In the British light-heavyweight division of quality, Lyndon Arthur has a story of extremes.
Arthur fights for a version of the world title on Friday night in Bolton, in a rare terrestrial television excursion for the old game. When Channel 5 show the fight live, Arthur will be the most-watched British boxer of the year. Arthur, however, is not a man seeking the limelight that fuels so many fighters in the modern business. Arthur is about getting the job done, getting the win and securing a future he once could have only dreamed about.
It is a fitting irony that Arthur’s greatest win was behind closed doors in the silent heart of the darkest Covid days; fewer than 50 people watched him beat Anthony Yarde in late 2020. It was a magnificent fight; Arthur was unbeaten in 17, Yarde had just the one loss, he was the puncher and the heavy betting favourite. They fought to a 12-round standstill in the sterile hall that night. Arthur deserved the nod.
On Friday, in Bolton, Arthur faces another proven puncher in Argentina’s Braian Nahuel Suarez who has stopped or knocked out 17 of the 18 men he has beaten. Yarde had nearly identical statistics, with 19 men stopped in his 20 wins before their fight. Yarde, incidentally, won the rematch the following year.
Arthur clearly knows how to survive against dangerous punchers. Survival, in all fairness, is one of Arthur’s specialities on both sides of the ropes and that runs in his fighting family.
In 1992, under a feverish canopy of expectation, Pat Barrett fought for the WBO welterweight title against a great spoiler and massively underappreciated boxer called Manning Galloway. Going in, Barrett had lost just once in his 34 fights and there were enough showreel knockouts to make him the favourite. The venue was the G-Mex in the centre of Manchester. Barrett got it wrong on the night, got involved, dropped his plans and lost a scrappy fight. Barrett also came in three pounds light; it was not a good night, but he remains strong in all conversations about the best British fighters to never win a world title.
Barrett is Arthur’s uncle, and he is also his trainer and, more importantly, he is Arthur’s salvation. When Arthur was 17, he had lost his way and in the streets near the ancient Collyhurst and Moston gym, that is a bad way to lose. One day, Arthur’s mother called Barrett and asked him to find her boy; Barrett did find him. Lyndon Arthur was sitting on the kerb where his brother, Zennen, had been shot and killed. Barrett took the broken kid in; he stayed two weeks, and he was slowly introduced to the boxing club. Zennen had been a boxer before his death five or six years earlier. It was a tight and bloody family affair once Lyndon Arthur was in the gym, and it was also emotional and necessary.
In the gym, Brian Hughes, the great trainer and boxing mind, saw the promise in Arthur; the problem was that Arthur never saw the promise in Arthur. He would arrive at the gym high, stinking of dope and still train. Barrett had to eventually have the chat, the one about options.
It is the chat about there being just one option; Barrett told Arthur to give it six months, dedicate his life for six months and see. “He can fight, he could be good,” Hughes, the maverick told Barrett. It was Arthur’s choice and he listened, made the England squad, mastered his trade and turned professional.
Hughes, often known as the Godfather of Manchester Boxing, died last year. He knew about Lyndon’s progress.
Barrett and Arthur are still in the Collyhurst and Moston gym, working in the shadow of a large portrait of Hughes. It is a gym closer to a shrine, a sanctuary from the dangers outside the doors, than it is a boxing gym. Hughes and now his greatest protege, Barrett, are in the business of saving souls. There is nowhere like the gym that Brian built anywhere else in Britain – and I know, I have searched and searched.
Now Arthur is part of an elite group of British light-heavyweights and each one of them is arguably in the world’s top 10; Callum Smith, Yarde, Dan Azeez, Craig Richards, Joshua Buatsi and Arthur. “It would be great to create a super-six tournament and fight each other – the best against the best. Why not?” Arthur said.
First, it’s Bolton and Suarez; win that and he can keep his remarkable dreams alive.
