John H’s Fiftieth

What sets boxers apart from the rest of us, is their unshakable, unwaving, singular self belief, in spite of the most daunting odds, that they can and indeed will win. And that’s what’s sets them aside as icons, and apart from us mere mortals.

John H Stracey, the pride of Bethnal Green, is just such a man and a legend. At the WBC’s Sixty third Convention in Bangkok, John H has received an award to mark, commemorate and celebrate that historic victory over José Napoles, fifty years ago.

Don José was unanimously elected President of the WBC on December 5th 1975, and just one day later John H became his first champion. Don José always used to call him…My Dear First Champion.

Time moves and accelerates unforgivingly. John H says: “It doesn’t seem like fifty years one bit. Where the time has gone? I do not know.

“I was convinced I was going to win, because three years earlier José Napoles was fighting a guy from our gym Ralph Charles. José was defending the WBC world title and I sparred with Napolis. My Manager Terry Lawless said to come and spar him. I did four rounds, but in that fourth my Manager advised just jab him and don’t throw anything else.

“I was catching him quite well. I’m actually left handed although I box orthodox. So the left hand was my key. My manager told me that the left was going to be the key to defeat him. We learned a lot from that.”

José Napolis dropped John during round one in the Plaza Del Torros. It was an instant wake up call. John grins and replies: “When it’s world titles, you’ve got to be very careful. It only takes one punch. He caught me. I wasn’t really hurt, but then I realized…what am I doing? So I backed off, got the end of the round over, got back to y corner who were telling me In wasn’t keeping my left hand up and I told them, he’s not going to catch me again.

“I started getting my left hand going and increased the pressure. I put him down in the third, catching him with a left hook. It was a delayed reaction. My manager told me, you’ve got him now. It was another three rounds before I stopped him.

“He was a fantastic boxer. He could shuffle from one side to the other. So it was when I could catch him I did. I was twenty five and three months old.

“I had boxed in Mexico in the Olympics and did well, only losing to Ronnie Harris, the eventual gold medalist. So I knew exactly what In must do there. How to spin it round if you do get caught.”

There had been an awful lot at stake, but also in the victory lunch at the Maria Isabel Sheraton Hotel, across from the Angel of Independence.

John H laughs recalling: “when you box, you’re fetched up on steak. My Dad being typically English, wasn’t keen on foreign foods. When I ordered spaghetti bolognese. He said, no you aren’t eating Italian. He ordered the waiter… give him a medium rare steak. Oh it was such a lovely time.”

To quantify the magnitude of the victory, John H was Britain’s first word welterweight champion since Ted Kid Lewis in 1915. No other British boxer has ever, before or since, won a world title on Mexican soil.