PETER BUCKLEY was known as โ€œThe Professor of Pugilismโ€ and hereโ€™s a quick lesson from him in how to lose a fight. โ€œThe art of it is to not fight for three minutes of every round,โ€ said Buckley. โ€œI knew how to break a round up because if you can break a fighterโ€™s rhythm, thatโ€™s half the battle won.

โ€œYou have to buy a bit of time by pushing them off, having a walk around, hitting them on the blind side of the referee. If you can gain 10 to 20 seconds, that can break a fighterโ€™s momentum. I respected the referees, but knew what I could get away with.โ€

Better than anyone, Buckley knows how to lose a fight. He lost 256 of his 300 fights (there were also 12 draws), boxed 1,686 rounds and nearly nine years into his retirement, heโ€™s a talkative interviewee with only a slightly squashed nose the only obvious souvenir from a sport he still loves.

The boy from Acocks Green in Birmingham, the youngest of nine children, has done well โ€“ and perhaps could have done better. โ€œI think I could have fought for the British title,โ€ said Buckley, now 48 years old. โ€œI was at that level. I held my own with drew Docherty and got a draw with Alan McKay.โ€

There was talk of a shot at Hugh Forde when his fellow Brummie briefly held the British super-featherweight title in 1990. The fight didnโ€™t come off and Buckley went back to fighting for money for Nobby Nobbs, the market trader, doorman, lorry driver and head of Losers Ltd.

โ€œI didnโ€™t like the label,โ€ admits Buckley, โ€œbut Nobby was anti-establishment. He didnโ€™t give a f**k. His attitude was: โ€˜As long as youโ€™re earning, who cares what anyone says about you ?โ€™โ€

Buckley was steered towards Nobbs, and away from his pubs-and-prison lifestyle, by pro Rocky Lawlor.

Lawlor remembered Buckley showing promise as an amateur with Talbot and Ladywood ABCs. He claims a 50-4 record and lost an NABC final to Mark Tibbs in 1985, but following the death of his father a few months later, Buckley went wild and spent the next five years โ€œin and out of prison for thieving, robbing shops.โ€

He had a couple of spells in hospital as well. Twice Buckley was stabbed โ€“ he spent three weeks in hospital with a punctured lung after having a screwdriver plunged into him โ€“ before Lawlor found him.

โ€œI saw Rocky in the pub,โ€ said Buckley. โ€œHe said: โ€˜Get back in the gym.โ€™ I was a bit drunk at the time and agreed. The next day, he knocked on my door. I thought I might have a few fights to keep out of trouble. I was stabbed twice, so wasnโ€™t really bothered about anyone in the boxing ring.โ€

Lawlor took Buckley around a few gyms โ€“ and introduced him to Nobbs.

โ€œNobby taught us to slip the right hand, block the left hook and keep your chin down,โ€ said Buckley. โ€œHe used to say: โ€˜Boxing is simple. You hit and donโ€™t get hitโ€™.โ€

There were other defensive techniques that Buckley picked up along the way: โ€œWhen I boxed Brian Robb the second time (a 10-round points loss for the vacant Midlands Area super-featherweight title in June, 1991), I tore my shoulder muscle.

โ€œI was supposed to have six months off, but I just carried on and sometimes when I was warming up in the changing room, my shoulder would go pop and I would have to push it back in. Thatโ€™s how I learned my cross armed defence.โ€

That cross-armed defence helped keep Buckley safe in the best of company. The record shows he fought 42 British, Commonwealth, European and world champions and Buckley says that โ€œwithout a doubtโ€ Duke McKenzie was the finest.

โ€œThe first time we boxed [in January 1991] I wasnโ€™t a journeyman,โ€ he said. โ€œI thought: โ€˜I can beat him or at least give him a good fight.โ€™ He was skinny, but getting hit by his jab was like having someone shove a broom handle in your face. He was the first to stop me, amateur or pro.โ€

Buckley also rated Colin McMillan โ€“ โ€œHe punched harder than people thinkโ€ โ€“ and Scott Harrison โ€“ โ€œStrong as an oxโ€ โ€“ and is less complimentary about Prince Naseem Hamed.

โ€œThe first fight [a six-round points loss in November, 1992] was a piece of p**s and they never should have stopped the rematch [in four rounds in January 1994].โ€

The fight with Brazilian knock-out specialist and future two-weight world champion Acelino Freitas, in Liverpool in December 1998, was tougher. โ€œI had never heard of him,โ€ said Buckley, โ€œand when he got in the ring, I thought there had been a mistake. I thought: โ€˜I canโ€™t be fighting him, heโ€™s huge.โ€™ Then they read out his record: โ€˜18 fights, 18 wins, 18 knockouts…โ€™

โ€œI thought: โ€˜Oh f**k.โ€™ He hit me with a body shot that just about broke me in half.โ€

Buckley didnโ€™t do his research on Freitas, but he did his homework on others. He said: โ€œI read the Boxing News from cover-to-cover every week โ€“ I was in it most weeks โ€“ and Nobby would ring me up and say: โ€˜What about this match? Whatโ€™s this kid like?โ€™ I would look him up and get back to him.โ€

Buckley worked as unofficial matchmaker for stablemates including Brian Coleman, Mark Ramsey and Paul Wesley.

โ€œThere were Sky shows when the right-hand side of the bill were all Nobbyโ€™s fighters,โ€ remembers Buckley. โ€œThey knew we werenโ€™t going to just fall over. We knew what we were doing.โ€

Nobbsโ€™ fighters were tough, crafty and always ready to box. โ€œI remember Nobby pulling up outside my house one evening and shouting: โ€˜Come on, youโ€™ve got a fight in London tonightโ€™,โ€ said Buckley. โ€œHe knew my kit was always ready, so I jumped in the car, lost on points to Marlon Ward and came home without a mark on me.โ€

Many times Buckley boxed the objective was to lose on points and come home unmarked.

how to lose a fight

โ€œWhen I started out, I wasnโ€™t a journeyman,โ€ he said. โ€œI had more wins than losses and I was fighting decent kids. I went up to Scotland a few times and never got the decision up there. I battered Donnie Hood and still lost.

โ€œSometimes I went in there thinking: โ€˜F**k it, I will just have a move around. Iโ€™m never going to get the decision.โ€™ There must be 70 fights that I drew or lost by half a point that I won really. โ€œReferees gave decisions against me, but I never slagged them off. I knew I would be seeing them again in the next week or so.โ€

Thereโ€™s a 12-round points loss to Harald Geier for a meaningless bauble in Vienna in February 1993 that Buckley found harder to shrug off. โ€œI knocked him down in the ninth, had him out and the referee did everything apart from wipe his arse to get him through the fight,โ€ he said. The Austrian went on to fight for European and WBO titles โ€“ and Buckley returned to the domestic circuit to give prospects rounds.

โ€œAfter I got to 292 fights, I was going to pack in,โ€ he said.ย  โ€œI went up to Scotland with Anthony Hanna for a show, [promoter] Tommy Gilmour put me on the top table and said: โ€˜You should have 300.โ€™ โ€œI thought: โ€˜Yeah, why notโ€™?โ€ The 300th fight went ahead at Aston Villa Leisure Centre in October 2008 on a Sky Sports show topped by Don Broadhurst defending his Commonwealth super-flyweight title.

The 39-year-old Buckley marked the occasion with a four-round points win over novice Matin Mohammed, his 33rd win and first for five years. โ€œWe had drawn before,โ€ he said, โ€œand I beat him easily. I knew that was the right time to knock it on the head. The motivation wasnโ€™t there anymore.

โ€œPeople thought I would box again, but by then, I had had enough of the game. After I packed up,
I ran Heartlands Amateur Boxing Club for a while and then worked with [journeyman] Sid Razak.
โ€œSid had the same mentality as me. He didnโ€™t give a f**k.โ€

Buckley still holds a trainerโ€™s licence and perhaps 21-year-old nephew Billy will offer him a way back into the sport. โ€œBilly werenโ€™t a bad kid in the amateurs,โ€ said Buckley, โ€œbut he lost a close one in the championships and drifted away.

โ€œHeโ€™s back in the gym now and Iโ€™ve been working with him over the last few weeks. โ€œItโ€™s just a matter of finding the time to train him.โ€

Buckley is busy. He pays the bills with โ€œa bit of carpet fitting here and there, some labouring, a bit of painting and decoratingโ€ โ€“ and could be heading to Hollywood. Stateside Pictures have plans to put his story on the big screen.

โ€œI thought it was a wind-up when they got in touch,โ€ said Buckley. โ€œThey sent me a script that was a bit Americanised, it wasnโ€™t really me. The second one I read still wasnโ€™t 100 per cent me, but it was alright. We will see what happens now. Iโ€™m not holding my breath.

โ€œI might write a book. [Author] Mark Turley asked to interview me for his book, The Journeymen, but if thereโ€™s going to be a book about me, I will do it myself. There would be some great stories in it โ€“ and they would all be true.โ€