Watt & Buchanan look back on their '73 lightweight clash

[Wheelchair]

Scottish boxing legends Jim Watt and Ken Buchanan reunited in Glasgow to pay tribute to the St Andrew’s Sporting Club, which hosted their lightweight clash in 1973. Celebrating its 300th show in the city in March, Watt and Buchanan used the opportunity to look back on their famous bout.

 

Watt was the reigning British champion and looking to add the scalp of his Edinburgh rival to propel him to European and world title success. Meanwhile Buchanan needed to get his career back on track after losing his WBC world lightweight title to the great Roberto Duran seven months earlier at Madison Square Garden in New York.

 

Not only were both fighters desperate to win, but with Buchanan coming from Edinburgh and Watt fighting in his home city of Glasgow, the domestic rivalry ensured the both fighters would have the weight of their respective cities on their shoulders.

 

“You had Glasgow and Edinburgh first of all. There has always been a rivalry between the two cities – Edinburgh is the capital, but Glasgow has the capital,” joked the 61-year-old Watt.

 

Buchanan, who was fighting for the first time in Glasgow in what was his 47th fight, added: “It was a hard fight for the two of us, because both of us were wanting to win. [Watt] was wanting to win for the west and I was wanting to win for the east.”

 

In the end it was the east who won on January 29 when Buchanan was awarded the victory on points after a gruelling and brutal 15 rounds. Buchanan emerged from the bout with the British title and went on to become European champion shortly after, but failed in his attempt to regain his world championship.

 

For Watt however, his career was just getting started. The Glaswegian bounced back from his defeat to the man he considered “the second best lightweight in the world after Duran”. Watt went on to regain the British title, win the European crown and eventually become the world lightweight champion in 1979 thanks to a 12th round technical knockout of Alfredo Pitalua.

 

Watt, who reigned as lightweight champion until June 1981 before losing to the late Alexis Arguello, never forgot the lesson learned from his defeat to Buchanan.

 

“All I’ve got to say to Kenny is thank you for knocking lumps out of me. It did me good in the long run,” he said.

 

The achievements of two of Scotland’s greatest masters of the sweet science put the country on the map for a period in the boxing world - after a downward slide since Benny Lynch lost his world flyweight title in 1938 – but Watt maintained that the significance of winning a title in his day was a far cry from what is considered a world title in the sport today.

 

“It was a different time back then, it was far more difficult to win world title back when Ken and I did it. It is far easier today simply because there are so many versions of the world championships.

 

“There will be world champions [from Scotland], but we’ll never have a wealth of top class talent again.”

 

 

http://sport.stv.tv/boxing/157203-world-champions-reunite-37-years-after-lightweight-clash/ (click for video)