{"id":170753,"date":"2025-12-01T13:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T19:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/?p=170753"},"modified":"2025-12-01T13:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T19:29:13","slug":"john-hs-fiftieth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/john-hs-fiftieth\/","title":{"rendered":"John H\u2019s Fiftieth"},"content":{"rendered":"

John H\u2019s Fiftieth<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\u2019s what\u2019s sets them aside as icons, and apart from us mere mortals.<\/p>\n

John H Stracey, the pride of Bethnal Green, is just such a man and a legend. At the WBC\u2019s Sixty third Convention in Bangkok, John H has received an award to mark, commemorate and celebrate that historic victory over Jos\u00e9 Napoles, fifty years ago.<\/p>\n

Don Jos\u00e9 was unanimously elected President of the WBC on December 5th 1975, and just one day later John H became his first champion. Don Jos\u00e9 always used to call him\u2026My Dear First Champion.<\/p>\n

Time moves and accelerates unforgivingly. John H says: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like fifty years one bit. Where the time has gone? I do not know.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was convinced I was going to win, because three years earlier Jos\u00e9 Napoles was fighting a guy from our gym Ralph Charles. Jos\u00e9 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\u2019t throw anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was catching him quite well. I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Napolis dropped John during round one in the Plaza Del Torros. It was an instant wake up call. John grins and replies: \u201cWhen it\u2019s world titles, you\u2019ve got to be very careful. It only takes one punch. He caught me. I wasn\u2019t really hurt, but then I realized\u2026what 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\u2019t keeping my left hand up and I told them, he\u2019s not going to catch me again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019ve got him now. It was another three rounds before I stopped him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

John H laughs recalling: \u201cwhen you box, you\u2019re fetched up on steak. My Dad being typically English, wasn\u2019t keen on foreign foods. When I ordered spaghetti bolognese. He said, no you aren\u2019t eating Italian. He ordered the waiter\u2026 give him a medium rare steak. Oh it was such a lovely time.\u201d<\/p>\n

To quantify the magnitude of the victory, John H was Britain\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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John H\u2019s Fiftieth What sets boxers apart from the rest of us, is their unshakable, unwaving, singular self belief, in spite of the most daunting odds, [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n

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