Lenny McLean Meets Bare Knuckle Fighting At 26, McClean entered the world of bare knuckle fighting. Lenny McLean is a famous English boxer. Lenny McLean is the stuff of legend and although he was a skilled boxer, theres also undoubtedly a lot of gossip and hysteria that follows him. His most famous bout was against George 'Pappy' Langley. This was another first round stoppage. Sadly, well never know the truth though as only Lenny himself would truly know. Roy Shaw had fought in a number of bare-knuckle fights with gypsies and became known as the "unofficial heavyweight champ" and "the hardest man in Britain." I can quite believe he has but it will be about flower arranging or fashion ignorance or nom de plumes or imaginary culinary achievements. Lenny was the proverbial carthorse and Mike is the thorough bred racehorse Lenny has to chase. The kind that leave you scarred internally and externally. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. how tall was roy pretty boy'' shaw how tall was roy pretty boy'' shaw Thousand. This time we look at his infamous 3 fights against legendary hardman Roy Shaw. A third match was scheduled to bring these two powerhouses together yet again. During his teenage years, McLean mixed with various local criminals. Yet fighting was their stock in trade, and recreational pastime, and both men odd jobbed as nightclub bouncers, debt collectors and mob enforcers. [21], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Lenny McLean vs. Roy Shaw: Battle of the Guv'nors", "Berlin: Bare Knuckle Fight Tale 'The Guv'nor' in the Works (EXCLUSIVE)", "How Lenny McLean became the hardest man in Britain", "Lenny 'The Guv'nor' McClean 'treated kindness with kindness and violence with extreme violence', "Daughter of 'UK's toughest' reveals why he suffered violent rages", "Novel lifts the lid on secrets of gangland", "Bare-knuckle fighter enters bestseller lists", "The Guv'nor: Lenny McLean: 9781857824575", "The Guv'nor Through the Eyes of Others: Anthony Thomas: 9781844544752", "The Guv'nor review unsettling hardman documentary", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lenny_McLean&oldid=1132332422, This page was last edited on 8 January 2023, at 11:01. It was box on time and Shaw was still game for the ruck. Challenges which were given out to boxers like ex pro Heavyweight Danny McCalinden and unlicensed fighter Harry Starbuck came unanswered. McLean was declared the winner and he shouted out into the crowd of cockney punters, "I'm the Guv'nor!" As a nearly unconscious Shaw was helped to his feet,Mclean could be heard shouting from the ring, Im the Guvnor!. At the time, McLean claimed that his gloves had been tampered with (as he also fought with boxing gloves too) and demanded a rematch. [2], In his later life, McLean became an actor, and received praise for playing Barry the Baptist in Guy Ritchie's 1998 gangster comedy film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Lenny 'Boy' McLean certainly looked the part of an indestructible fighting machine. He starred in Guy Ritchies 1998 crime thriller Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, cementing his status as a legendary figure. Johnny Waldron (born East Grinstead, Sussex, on 11 January 1954), also known as "Big Bad" Johnny Waldron, was a Light Heavyweight professional boxer based in Great Britain and Germany during the 1970s and early 1980s. It was in 1992 while working at the Hippodrome club that Lenny would get arrested for assault. With multiple convictions between them, they were too dodgy to get a boxing license and fought in bare-knuckle bouts, and unaffiliated (unlicensed) matches, not heavily regulated like the ones staged by the British Board of Boxing Control. [17] In 2001, Gerrard authored another book about McLean, titled The Guv'nor: A Celebration. According to his autobiography, McLean had fought in bare knuckle boxing bouts for over 30 years (he was 49 when he died so this is entirely plausible). Yet it was in this smoked filled world of "unaffiliated boxing" that the two thugs would meet and play sportsmen. At this point of the Round 1 demolition job on Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw, a man who had entered the ring some fifty seconds earlier as the odds-on favorite to win, the Referee stepped in. Lenny Mclean wouldn't come into it because he was knocked spark out by Cliff twice! After being refused a boxing license by the British Boxing Board of Control, on the grounds of his damaged eye, he turned to unlicensed boxing where he famously twice encountered . It was agritty, bleak landscape of factories, poverty and a strong sense of community. Despite clocking Adams with the very first punch of the match, Shaw pulled him up to knock him out (again) and stomp on his head. A feeling that were invincible. In the old days, barehanded or gloved up, working class Englishmen settled their differences with their fists. He used to say he'd had 3,000 fights, which was crap. Sometimes the abuse was mental, and sometimes it involved belts, but it always involved fists. [15] McLean admitted to "giving him a backhander." Lenny McLean was known as the hardest man in Britain, Lenny became a cult figure during his life and known as Britain's hardest man, Lenny was not allowed to be a licenced boxer due to his violent past but Frank Warren's National Boxing Council offered him the chance to fight, Lenny's violent childhood led to him rubbing shoulders with organised crime, 'Britain's hardest man' was 20st, had '3,000' boxing fights and worked with the Krays, 'Lady in the lake' killer jailed for gagging and murdering woman 35 years ago, Tory police minister slaps down chief's plea for cops to spare shoplifters stealing to eat. In fact, McLean is so liberal with the nut that he makes Evander Holyfield look like a choirboy. Thankfully, there is footage of McLean around and you can tell that he has good fundamental boxing skills. Lenny McLean was one of the deadliest bare-knuckle fighters Britain has ever seen, with over 3000 fights on the cobbles, he was often referred to as the toughest man alive. Lenny Mclean is back. McLean's first unlicensed boxing match came about as a result of a chance meeting while in his late teens: when his car broke down in the Blackwall Tunnel he abandoned it and went to buy a replacement from an associate known as Kenny Mac, a gypsy used-car salesman in Kingsland Road, Hackney, only to find the replacement quickly failed too. In the 1990s he found fame as an actor and stole the show in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels before succumbing to lung cancer and dying in 1998. It was during this time that he reportedly met and befriended the Kray twins. McLean declined to fight Pearce, he later commented that was the only time in his career he had doubts.[11]. I hear a lot of people say that lenny mclean would beat mike tyson in a street fight but how. He wrote: "A week before the off, Sykes went into a club in Wakefield where he lives, got well p***** and had a ruck with four doormen. The nightspot was sold out and packed to the rafters with gilt-edged hoods and wideboy punters. Mclean retired from unlicensed boxing in 1986 and made a new rep as "King of the Bouncers," scaring a generation of club goers during his stint as a doorman at the Camden Palace and Hippodrome nightclubs in London. Lenny 'The Guv'nor' McLean was known as 'The hardest man in Britain' during his days as a bare-knuckle fighter, and he demonstrated exactly why during one of his most notorious fights, vs. Brian 'The Mad Gypsy' Bradshaw in 1986. His father, Leonard John McLean Sr., had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease which he contracted in India, he became a petty criminal and swindler. Cliff Fields Knocked him out twice in the first round as did Johnny Waldron, Roy Shaw also stopped him . At one point, McCleans uncle Jimmy Spinks, the local tough guy and enforcer for the neighborhood bookies, had had enough. It takes a tough man to tackle these questions, and the younger Lenny McLean certainly lives up to the name he bears. Theres no shame in this but the fact that McLean never went professional is quite telling. They had flocked to the bout via word of mouth down the pub, and articles in the UK tabloid press, and bet big on Shaw mugging McLean just like the first time. McLean was arrested for the murder of Humphries. The end result of the abuse was a welling hate that grew inside the young lad. In the red corner, grunting like Guy the Gorilla on loan from London Zoo was Lenny McLean. Forty-one year old Shaw, the smaller of this gruesome twosome, was supposed to be the better boxer. Lenny grew up in the London neighbourhood in the 1950s when it was one of the most deprived areas of the city. Throughout his life, Lenny has been shot twice, once in the arse, stabbed in the leg, broken nose four times and broken hands fifteen times. He was known as "The Guv'nor", "the King of the Cobbles" and "the hardest man in Britain". Remember, this post is purely an opinion and everyone is different. Kevin had beaten Lenny Mclean on points and was a good defensive fighter. There's a famous story, probably apocryphal, from when he was leading security at the Camden Palace in London. Your email address will not be published. His portrayal of Barry The Baptist in Lock, Stock and Two Smokin' Barrels is probably one of the most iconic characters of the passed thirty years of cinema. After receivinga vicious beating at the hands of Spinks for the pain he was inflicting on his family, Irwin disappeared for several years. a4 certificate sized. Joined: Mar 19, 2010 The bell clanged and Shaw came storming came out of the trenches with left hooks galore. I knocked out the unbeaten Harry Starbuck in the first, Lou 'wild thing' Yates in three. LennyMcLean was raised in the East End of London in the years following World War II. However, the truth maybe stranger than fiction. After the death of McLeans father when Lenny was only 4, aviciously abusive stepfather Jim Irwinturned on the young boy and his four siblings. Lenny McLean was one of the deadliest bareknuckle Even crazier, had he participated in 4000 fights, this would have meant hed have fought once every 2-3 days on a weekly basis for 30 years. Paperback - January 1, 2003. She told The Mirror in 2018: There were times I hated him and I looked at him like he was a bully. Lenny Mclean, the greatest bare-knuckle street fighter of them all. After serving 18 months in prison, Lenny was sacked from his job after beating up his boss on a construction site. But when Frank Warren's National Boxing Council formed in 1970 it offered underground fighters in Britain the chance to step foot inside the rink. He was uneducated and a product of his upbringing, traumatised by what hed been through, and probably had mental health problems as a result of all that. It wasnt until 1978 that Lenny would prove he was The Guvnor. This comment was left automatically (by a bot). It could have been so different for Roy Shaw. Because of this, you will always find certain people claiming they were the best or exaggerated records. JavaScript is disabled. He was known to have lost several fights, although he always maintained that he had never lost a fight "on the cobbles" or outside the ring. The 20-stone tough nut had thousands of unlicensed boxing fights in his life and befriended the fearsome Kray twins. Lenny couldnt escape the law forever and as a teenager he was caught and arrested for petty crimes, serving 18 months inside. McLean travelled to Hollywood to discuss the matter with film studio executives, but their preference for Sylvester Stallone for the part caused McLean to discontinue negotiations. They later had two children, a son named Jamie and a daughter named Kelly. . We love Martial Arts. 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