Nostalgia: The life and times of Birmingham boxer Owen Moran

Jun 19 2011 by Mike Lockley, Sunday Mercury

HERE’S a trivia question for sports fans: who is the only Birmingham boxer to fight for a world title three times and come up short on each occasion?

The answer – Owen Moran, by far the greatest battler ever produced by the city.

The exact place of his birth, on October 4, 1884, has been lost in the sands of time. So has his legacy to all but die-hard fans of the noble art.

During an era when American pugilists looked down their bent noses at this country’s fighting men, Moran did the unthinkable. He travelled to the States and whipped the best of them.

Legends such as featherweight titleholder Abe Attell and lightweight kings Battling Nelson and Ad Wolgast all paid a heavy price for underestimating the ring fury of pint-sized Moran, who packed 96 bouts into a 12-year career.

He swapped leather at a time when The Mob ruled Stateside boxing and, in an effort to stop the epidemic of fight-fixing, points decisions were scrapped.

If you didn’t knock them out, you didn’t win the title. Instead, it was left to ringside reporters to select a winner in their columns.

Moran usually knocked them out. However, the American press did award him 15 of 20 ‘newspaper decisions’ and acknowledged he had the upperhand against Attell in their world featherweight bout. Attell was still on his feet – just – at the final bell and so retained his jewel encrusted belt.

Owen, with a temper to match his mop head of hair, was born to brawl – and the violence was not confined to the ring.

He was not a nice individual. In drink, he was positively psychotic. Esteemed sports writer James Butler wrote of the 5ft 3ins dynamo: “Nature was pretty generous to Owen Moran, giving him most of the treasured gifts a man can have... everything barring one important asset – a sense of humour.