Alan Minter

Alan Sydney Minter (17 August 19519 September 2020) was an English professional boxer who competed from 1972 to 1981. He held the undisputed middleweight title in 1980, having previously held the British middleweight title from 1975 to 1976, and the European middleweight title twice between 1977 and 1979. As an amateur, Minter won a bronze medal in the light-middleweight division at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Early life Minter was born in Penge, South East London, to Syd and Anne Minter. His father was a plasterer, and his mother was of German birth. His family moved to Crawley, West Sussex, and he joined Crawley Boxing Club at aged 11, training under John Hillier and Dougie Bidwell. Minter attended Hazelwick School.

Amateur career Minter took part at the 1970 European Junior Championships at the middleweight division, but in the very first fight he was stopped in the 2-nd round by Vyacheslav Lemeshev (USSR). Because Minter was the 1971 Amateur Boxing Association of England Middleweight Champion, he was selected to box for UK in the Olympics 1972. Kottysch went on to win the gold medal.

Round of 64: bye Round of 32: Defeated Reggie Ford (Guyana) by second-round knockout Round of 16: Defeated Valeri Tregubov (Soviet Union) by decision, 5–0 Quarterfinal: Defeated Loucif Hamani (Algeria) by decision, 4–1 Semifinal: Lost to Dieter Kottysch (West Germany) by decision, 2–3 (was awarded bronze medal)

Professional career Minter began his professional career with 11 straight wins, the first against Maurice Thomas in London on 31 October 1972, winning by knockout in the 6th round. Minter won his first five fights by knockout until 16 January 1973, when Pat Dwyer went the distance, Minter taking the fight on points. Minter finished his year by avenging his loss to Tonna with a six-round knockout in November at Wembley.

In 1979, Minter won all four of his fights, two of them by knockout. On 16 March 1980, in Las Vegas, he was given a shot at World Middleweight Champion Vito Antuofermo's title at Caesars Palace. He won the title by a 15-round split decision The fight was controversial owing to a racially-charged remark Minter made during the build-up (Minter was alleged to have said that he did not "intend to lose his title to a black man", though he insisted that he had actually said that he didn't intend to lose to "that" black man, and had been goaded to say so by his promoters) and then by a crowd riot once the referee had agreed with Minter's corner that he was unable to continue, with chairs, bottles and glasses being hurled into the ring after the decision.

Minter beat fringe contender Ernie Singletary in London, in 1981,

Professional boxing record

Titles in boxing Major world titles WBA middleweight champion (160 lbs) WBC middleweight champion (160 lbs)

The Ring magazine titles The Ring middleweight champion (160 lbs)

Regional/International titles Lonsdale Belt middleweight champion (160 lbs) British middleweight champion (160 lbs) (2×) European middleweight champion (160 lbs) (2×)

Undisputed titles Undisputed middleweight champion