CHRIS FINNEGANBoxer Chris Finnegan, who won Olympic gold in 1968, died on 2 March, 2009, aged 64.He was a 24-year-old bricklayer from Buckinghamshire when he made his first trip outside Europe to the Mexico Olympics where he beat Aleksey Kisselyov of the Soviet Union to take the middleweight title and the gold medal.He turned professional soon afterwards and moved up to light-heavyweight. He went on to take the British, Commonwealth and European titles but failed to take the world crown despite an heroic effort against champion Bob Foster over 14 rounds at Wembley.He was born on 5 June, 1944. His brother Kevin, a former British middleweight champion, died in October 2008 aged 60.Chris Finnegan retired in 1975 after an eye operation.BBC Radio 5 Live boxing correspondent Mike Costello said: "It was a very different boxing game in 1972 and there were fewer opportunities to win, or even challenge, for world titles."The one opportunity he got he had the misfortune to come up against Foster at Wembley. He lost in the 14th round, but such was his struggle it was voted fight of the year by Ring Magazine."He very nearly got there and it's not stretching it to say that were he around today, boxing in this era, he probably would have been a world champion."
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