Ground Breaking Boxers

Kid and Allen Tanner

Standing on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before them, the famous Tanner brothers, Kid and Allan made their name in some memorable contests both here in Liverpool and their birthplace Demerara (Guyana), throughout a twenty two year period from Kid, in 1933, till Allen hung up his gloves in 1955. Following a distinguished boxing career in Demerara, on 19th July 1937, Kid Tanner sailed for England. His first fight was promoted and managed by the famous Johnny Best, which he won by knocking out top ranked British flyweight champion, Kevin Barrett in the seventh round. During this period, he defeated top class fighters, including world title holders. It must be remembered that boxing is a tough and brutal sport but black boxers based in Liverpool faced additional handicaps in the form of blatant racism discrimination and bigotry, that was altogether too prevalent in British social, cultural and sporting circles. Following a successful bout against former world champion, Jackie Brown, it was remarked that upon beating British white boxers, ‘he was to dark and could not be seen.’ Subsequently, he was forced to wear white gloves, perhaps the only boxer in the world to do so, at that time.