Winstone the Welsh Wizard
By Ralph Oates
There is no doubt that Howard Winstone ranks with the very best of the post war boxers produced in the UK. During his career he won the WBC world, European and British featherweight titles. A remarkable achievement by any stretch of the imagination, even more so when you consider that Winstone had lost the tips of three of his fingers on his right hand in an accident at work. This injury would have been a bad setback and an obvious game changer for anyone no matter what profession they were in and surely you would think more so for a young promising boxer. A lesser man would have given up on the sport and walked away. However, Winstone did not give up and now not being able to rely on his right hand developed his left jab making it one of the finest weapons in the game. Howard was born on the 15th of April 1939 in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales and had a successful amateur career which saw him capture both the Amateur Boxing Associations bantamweight crown and the Empire (now Commonwealth games) gold medal in 1958. Winstone eventually turned his sights to the professional ranks with fellow Welshman Eddie Thomas a former British, European and Empire welterweight title holder becoming his manager. Howard had his first professional bout on the 24th of February 1959 at Wembley Stadium in London a contest he won on points over six rounds against Billy Graydon. It was evident from the performance that Winstone was a boxer with a big future ahead of him. That same year the Welsh Wizard kept busy having a further nine bouts winning them all in impressive style. The British crown was soon in Winstone’s sights. A championship held by Terry Spinks, a man who had captured the hearts of the Nation when he won the 18 CARDIFF TIMES
gold medal at flyweight at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. The meeting for the championship was set for the 2nd of May 1961 at the Empire Pool, Wembley in London. On the night Howard proved to be the better man and produced a brilliant display of boxing to take the title from Spinks who retired in round 10 of a scheduled 15. On the 7th of September 1965 Howard, who now also held the European title and had a record of 55 bouts with just two defeats, stepped into the ring in London to face his most formidable opponent to date; Vicente Saldivar. The defending undisputed world featherweight champion was a man who was already being spoken of by those who knew the sport as an outstanding fighter, a title holder whose name could be ranked with the greats the division had produced over the years. Saldivar boasted a record of 29 bouts with just one defeat,
