This is a mission, not to destroy a man’s reputation or to ruin his name, but to restore order and give greater attention to men who have truly paved the way for the sport of BKB (bare knuckle boxing). We will break it all down, piece by piece, and leave no stone unturned. I will give you the evidence, the names, dates, addresses, phone numbers, and circumstancial evidence that will leave no doubt as to the conclusion. Paddy Monaghan would make the world believe he was the undefeated middleweight bare knuckle champion of the world, and even had a belt made for him in the 1970s. Yet at the same time, champions Uriah Burton, Bartley Gorman, Roy Shaw, Johnny Waldron, Alec Mack, and Lenny McLean never had belts of their own and they were far more known and their ‘careers’ more documented with proof of newspaper articles, pictures, and eyewitnesses. 114-0 stands Monaghan’s record. Or so he says. Or so his brother in law, who acted as his manager said. Or so says Monaghan’s personal friends and family. Up until now no one has bothered searching out the opponents of the great “Rough Diamond” and no one bothered to question his validity. Through the magic of genealogy websites with census records in Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, Canada and the Americas this investigator has combed through the pages and has uncovered some rather interesting things. But first, let’s do some background. Monaghan was an amateur boxer, this is true. It is documented that he had a few fights. What is also documented is that Monaghan suffered from epilepsy and had to quit amateur boxing altogether. According to ‘true believers’ of the Monaghan story, this was the reason why he went into BKB. However, let’s get right down to the bare bones of it all. Epilepsy is a very serious illness and any kind of physical excertion, let alone from a sport that can have concussive reprecussions is simply not plausible that a man would be able to win more than a handful of fights, let alone 114 of them without the aid of gloves. paddy-monaghan/index.html Monaghan always claimed he had a style much like Rocky Marciano, which is the hardest style of boxing to compete with. You are FORCED to take one, to give one. There is no if’s and’s or but’s about that. Factor in that Paddy had epilepsy…. I think you can see where I am heading with that. One punch and it would be all over with. What is true is that after Monaghan’s exit from amateur boxing he became a huge supporter for the then exiled heavywieght champion Muhammad Ali and started the first Ali fan club. Because of his support of Ali, he and the former champion became the best of friends and Ali even visited Paddy in Ireland. However, this does not validate in any way shape or form that Paddy was a BKB fighter. As a matter of fact Bartley Gorman, in his book, never once mentioned Monaghan as being a fighter but as a friend of Ali’s (Gorman contacted Monaghan in the early 1990s to ask Ali to be a neutral referee for the Gorman/Johnson fight that never came off). Another great mystery to the whole Monaghan story is that only after a year of alleged BKB fights he was in the America’s and Canada fighting it out. It makes one wonder how on Earth Paddy was able to get to America and Canada so early on considering Paddy supposedly had no real income of his own (as the family fortune was supposedly pissed away through fraud and gambling) and yet the more well known and famous fighters on the underground scene like Lenny McLean only came to America one time to fight in New York against mafia fighter John McCarthy. At least McLean and some others had the backing of London mob bosses who were multi-millionaires and could afford to go to America. It’s rather unlikely that Paddy could have. In his first year as a ‘pro’ in BKB fights he stayed in Great Britain, but soon was fighting in France and Germany and Romania. Again how could he afford these long trips? But what is more interesting is the fact that it claimed Monaghan fought in places like DONCASTER which happens to be a big hang out for gypsy fighters. And the champion of the world at that time was Uriah Burton, and he was THE MAN who ran Doncaster for several years. Never once did Burton, let alone Gorman (who is related to Burton) ever mentioned Monaghan or any other middleweight fighter tearing it up at Doncaster. (More on this later). By 1973 Paddy was allegedly the British BKB Champion and defended that title a couple of times, even in Italy! And that same year became the European BKB Champion and in 1974 became the WORLD BBKB Champion having won the title in Canada. After that Monaghan allegedly defended the title 27 times, and most of those defenses were in America. He retired in 1980, beginning his career in 1962. Think about it…. a man who was forced to retire from amateur boxing because of epilepsy in the early 1960s fights bare knuckle around the world in 114 fights undefeated until 1980 (nearly three decades)? Impossible. The tricky part in my investigation was in part to track down these opponents on census records. After all, the names MUST mean something, else what would be the point of writing it all down? Of course there will be those who will say that the men were under aliases, and maybe that could be true, but if that was the case wouldnt it of been simpler to just say “Unknown Opponent” rather than to accept at face value a fake name or to make one up? Regardless, I looked through the censuses and found the more than likely name and dates—- or lack thereof. Another tricky part was following newspaper stories of the time. If Paddy was really in Italy and France and Belgium and Canada and America at different times and places, certainly there would be a paper trail of some sort of another, right? Or at least some proof that he was either here or there. What I found was very interesting that supposedly for being in Canada and other parts of the world Paddy was sitting in his own backyard. He never left. And that is very interesting. What’s also interesting is that throughout most of the 1970′s there is a long and colorful paper trail that Paddy was a very sick and frail man going in and out of hospitals due to his epilepsy. Could a man that ill actually win the bulk of his alleged fights during that time? You be the judge. paddy-monaghan/paddy.html Even more, Paddy’s own personal website says that in 1975 he was in New York and was talking to the press in a hotel about an upcoming fight in Chicago that he was to take part of. During that interview somehow his championship belt was stolen. Well, the paper trail shown that no such interview took place. I checked every single newspaper of that time out of New York. What I did find was something a little more innocent, and that was Muhammad Ali being the subject of three articles by such men as Norman Mailer, Warren Hinckle and Ishmael Reed. nytimes/books/98/10/25/specials/ali-mailer.html nytimes/books/98/10/25/specials/ali-sheed.html nytimes/books/98/10/25/specials/ali-greatest.html It must be doubly noted that in ANY interview that Muhammad Ali ever done where Monaghan was present or even mentioned, Ali never once brought up the fact that Monaghan was a fighter. As for Monaghan, though, he claims that Ali knew and that Ali would ask him “How could you do this?” referring that it must be too painful to do. Being a man who happens to have connections in the boxing business as a interviewer, I do plan to have Ali and his wife acting as his interpreter on the show one day and to ask him whether Monaghan was a fighter or not. Ali referred to him as “My number one fan” and even referred that the man was on WELFARE. Does that sound like a world champion fighter travelling all over the world making money right and left? ipman-wingchun.blogspot/2010/11/audience-with-muhammad-ali-feat-paddy.html It must be noted now, rather than dismiss it altogether of Monaghan’s association with Wing Chun. I do believe that a real connection is there. He claims he won the world title with a Wing Chun punch. Samuel Kwok maintains that he trained Paddy, and maintains that he and Paddy are close friends. Paddy’s son Tyrone is also practiced in Wing Chun—- however residents of Monaghan’s home town claim that they never knew, even to this day, that father and son ever were fighters, let alone world champions, and some have stepped forward and stated that that Tyrone’s Wing Chun school doesn’t even exist. What I believe personally is that following Paddy’s dismissal from amateur boxing is that he made friends with Samuel Kwok not long after Paddy became somewhat respected and quasi-famous for the Ali fanclub. It gave Samuel Kwok a base to grow out from in England being associated with Paddy, who in turn was associated with Ali. Whether Monaghan was ever trained in Wing Chun is another matter altogether. Whether Monaghan ever used Wing Chun in his alleged fights is speculative. What I believe is that possibly Monaghan did have some fights that were bare knuckle, but he soon gave that up as well. The Wing Chun association was only added later on to the Monaghan myth. I believe personally once Paddy’s hopes to ever box as an amateur or pro were dashed, for a short time he did search other avenues, but gave up that dream when he began the Muhammad Ali fanclub and gained respect and a measure of fame from that. I am not the first man to ever research into the life of Paddy Monaghan, for there has been a few books and articles that have been done over the years that have uncovered the realities of his life. The Monaghan’s don’t like to talk about Paddy’s epilepsy. They try to avoid it at all costs. When I interviewed Paddy a few years ago on atgradio his son Tyrone asked me before the show went on to not discuss Paddy’s epilepsy on the air. They also don’t like people asking too many questions about the family finances, and how it was possible for Paddy to travel the way he claimed. Fact of business, the truth is this man seldom ever left Ireland let alone Great Britain. For being Ali’s number one fan he wasn’t at all present for Ali’s exhibition fight with ‘Gypsy’ Johnny Frankham in the early 1970′s, and that is probably a good thing considering Frankham was not only England’s best light heavyweight boxer in the pro ring but he was also a well known a respected street fighter who once beat twenty men at a single event. Personally, I dont think it had anything at all to do with ducking and dodging Frankham, because the fact of the matter is it wasn’t until the late 1980′s-early 1990′s that Monaghan started talking about being a BKB champion. It was the fact that Paddy was simply a normal, every day guy who was on the public dole and simply could not afford to go and see his favorite boxer compete. Paddy claims he “never made anything” out of being champion of the world. Yet he travelled the world, achieving apparently greater success than Bartley Gorman, Lenny McLean, Roy Shaw, and every other legendary hardman combined. How he can sit there and say all that with a straight face is beyond me. Of course, I have read in medical dictionaries and seen shows on the human mind that someone can beat a lie detector if they truly believe their own lies. It could very well be that Paddy has told the stories so many times that they have become apart of his psyche and his life. I am reminded of a young man that I once knew named Charlie Zelenoff who lost his pro debut in boxing to America’s worst active fighter, and then lost all sense of reality. Zelenoff now claims he is 38-0 (38) and is the greatest fighter of all time. He has told himself so many lies that those lies are now his reality. While I wouldn’t go to the lengths of comparing Monaghan, who is a very smart man in his own right, to the obvious lunacy of Zelenoff, it is almost the same deal. The residents of his hometown of Abingdon were both shocked and skeptical of his claims, and continue to dismiss his stories. His book ‘Streetfighting Man’ was panned by those same residents. It seems he was losing credability with people until he met up with James Quinn McDonagh, the star of the film KNUCKLE, and became his “number one fan.” Just like he rode the coat tails of Ali, he now rides the coat tails of Quinn and others. He is frequently seen at BKB events put on in England and sits there as if he was the innovator. Bartley Gorman, Johnny Frankham, Roy Shaw, etc. all of them were true fighters and even fights held in secret came out in the press and throughout the land by word of mouth. They lived it and they breathed it, and didn’t deny it or hide away from it. Paddy Monaghan isn’t a fighter. It would have become common knowledge sooner or later. His son Tyrone said in an interview with me a few years ago that his father would come home and he and his sisters would run and hide cus he looked like a ‘monster’ from all the cuts and bruises on his face. If this was true, then certainly there would be pictures or film floating around to see if Paddy had any real damage right? Let’s look at the dates and times of his fights, which are readily available on his website. And let’s compare them to pictures and films that are out there of him in the public. You be the judge whether he was a fighter or not. And one more thing, ever notice how Paddy says most of his fights took place at The Barn in Hendon? What mainly fail to realise is that particular site is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to a police training headquarters. You be the judge if organised fights were put on there reguarly. And also, if he was a world’s champion, why would he of been a hodcarrier in Abingdon? Here is a list of examples, for those who don’t believe me and want to hold onto the Monaghan legend as if it were something out of the Bible. books.google/books?id=T6nuBX_eIxUC&pg=PT40&lpg=PT40&dq=ali+monaghan&source=bl&ots=WjNU0PGdAy&sig=ItPPeLv53RocbhdB3-gTF8upGIM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RnTcUYuEGMPVyQHEkoCYCw&ved=0CGgQ6AEwDg ^Further Proof that Monaghan was completely broke, a man on welfare who barely got twenty pounds from the government. That was in 1977, and Paddy was “The Champion of The World” and had travelled to as far as Canada and Romania as an alleged fighter. If THAT is all that being a world champion offers is living on next to nothing, then I don’t understand what the point would be considering being a fighter was supposed to be a means and a way to support your family. Again, proof that it is all a sham. And isn’t it ironic that Monaghan only fought once in all of 1977? thefreelibrary/ALI+..and+the+man+who+became+his+best+pal%3B+The+amazing+story+of…-a061168146 ^Story that further shows Monaghan was penniless. Though it does state he fought street fights for money, Paddy doesn’t once (this is 1996) claim to be a world bare knuckle champion of any sort. Which only further supports my own theories that he did have some fights, but nothing to the extent that he would later claim. And it also mentions he is an epileptic. Could a man who couldn’t even get to Newcastle or Dublin on his own dime, really of went to Canada and Romania and Italy? Come one now. Don’t be daft. Now that we got finances out of the way, let’s look at the opponents. Going through the census records, we are going to see if said opponents were in their perspective regions, being as Paddy was the foreigner being brought to someone else’s backyard. Paddy allegedly won the “World” title against a man from Quebec, Canada named Jean Paul Durrell, whom he kayoed in eight rounds. According to FamilySearch.org (which is my personal favorite of the genealogy sites) there is no Jean Paul Durrell on the records in Quebec. So I altered my search a bit to expand that to all of Canada. And *drum roll* there was no Jean Paul Durrell on the books. https://familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=75&query=%2Bgivenname%3A%22Jean%20Paul%22~%20%2Bsurname%3ADurrell~%20%2Brecord_country%3ACanada Or how about some of Paddy’s opponents in England? Jobbie Wilson whom he won the middleweight title of England from? There was no such man. I even altered my searches to where he would have been in England between 1960-1980, and no such man popped up on any census record in England. https://familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=75&query=%2Bgivenname%3AJobbie~%20%2Bsurname%3AWilson~%20%2Brecord_country%3AEngland%20%2Bresidence_year%3A1960-1980~ Or how about Peter Benichi, the man Paddy won the European title from? Nope. He wasn’t in the census records either between 1960-1980 in Italy. https://familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=75&query=%2Bgivenname%3APeter~%20%2Bsurname%3ABenichi~%20%2Brecord_country%3AItaly%20%2Bresidence_place%3AItaly~%20%2Bresidence_year%3A1960-1980~ Or how about Ferdi Chiocca, who Paddy supposedly raved about to in the press in New York, which we already proved did not happen, that he was going to fight? Nope, no one by that name either, though there were a few Chiocco’s who were either really, really old by that time or were dead. Could it be that Paddy was lying? Please say it isnt so! https://familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=75&query=%2Bgivenname%3AFerdi~%20%2Bsurname%3AChiocca~%20%2Brecord_country%3A%22United%20States%22%20%2Bresidence_place%3AChicago~%20%2Bresidence_year%3A1960-1980~ I venture to say that the majority of the people on his record simply did not exist. Maybe one day I will do a full complete search, but I think for the time being what I have found, or the lack thereof is evidence enough that the fights simply did not happen. Now it comes down to the pictures, films, and articles. Problem with this is that Paddy was only in pictures when Muhammad Ali was in town. And to the best of anyone’s knowledge there is no pictures or films of these fights—- and as evidence and a little fact checking has shown there probably never was any or at least not to the extent that was said. What few pictures there are of Paddy around the time of his ‘prime’ doesn’t necessarily show a man who was an athlete. What one observer could see from the pictures is a frail, small, and tired looking man who didn’t look like he could whip his way out of a paper bag. However, I’ve seen many a man not look like a fighter and was, so we will pass judgement. All we can do is see if there are any pictures out there of Paddy that was in and around a possible fight date that he had written down on his fighting record. If there is so much as a bruise, a scar, or anything we will give Paddy his just due. Problem with that is…. I did find a picture of Paddy in and around a time he allegedly fought and there is no scar on his face, no bruises, etc. pretty hard to imagine considering he supposedly had a swarming style like Marciano’s which leaves you open to get hit. Mind you Paddy’s record claims he was fighting as early as 1962, and his friendship with Ali began shortly after 1967. The two men wouldn’t meet until the 1970′s. However, there is a picture of Monaghan when he was young and picketing, protesting that Ali be brought back into boxing. news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/57980000/jpg/_57980382_010.jpg In my home, my own personal collection of boxing books, I happen to have a book entitled MUHAMMAD ALI THE UNSEEN ARCHIVES (2001) by William Strathmore. In the book on page 232 there is close pictures of Ali and Paddy Monaghan in London in 1974. In that year Paddy allegedly fought five times defending the European belt and also winning the World title. What is ironic is that Ali had just recently fought George Foreman in Zaire on the date of October 30th, and England was his connecting flight back home. Paddy Monaghan allegedly fought on these dates: August 4th and November 20th, once in Boston (USA) and Paris (FRA)— man this guy got more air time than Ali did!—- As the records show Muhammad Ali did not return home to American until DECEMBER as he was giving press conferences, and was attending the Bugner-Lovell fight and that was on December 3rd. For a man who had been through two tough bare knuckle fights, and travelling all around the world (gotta factor in the jet lag) and having four kids to look after and work the Ali fanclub and work from time to time as a hodcarrier—- Paddy doesn’t have a single scar or bruise or in fact looks in any way shape or form tired at all from his fights and world travels. There is also a great close up, and great clearity of Paddy’s hands—- no signs of damage and in fact look pretty dainty for a fighter whose won almost 100 fights by this time. These pictures I will later copy and post on this page so everyone can see that despite having been in two tough bare knuckle fights and travelling several thousand miles, etc. that Paddy didnt have a single scar or mark on him. I think, all around, between the fact this man was dirt poor (yet was able to travel the world and have a belt that was worth money), that no fighters from his time ever heard of who the hell he was, the fact that there is no pictures or film of his exploits, and the fact that he didnt mention being a fighter at all until the 1990s which quite frankly stunned and amused his own community, and there is no evidence to show that any of his opponents existed. I think it is fair to say, Paddy Monaghan was never the bare knuckle middleweight champion of the world. He never was a contender, he never was threat to anyone on the domestic scene let alone an international one. The fact that his only witnesses was his “manager” who was his brother in law and his family, goes to show that it doesnt hold much water. True, such legends as Gorman and Uriah Burton are pushed and boasted among their family—- but the difference is that there is newspaper accounts virtually from BEGINNING TO END of their careers. There is pictures, there is eyewitnesses that are not just family. Jesus bless.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:20:52 +0000
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