BARTLEY GORMANBartley Gorman, the most famous bareknuckle boxer of modern times, died on 18 January, 2002, aged 57.
During his heyday he reigned supreme in the world of illegal gypsy boxing. He was the undefeated Bareknuckle Champion of Great Britain & Ireland between 1972 and 1992.
His fame was such that world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali even came to hear of his exploits and once sparred with him.
Ali was one of the bareknuckle fighter’s heroes and he based much of his fighting techniques on the boxing skills of "The Greatest."
Also known as the King of the Gypsies, Bartley Gorman was both feared and respected by his peers. He was born on 1 March, 1944 in Giltbrook, Nottinghamshire, to Samuel and Katy Gorman, who later moved to Bedworth, near Coventry, so that their children could attend school.
Samuel Gorman was a religious, law-abiding man who did not fight. However, Bartley was very proud of his gypsy heritage and fighting was a tradition – it was also in his blood.
His great-grandfather, Boxing Bartley, was an Irish bareknuckle champion in the 19th century, and his grandfather, Bulldog Bartley, was also an unbeaten bareknuckle boxer.
The traumatic experience of seeing his uncle killed with one punch by a showman when he was just nine years old failed to deter him from following in his ancestors’ footsteps.
Fighting came naturally to the red-haired youngster, and he grew up to be a fierce opponent. At 6ft 1 ins tall and weighing in at 15 and a half stone, he was formidable.
Wherever travelling men met and brawled, Bartley Gorman was there, and not one boxer could beat him. Travellers would gamble thousands of pounds on his fights, but for him it was not about money – he prided himself on boxing for honour.
These prize fights were held in a variety of places to avoid the attention of the police. On one occasion he even fought a man at the bottom of a mineshaft in Derbyshire.
On St Leger Day in 1976, he was nearly killed by an armed mob near Doncaster Racecourse after he had turned up to fight a challenger to his title. He was later told the mob had been paid £25,000 to attack him. It took him more than a year to regain his fitness and he was scarred for life.
Although Bartley Gorman was proud of his boxing prowess, he had a sensitive side and in later years came to regret the violent life he had led. In his retirement he settled on the outskirts of Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, where he built his own house and the town honoured him by putting his name on its Millennium monument.
Peter Walsh, who helped him write his memoirs, said: "He was a unique man, a one-off. He was a lovely man with a wicked sense of humour but a streak of melancholy that never left him."
Bartley Gorman was diagnosed with liver cancer, a disease that had struck down his father, brother and uncle, in the autumn of 2001. To the end he was a fighter, flying to Germany for alternative treatment. But it was in vain and he died shortly afterwards at a hospice in Derby.
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