Alan Sydney Minter (17 August 19519 September 2020) was an English professional boxer who competed from 1972 to 1981. He held the undisputed middleweight title in 1980, having previously held the British middleweight title from 1975 to 1976, and the European middleweight title twice between 1977 and 1979. As an amateur, Minter won a bronze medal in the light-middleweight division at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Early life Minter was born in Penge, South East London, to Syd and Anne Minter. His father was a plasterer, and his mother was of German birth. His family moved to Crawley, West Sussex, and he joined Crawley Boxing Club at aged 11, training under John Hillier and Dougie Bidwell. Minter attended Hazelwick School.

Amateur career Minter took part at the 1970 European Junior Championships at the middleweight division, but in the very first fight he was stopped in the 2-nd round by Vyacheslav Lemeshev (USSR). Because Minter was the 1971 Amateur Boxing Association of England Middleweight Champion, he was selected to box for UK in the Olympics 1972. He won a bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in the light-middleweight classification, losing in the semifinal to Dieter Kottysch of West Germany by a 3-2 marginal decision which was hotly disputed. Kottysch went on to win the gold medal.

1972 Olympic results Minter's results at the 1972 Munich Olympics are as follows:

Round of 64: bye Round of 32: Defeated Reggie Ford (Guyana) by second-round knockout Round of 16: Defeated Valeri Tregubov (Soviet Union) by decision, 5–0 Quarterfinal: Defeated Loucif Hamani (Algeria) by decision, 4–1 Semifinal: Lost to Dieter Kottysch (West Germany) by decision, 2–3 (was awarded bronze medal)

Professional career Minter began his professional career with 11 straight wins, the first against Maurice Thomas in London on 31 October 1972, winning by knockout in the 6th round. Minter won his first five fights by knockout until 16 January 1973, when Pat Dwyer went the distance, Minter taking the fight on points. Minter won his next five fights, three by knockout, before being defeated for the first time after the referee stopped the fight in the eighth round against "Scottish" Don McMillan due to bad cuts suffered by Minter. Two more wins followed before facing Jan Magdziarz, who beat him twice in a row (once in the eighth and once in the sixth) again due to cuts.

1974 was a mixed year for Minter, beating Tony Byrne by a decision in eight, losing in two to Ricky Torres (again on cuts), having a third fight with Magdziarz, resulting in a no contest, closing the year with a win against Shako Mamba in Hamburg, Germany.

In 1975, he won four fights in a row, including another bout in Hamburg and, by the end of the year, he challenged Kevin Finnegan for the British Middleweight title, winning it by a 15-round decision.

In 1976, he won six fights, to extend his streak to ten consecutive wins. Among the boxers he beat were Billy Knight by a knockout and Finnegan once again, by decision in 15, both in defence of his British title, along with former world title challenger Tony Licata, knocked out in six and United States Olympic Games Gold medal winner Sugar Ray Seales, in five rounds. These wins gave Minter a ranking among the top ten Middleweight challengers.

In 1977, he won the European Middleweight title by beating Germano Valsecchi by a knockout in five in Italy. But in his next fight his winning streak ended when he lost to former world title challenger Ronnie Harris by a knockout in eight. Minter returned to top ten challenger status by upsetting the former World Welterweight and Light Middleweight Champion Emile Griffith with a ten-round decision win in Monte Carlo, but then he lost his European title to Gratien Tonna by a knockout in eight at Milan. He closed 1977 with a third 15-round decision win over Finnegan to retain his British title.

1978 was a sad year for Minter, although he won all three of his bouts. On 15 February, on the undercard of the first Muhammad Ali vs. Leon Spinks fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, he won his first bout in the United States by knocking out Sandy Torres in five rounds. Then, in July, he went to Italy once again to regain his European Middleweight title by knocking out Angelo Jacopucci in twelve rounds. Jacopucci died a few days afterwards, due to injuries sustained in the bout, and Minter considered quitting boxing. Minter finished his year by avenging his loss to Tonna with a six-round knockout in November at Wembley.

In 1979, Minter won all four of his fights, two of them by knockout. On 16 March 1980, in Las Vegas, he was given a shot at World Middleweight Champion Vito Antuofermo's title at Caesars Palace. He won the title by a 15-round split decision in which the judges' scorecards varied wildly. A Venezuelan judge had Minter losing the fight, while the British judge (Roland Dakin) had Minter winning 13 of the 15 rounds. In a rematch held three months later in London on 28 June, Minter retained the world title by a TKO in eight rounds.

On 27 September 1980, Minter's short run as world champion came to an abrupt end when he was stopped on cuts in the third round against 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler at Wembley Arena in London. The fight was controversial owing to a racially-charged remark Minter made during the build-up (Minter was alleged to have said that he did not "intend to lose his title to a black man", though he insisted that he had actually said that he didn't intend to lose to "that" black man, and had been goaded to say so by his promoters) and then by a crowd riot once the referee had agreed with Minter's corner that he was unable to continue, with chairs, bottles and glasses being hurled into the ring after the decision.

Minter beat fringe contender Ernie Singletary in London, in 1981, but after losses to future Hagler challengers Mustafa Hamsho in Las Vegas and Tony Sibson in London, he retired for good.

He left boxing with a record of 39 wins, 9 losses and 1 no contest, with 23 wins by knockout.

Death Minter died of cancer in September 2020, in Guildford at the age of 69.

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes49Loss Tony SibsonTKO3 (12), 15 Sep 1981 48Loss39–8 Mustafa HamshoSD106 Jun 1981 47Win39–7 Ernie SingletaryPTS1017 Mar 1981 46Loss38–7 Marvin HaglerTKO3 (15), 27 Sep 1980 45Win38–6 Vito AntuofermoRTD8 (15)28 Jun 1980 44Win37–6 Vito Antuofermo1516 Mar 1980 43Win36–6 Doug DemmingsPTS1023 Oct 1979 42Win35–6 Monty BethamTKO2 (10), 26 Jun 1979 41Win34–6 Renato GarciaTKO9 (10), 1 May 1979 40Win33–6 Rudy RoblesPTS106 Feb 1979 39Win32–6 Gratien TonnaRTD6 (15)7 Nov 1978 38Win31–6 Angelo JacopucciKO12 (15)19 Jul 1978 37Win30–6 Sandy TorresKO5 (10), 15 Feb 1978 36Win29–6 Kevin FinneganPTS158 Nov 1977 35Loss28–6 Gratien TonnaTKO8 (15), 21 Sep 1977 34Win28–5 Emile GriffithPTS1030 Jul 1977 33Loss27–5 Ronnie HarrisTKO8 (10), 12 Apr 1977 32Win27–4 Germano ValsecchiKO5 (15)4 Feb 1977 31Win26–4 Sugar Ray SealesTKO5 (10), 7 Dec 1976 30Win25–4 Tony LicataTKO6 (10), 9 Nov 1976 29Win24–4 Kevin FinneganPTS1514 Sep 1976 28Win23–4 Frank ReicheTKO8 (10)24 May 1976 27Win22–4 Billy KnightTKO2 (15), 27 Apr 1976 26Win21–4 Trevor FrancisTKO8 (10), 20 Jan 1976 25Win20–4 Kevin FinneganPTS154 Nov 1975 24Win19–4 Peter WulfKO6 (10)30 May 1975 23Win18–4 Larry PaulPTS1025 Mar 1975 22Win17–4 Tony AllenPTS810 Feb 1975 21Win16–4 Henry CooperKO1 (8), 20 Jan 1975 20Win15–4 Shako MambaPTS830 Nov 1974 1914–4 Jan MagdziarzNC4 (10)29 Oct 1974 18Loss14–4 Ricky OrtizTKO2 (10)21 May 1974 17Win14–3 Tony ByrnePTS826 Mar 1974 16Loss13–3 Jan Magdziarz6 (8)11 Dec 1973 15Loss13–2 Jan MagdziarzTKO3 (8)30 Oct 1973 14Win13–1 Ernie BurnsTKO5 (8)2 Oct 1973 13Win12–1 Octavio RomeroPTS810 Sep 1973 12Loss11–1 Don McMillanTKO8 (8), 5 Jun 1973 11Win11–0 George AidooTKO5 (8)9 May 1973 10Win10–0 Frank YoungPTS827 Mar 1973 9Win9–0 Harry ScottPTS813 Mar 1973 8Win8–0 Gabe BowensTKO7 (8), 20 Feb 1973 7Win7–0 Pat BroganTKO7 (8)30 Jan 1973 6Win6–0 Pat Dwyer816 Jan 1973 5Win5–0 Mike McCluskie5 (8)8 Jan 1973 4Win4–0 Ronnie HoughTKO5 (8)11 Dec 1972 3Win3–0 Anton SchnedlTKO7 (8)5 Dec 1972 2Win2–0 John LoweTKO3 (6)14 Nov 1972 1Win1–0 Maurice Thomas6 (6)31 Oct 1972

Titles in boxing Major world titles WBA middleweight champion (160 lbs) WBC middleweight champion (160 lbs)

The Ring magazine titles The Ring middleweight champion (160 lbs)

Regional/International titles Lonsdale Belt middleweight champion (160 lbs) British middleweight champion (160 lbs) (2×) European middleweight champion (160 lbs) (2×)

Undisputed titles Undisputed middleweight champion

See also List of middleweight boxing champions List of WBC world champions

References

External links

Alan Minter at Cyber Boxing Zone