The famous boxing surname is attached for life. But Reese Lynch is determined to make a name for himself in the coming fortnight by fighting his way to Commonwealth Games gold.
The 21-year-old might be no relation to the man who became Scotland’s first ever world champion in 1935. But just like Benny Lynch, he has already secured a place in Scottish boxing history. The Rob Roy light-welterweight became first ever Scot to win a World Championship medal at senior level last November when he took bronze in Belgrade.
And should he eclipse that and become king of the ring in Birmingham in the next couple of weeks then he has made it his intention to seek out his legendary namesake’s statue for a picture .. when it’s finally finished. In fact you can scrap the “should”. The new Lynch in town says “when” he wins gold he’ll be making a date with the bronze sculpture which is the focus of a campaign to raise funds.
And he said: “Benny Lynch was huge for Scottish boxing. I’ve heard there’s plans for a statue of him. Hopefully it gets the go ahead and I’ll go and get my picture taken beside it with my gold medal from Birmingham. That would be nice. The new Lynch in Glasgow has a good ring to it!
“Seriously though, gold is all you aim for. I doubt anyone is going to Birmingham thinking of any less. You need to believe you are going to finish on top of the podium. That’s the things dreams are made of.
“I’ve got family and friends going down to cheer for me on which you don’t normally get. When you have that there it’s like the third man in the ring and an extra motivation. It was brilliant to get the medal at the Worlds. Especially with the rest of the team there with me.
“When it got announced I was in the ring and standing facing them all and they were going mental! What a feeling it was. It was a completely different experience. The Commonwealths will have a similar buzz as we are heading there as a team. And that medal at the Worlds gives me confidence.
“Knowing I can go there and medal against the best in the world. It gives you a big boost that you know there’s a medal - and maybe a gold one - there for you.”
Lynch was a starry-eyed 13-year-old when he watched Josh Taylor lift gold at the Glasgow 2014 Games, defeating Namibia’s Junias Jonas at a raucous SSE Hydro. That success catapulted the then amateur Taylor’s career into another stratosphere where he joined an elite group of four-belt champions at light-welterweight.
And Lynch would love nothing more than to see his career take the same trajectory starting with lift off in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. Despite the two never having met, Taylor showed a touch of class by firing a message to Lynch after his success in Serbia.
And the Shotts southpaw said: “Growing up I watched Floyd Mayweather a lot - that’s who I looked up to. But it’s Josh Taylor now. Just because of what he’s achieved and like me he’s a southpaw.
“He’s so well schooled and you can learn so much from him. I’ve not met him but he did tweet me when I won the bronze medal at the Worlds.
“I should get that tweet framed and put it up in the summer house. Hopefully I can reach the kind of levels he has.
“I remember going to Glasgow 2014. It was incredible to see the buzz of a home Games and hopefully Birmingham can be quite similar as it’s not too far away.”
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