateur boxing career at the York House Youth Club in the mid 1970’s. He then moved to Wavertree and Golden Gloves amateur boxing clubs, before moving to Holy Name ABC, where he established himself as middleweight of international standing. He fought in both the ABA and NABC tournaments reaching the quarterfinals, and after reaching the ABA semi-finals in 1979, he went onto the win the light middleweight title at Wembley in 1980. Astonishingly, despite this victory, Jimmy was not considered good enough, as it was the loser of this bout, Nick Wiltshire, who was selected ahead of Jimmy to represent England at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. This astonishment was justified when at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Jimmy Price knocked out Doug Sam to bring home the Gold medal. In addition to gaining another middleweight ABA title this endorsed his position as the country’s top middleweight of considerable international standing. Not to risk the real possibility of a repeat of the Moscow debacle, in 1984, Jimmy decided to turn professional, rather than wait for the England Boxing team selection of 1984 for the Las Angeles Olympics. Fighting under Frank Warren’s banner, Jimmy fought an impressive 19 fights, winning 17, losing only two, between 1983 – 1986, including his British Middleweight title bid with Errol ’Bomber’ Graham. His outstanding boxing career was prematurely curtailed with an unrelated medical condition when an X- ray revealed an abnormality on a brain scan. Jimmy Price was one of the many boxing stars who emerged from the ‘South End.’ His achievements need to be recognised, respected and remembered.