by Lawrence Davies
Along with the town of Pontypridd, Merthyr could rightly claim to be one of the foremost hubs of Welsh boxing history. Although many would no doubt prefer that his name had been forgotten altogether, Redmond Coleman was one of the first men to put Merthyr ‘on the map’ as a town capable of producing gloved boxing champions, whose names will no doubt ring down the ages, men like Eddie Thomas, Howard Winstone and the never to be forgotten Johnny Owen.
Redmond had ended up fighting for recognition at the Blue Anchor in Shoreditch, his well known reputation with the knuckles or ‘raw ‘uns’ having convinced the lightweight Welsh boxing champion, Patsy Perkins to step up and act as Redmond’s manager. Not too long afterwards Coleman floored challenger Curly Howell at the National Sporting Club in Covent Garden before an appreciative crowd of well heeled gents.
Coleman took out the Bristol man in less than a round, a devastating right hand to the jaw sending Howell to the boards, his head making a sickening crack on contact. Curly was out for the count. A promising boxing career appeared to be on the cards, but the ‘Iron Man’ of Merthyr apparently found London was not to his liking, and travelled home.
Although Redmond fought with gloves, it was with the knuckles that he was thought to be virtually unbeatable, and there were plenty of Merthyr men who were willing to step up and meet the challenge. Knuckle fighting had always been how the men had settled their differences, and it was ‘on the mountain’ that contests were usually fought.
The first Welsh boxing champion to receive widespread national recognition was Ned Turner, in the early 1800’s, and was thought to have been the second greatest lightweight in the country, showing such cleverness and skill in the ring he might be thought of as the very first ‘Welsh Wizard’.
There can be no doubt that his example inspired a number of his countrymen to seek recognition between the ropes of the old prize-ring soon afterwards.
It seems that one of the very first prominent fighting men of Merthyr was a pugilist named John Thomas. London was the centre of the prize-ring in those days, and it is in London that the appearance of Thomas was first noted, when he appeared at a benefit event held to raise funds for a veteran fighter. Thomas decided to ‘step up’ and meet an unnamed ‘Sawney’ or Scottish ‘champion’ who had previously appeared before the audience. Considering that Thomas had not sparred on the stage of the Tennis Court before, he did exceptionally well. The ’round hitting’ of the Scotsman was ‘well met’ by the ‘straight muzzlers’ of the ‘Welchman’. Thomas got the better of the ‘Scotch Champion’, and at the end of the contest ‘Taffy retired as proud as one of his native buck goats…’
This unexpected turn of events led to something of a rivalry between the two Celtic warriors, with it having been noted that the Welsh and Scottish ‘Champions’ met a number of times afterwards with both knuckles and gloves. Thomas would appear to have had a great deal of support from his backers at Merthyr, and boldly threw out a challenge to any man in England of his weight to meet him for anywhere between £50 and £100. One person who was greatly irritated by the challenge was Thomas’ Scottish rival, who quickly stated his desire to draw Thomas’s ‘…hot Welsh blood on the earliest occasion’, and claiming to have been in bad condition when they had first sparred. So sure was the Scotsman of his victory over the Welshman that he had also planned to travel to Merthyr to meet Thomas with the knuckles and hand him a beating, and was prepared to throw down a £20 deposit on the contest at the Bell Inn at Merthyr Tydfil…
Lawrence Davies
You can find out what happened next in ‘The Story of Welsh Boxing, Prize Fighters of Wales’ published by Pitch Publications, today, 1 June 2019.
An interview with the author can be read at the link below:
The book can be ordered from Amazon, and is also available at branches of WH Smith, Waterstones and other bookshops. To read more about ‘The Story of Welsh Boxing’, please visit;