Boxer
Born: September 12,1991;
Died: September 30, 2016
MIKE Towell, who has died aged 25 after being carried from the ring in a fight with Welsh opponent Dale Evans, was a talented young boxer from Dundee who showed great promise in his short but successful professional career. To his fans, he was known as "Iron" Mike Towell.
He had only been fighting professionally for three years, but a string of knockout and stoppages wins across Scotland had already suggested that he might eventually emulate some of the great boxers to come from Dundee, such as Jim Brady who won a British bantamweight Lonsdale Belt and title in the 1940s.
Towell had learned his trade in the Lochee area of Dundee, a part of the city that is steeped in boxing lore. He was fighting Evans at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow as an eliminator for the British welterweight crown. However, after a fifth-round loss to Evans on Thursday, he had to be stretchered from the ring and was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where he was diagnosed with severe bleeding and swelling to his brain.
Towell was born in September 1991 - the same month and year as the London middleweight boxer Michael Watson, who sustained extensive brain damage in a London ring after being knocked out by opponent Chris Eubank. Watson survived; tragically, Mike Towell did not.
The young Dundonian had learned his sport in a town that is steeped in boxing history and triumph - it produced Scotland’s only winner of an Olympic boxing gold medal, lightweight Dick McTaggart and also flyweight Freddie Tennant, one of the few Scots boxers to beat Glasgow flyweight great, Benny Lynch. Towell went professional in 2013 and had a string of wins behind him before the fight in Glasgow.
As a professional boxing referee in the early 1980s, I encountered many young men like Mike Towell in the dressing rooms of the boxing shows where I officiated - young men endowed with a rare brand of physical courage given to so few. They would try to make a better life for themselves and their nearest and dearest knowing full well the attendant risks arising from the fact that pro boxing is Russian roulette with gloves on.
Mike Towell had an impressive record before Thursday’s fight, with 11 previous wins and one draw on his professional record.
His family were at the boxer’s bedside in his final hours and are understood to have been joined by his manager, Tommy Gilmour.
His partner Chloe Ross, who had been together with Towell for more than eight years, said her partner had fought right to the end but had died shortly after 11pm on Friday evening, 12
hours after he was taken off life support.
According to Ms Ross the welterweight had been complaining of migraines in the run-up to the fight but had put it down to stress.
In an emotional Facebook post she said it had been the longest 24 hours of her life.
She wrote: “I’m absolutely heartbroken to say my annoying best friend passed away tonight at 11.02 very peacefully.
She said: “Once he was taken off of his life support, he managed 12 hours, 12 whole rounds off his life support, he fought right to the end and he’s done us all so proud. He left doing the thing he’s best at - there’s only one.”
Among those who paid tribute to Towell after his death was Dundee boxing legend Dick McTaggart, who won gold in the lightweight division in the 1956 Olympics and bronze four years later.
He said: “I’m sorry to hear about Mike. He was definitely one of the up-and-coming boxers in the country.”
He also said the referee could not be blamed for what had happened. “It’s just one of those things – you can’t blame the referee," he said. “There is always a danger for any sport, it’s not just boxing.”
The only glimmer of light for Towell’s family is that both in Dundee and the wider boxing world when tragedy strikes the boxing fraternity look after their own. It is no surprise therefore that the former world boxing champion Ricky Hatton has opened a fund for Towell’s partner Chloe Ross and their son Rocco with a £5,000 donation. It is likely to grow rapidly.
Tragically, no amount of money and goodwill messages can ever bring Mike Towell back but the money raised will at least allow the boxer’s loved ones to contemplate life’s future uncertainties with dignity and some modicum of financial security.
That - security for his loved ones - was, after all, exactly what the late Mike Towell was seeking when he climbed into the boxing ring to face opponent Dale Evans before he suffered his fatal injuries.
Mike Towell is survived by his partner and his young son.
BRIAN DONALD
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