Jim Watt(I)

The road to the top was a long and protracted affair for Jim Watt, a rugged, no nonsense Scotsman. As an amateur boxer Jim Watt had a notable victory over John H Stracy in the 1968 ABA finals. He twice held the British lightweight title, winning it against Tony Riley in 1972 only to lose it the following year to former world champ, Ken Buchanan. He regained the British title in 1975 against Johnny Cheshire and added the European title in 1977 by beating Andre Holyk. By this time Watt had moved his training base from Glasgow to London. He had also parted company from his long time mentor, Jim Murray and had resigned himself to a few more fights before concentrating on his used car business. Terry Lawless, his new manager, persuaded Watt to carry on and focus on winning the world title. After thrashing former light-welter world champ Perico Fernandez in his third defense of the European lightwight title, Watt was pitched against WBC champ, Colombian Alfredo Pituala. Watt came of age that night in the Kelvin Hall and ground Pituala down in 12 rounds of non stop aggression. The Glasgwegian audience went wild and Watt went on to dominate the division for the next 2 years. Never a great stylist, Watt relied on sheer physical strength and aggression to overpower his opponents. This approach also was good enough to beat Olympic gold medallist, Howard Davies. Showing some signs of slowing down, Watt overcame future WBA champ, Sean O'Grady with the help of some rough-house tac-tics. It took the great Alexis Arguello to finally take the title from the Scotsman as Watt was outfought over 15 rounds in 1981. Although Arguello dropped Watt briefly, the outgoing champion went out on his shield in typical gritty fashion. His final record was 46-38-8. Jim Watt is a regular on the after dinner scene and a respected commentator on SKY Sports Fight Night and Ringside. Always immaculately turned out and looks fit and healthy and seems to be unhindered by a tough boxing career spanning two decades.