THE Scottish boxer Jackie Paterson, said his obituary in this paper in December 1966, was a “great man for championships.” At one time or another in his career he held the British, Empire and world flyweight titles, and the British, Empire and European bantamweight titles.

A flavour of Paterson’s talents came in the opening line of a Herald report in February 1947, when by defeating Manchester’s Johnny King in the seventh round at the city’s Belle Vue, he added the British bantamweight title to his world, British and Empire flyweight and Empire bantamweight championships.

King, the Herald said, was “beaten by a younger and stronger man after having been down seven times.”

Paterson is pictured here training for the King bout at the Anderson club in Glasgow.

Long after his death, in 2002 the boxer was one of the first inductees into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

The citation reads: “Jackie Paterson won the world flyweight boxing title on 19 June 1943. He defeated Peter Kane in just 61 seconds at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

“Paterson was a Corporal in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

“In 1946, he defended his title against Liverpool’s Joe Curran at Hampden Park in front of 45,000 people. After this, Paterson struggled with his weight and lost his title to Rinty Monaghan in Belfast in 1948. Paterson was also European bantamweight champion in 1946, Commonwealth flyweight champion in 1940-1941, Commonwealth bantamweight champion in 1945 and 1947, and British flyweight champion in 1939 and 1943.”

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Herald Diary

Paterson could “hit with devastating power,” the Herald obituary added, and he was “one of the hardest punchers to hold the world flyweight title.”