I have known Johnny for many years through the fight game and Fight Times magazine.
We both share an interest in unlicensed boxing and bare knuckle fighting and have mutual fighter friends from days gone by that were ferocious fighters and renowned for their fighting prowess.
In the closed shop world that bare knuckle fighting used to be, you would be surprised how a handy fighter from one country could be known on the other side of the world by hard fighters from their country.
Johnny and I through our involvement in prize fighting and other forms of pugilism have known some very tough and uncompromising fighters and while exact details and outcomes of some very tough fights may never be told, I am pleased to write the following insight into our own Johnny Lloyd, a Kiwi that pursued the challenges and excitement of amateur, professional and unlicensed fighting in New Zealand, across the Tasman and all the way to the United Kingdom. This is testament to his tenacity and love of the fight game.
Johnny Lloyd was born February 15, 1945 in New Zealand and boxed as an amateur out of Waikato in the welterweight division having some 30 fights.
His next stop was Australia, where he had 19 pro fights and worked on the waterfront, including being in the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union.
Johnny got this job through his boxing as he knew George Fleming, a former Aussie champ that was in the Dockers union and worked on the waterfront.
He had 110 fights at both Jimmy Sharman’s promotions in Queensland and Harry Paulsen’s promotions in Tasmania.
The only tent fighting still going in Australia today is Fred Brophy’s Troupe.
Johnny had his share of street fights especially when working on the water front. Hungry to experience the fight game in the United Kingdom, he made the long trip there in 1978 where he worked in Hackney as a printer for the Hackney Gazette.
His first digs were at Shepherd’s Bush West London where he ended up living with other Kiwis and Aussies. He told me it was much like being back at home in Auckland so he decided to move to Hoxton in the East End of London living amongst some real hard cases and tough nuts.
He coached boxing at the Crown and Manor Club in Hackney, which was a youth club for boys and it was there that he saw the posters for the unlicensed boxing and asked around about getting into fighting into the unlicensed game.
There were Sunday morning sessions at a pub in Dagenham for anyone that was fit enough and wanted to try their hand at unlicensed fighting.
The heyday of unlicensed fights in the UK were the seventies through the 80s and Johnny was there amongst it. This is where he met Roy Shaw who was matchmaking and running the show at that pub in Dagenham. As it turned out Johnnie had three fights there against the same fighter, winning the first, drawing the second, and losing the third.
Roy Shaw
Lenny McLean
The boxing booths in the UK were going strong in the 1970s and Johnny rubbed shoulders with many of the big names in unlicensed fighting. Hoxton was a working class suburb where there was a lot of street fighting and Lenny McLean who came to be known as the Guvnor was King of the Cobbles in Hoxton. There were always fights in pubs and clubs and on the cobbles back then in those days in Hoxton and other such places in London.
Johnny lived not far from Lenny, knowing him to talk to and being jokingly called rattle brain by him. Everyone would yell out “hello” to Lenny in Hoxton as he was well known, and both respected and feared.
He was a big lump of a man well known for his street fighting and working as a bouncer, as well as his unlicensed fights, including three fights against the mean machine Roy “Pretty Boy” Shaw. Johnny was at the third fight when Lenny KO’d Roy Shaw in the first round, this was after losing to Roy Shaw in the first fight and knocking him through the ropes in the second.
Johnny knew of a man that had been head-butted by Lenny Maclean and his head never quite looked the same again.
Along with his involvement in boxing and unlicensed fights Johnny also played rugby league for a combined Aussie and Kiwi team called the colonials.
Johnny enjoyed going to watch some major pro fights at the Albert Hall, including John L Gardner, Alan Minter and Dave “Boy” Green. He also went to Finsbury Park unlicensed fights, where he saw fighters like Cliff field, Sid Paddock and Johnny Waldron in action. Islington town was another venue where Johnny attended unlicensed fights.
After his unlicensed fights, he gave boxing away but has remained actively involved with boxing and was a highly regarded writer on the subject for our Fight Time’s magazine along with Dave Cameron.
Johnny was friendly with gypsy fighters and would see them training young boys at their encampments as well as them being involved with bare knuckle fights.
Talking to Johnny about his preferred punches and he was quick to say that the left hook that he developed and successfully used in his tent fighting days was an important weapon in his arsenal. He fought as a pro in the middleweight division at 5’9” and liked to get in close and in fight. At 11 stone he gave away weight in all his fights but made up for being lighter, by being an on the front foot attacking fighter. Johnny knew the importance of killing the body to make way for head shots and he did this by means of his double hook to the body, which made them drop their hands and open them up for head shots.
His favourite fighters were Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Joe Louis.
Unlicensed fighting was all the rage when Johnny was living in Hoxton and he met some real characters that included Nosher Powell, the Guvnor Lenny McLean and Roy “Pretty Boy” Shaw AKA “The Mean Machine” and many others. There were pro fights regularly at the York Hall that Johnny would attend and any other venues where there were handy fighters having a good tear up. It was the weather in London that finally led to Johnny leaving the United Kingdom and heading for home.
Johnny kept actively involved with boxing in Auckland, including being a professional match maker for the ABA (Auckland Boxing Association) for nine years. He always had a major interest in bareknuckle boxing and told me if it hadn’t been for health reasons later in life, he would dearly have liked to promote bareknuckle boxing in New Zealand.
I have known Johnny through the fight game and through my Fight Time’s magazine for decades and it was Johnny’s referral that was responsible for getting me the Roy Shaw two-part article back in the late 90s.
Johnny’s introduction led to me visiting Roy Shaw at his Essex home interviewing him and even going out on the front lawn of his manor house for a bit of training.
Roy was very hospitable and was keen to know more about NZ street fighter Mick Foley, who he said he had heard was very tasty on the cobbles.
He even took us for a ride in his Bentley and spent the day telling us of the fight game of his era and some of the colourful characters that he knew through unlicensed fights. Roy remembered Johnny well saying he was a good lad and a willing fighter.
Johnny was fighting in the tents in Australia and in unlicensed fights in the United Kingdom at a time that such fights were very popular and there were some hard and handy fighters keen to make a name for themselves with their fists. The fight fans loved the action of a good tear up where there was less emphasis on the rules, and more willingness to get in there and do your best to knock your opponent out.
Interviewing Johnny was a pleasure and gave us the chance to talk of old friends and good fighters past and present that were very tough and smart, and recalling times gone by.
Ken Clearwater a prize fighting promoter that sanctioned my Dunedin promoted prize fighting series was one such identity that we spoke of, as well as Dunedin Street fighter Mick Foley, heavy weight boxing champion and all black front row prop Kevin Skinner, boxers Joe McNally, Paddy McNally, Billy Leckie, Colin Kerr and Sam Haley, all blokes that knew how to box, coach, and fight.
The bare knuckle boxing that the Gypsies were renowned for with fighters like the legendary Bartley Gorman have had a resurgence of recent, and are very popular with fight fans looking for action that is as close as it gets to street fighting. This is something that Johnny follows on-line today and is very keen on.
Johnny followed a path in the fight game from New Zealand to Australia including fighting in the boxing tents all the way to the United Kingdom, where he fought in unlicensed bouts and was involved in coaching. This brief insight into his passion and involvement in the licensed and unlicensed fight game is a part of his fight history that is very different to most and I believe needed to be told.
