17.05.06 – James Allan: I remember reading an interview that Scott Harrison had once conducted where he informed the reporter that he had purchased a large painting of Benny Lynch and that he had it hanging in the living room of his new house. He expressed his admiration for Lynch as a fighter and his hopes that someday he would enjoy the same legendary status that Lynch has. If Scott doesn’t get his act together soon, he may well end up being compared to the great Benny for all of the wrong reasons.
For anybody unaware of the tragic story of Benny Lynch, I will try to tell it in as few sentences as possible. Born in the Gorbals district of Glasgow in 1913, Lynch turned professional at the age of 18. This was at a time when boxing really was a mainstream sport and when there were dozens of boxing gyms in and around the city and when the boxing booths were still operating. Benny first found employment as a fighter on these booths, where his natural talent and punching power marked him out as a class above everybody else. Lynch won the Scottish Flyweight title in 1934. In March 1935, he fought a draw with the reigning British, European and also recognised in Europe as the World Flyweight champion, Jackie Brown..
In a rematch six months later, Lynch destroyed Brown on his way to a second round knockout. In 1937, Lynch ended all controversy as to whom the real champion of the World was when he defeated Small Montana in London. In October 1937, Lynch KO’ed Peter Kane to successfully defend his titles. This was the last high spot in Benny’s career. Encouraged to move up to Bantamweight by his trainer and manager Sammy Ralston, Benny refused, and shortly afterwards he split with Ralston after jealous whispering in his ear by people more concerned with what they could get from Benny than in the man’s well being convinced him that Ralston was not getting him the purses he deserved. By this point in time the drink had taken a hold of Benny. Alcohol combined with the natural growth of his body was making it increasingly difficult for him to make the 8 stone limit. He fought a draw with Kane in March 1938 and then lost his World title on the scales in June 1938 to Jackie Jurich when he came in at six and a half pounds overweight. Kane knocked out Jurich in the sixth round, but it was a hollow victory. Two defeats later, the last a particularly sad knockout against a man who wouldn’t have lasted a round against a prime Lynch, and his career was over at the age of 25. For the next eight years Benny battled against alcoholism before succumbing at the age of 33 to malnutrition in his native Gorbals. In between he had lost his wife, children and most of his real friends.
Now I am not suggesting that this how Scott’s life will turn out, however, if he doesn’t get some kind of control over himself soon, his career is also in danger of ending long before it should. Scott appears to have been on a downward spiral for the last few years. In August 2003 he was charged with assault after an incident in a pub toilet in his hometown of East Kilbride. He was cleared of this assault, but it seems to have set the tone for much of what has come after it. In April of last year he was banned from every pub, club and hotel in East Kilbride town centre following a string of allegations of aggressive and violent behaviour. In March of this year he pulled out of his scheduled fight against Joan Guzman at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena with a mouth infection. Guzman complained that he had been waiting since October 2005 to face Scott and that this was not the first time that the fight had been cancelled. He then signed to Oscar De La Hoya’s, Golden Boy Promotions, moving up to Super Featherweight and withdrawing from the re-arranged fight with Scott, which was scheduled for May 20th at Belfast’s Kings Hall. The WBO’s no 11 ranked fighter, Martin Honorio, was then drafted in to replace Guzman, but this also fell through after Honorio went missing for three days and Guyanan, Gairy St.Clair, was then handed a shot at Scott. Now this fight to is off after two incidents in the space of a month have thrown Scott’s boxing future into doubt. On April the 23rd, Scott was arrested over an incident at a pub in Glasgow City Centre. He faces charges of breach of the peace, refusing to leave a licensed premise, resisting arrest and police assault in connection with this incident. On Sunday night he was arrested in a nightclub in Balloch, Dunbartonshire although he was later released without charge. To be arrested twice in one month, both times in licensed premises while supposedly being in training for a World title fight doesn’t seem like the kind of serious training schedule that a World champion should be following. Frank Warren’s reaction to Scott’s withdrawal from this Saturday’s fight was most revealing;
“Scott obviously has problems and whilst I have sympathy I’m very disappointed in him as it has not been dealt with in a professional manner,” said Warren.
“I have been continually informed by Scott’s advisors that he would be boxing but that is obviously not the case and has never been the case”.
“I would like to apologise to all the fans he has let down.”
Frank might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but he is no fool and there is no disguising the anger behind his words. How long Scott can remain the WBO champion may no longer be a matter decided in the ring. If found guilty of the charges levelled against him over the April incident, he faces being stripped of his title. If Scott was a busy champion then that probably wouldn’t be an issue, as the Alphabet organisations don’t really care what you do as long as you are regularly paying them sanctioning fees. However, with Scott not having fought since last November, no future bout in site and a stream of embarrassing incidents, how long are they likely to hold off before finding a reason to remove the title from him. All of Scott’s hoped for super fights would be pretty much flushed down the toilet if this happened. It is hard to see the likes of Barrera or Pacquiao facing him for the kind of money he wants if he has nothing to bring to the negotiating table with him. Also at almost 29, Scott now has limited time to earn the kind of money that would see him and his through for the rest of his life. There is no doubt that he has made some good money from the sport, but he has a long way to go before he can comfortably retire on his earnings. If things were to go according to plan for him, he may realistically be looking at three or four years at the top, breaking that down into fights, if he stayed busy and clear of serious injury that may be a dozen or perhaps fifteen fights. He wouldn’t be earning super money for all of these fights and let’s not forget that more money also means more expenses, more taxes and higher sanctioning fees.
Scott prides himself on being Scotland’s most successful World champion, but in the days where you can now start up your own organisation out of your Granddad’s shed, and name your best mate who had his last professional outing a year ago in a 35 second defeat as your first World Champion, it doesn’t mean anything near what it used to in the days of Lynch, McGowan, Buchanan or Watt. Scott has a long way to go before he can be legitimately placed in this company.
Scott does need professional help that is not in doubt. The last thing anybody wants is for him to be out of the sport, saddled with an alcohol and possibly even a drugs problem with no other means of supporting himself or his family. Boxing is littered with the wreckage of wasted careers and ruined lives, it doesn’t need another one.