Nick Manners and a tale of two knockouts at Elland Road

NICK MANNERS likes underdogs and in the boxing business he was often the underdog.

Manners fought just 17 professional fights during nine years in the ring. He met some of the giants from every circuit: the winners, the losers and the lunatics.

He won his debut when he inflicted loss number 41 on Paul Murray, he drew with Tony Booth, and he lost to Joe Calzaghe in 1995. Manners won 11, lost five and had the Booth draw; he won 10 times by stoppage or knockout.

Manners has a book out called Front, and Calzaghe has written a foreword. โ€œAfter I won the WBO super-middleweight title, Nick was the first one in the dressing room to congratulate me.โ€ Manners had been hired as a sparring partner for the Eubank fight.

Book reviews often tell too many of the stories and, quite often, they can be harsh on style, facts, figures; this is not a book review, but it is a story about a wonderful story in the book.

In September 1992, Manners fought on the undercard at Elland Road when Frank Grant shocked Herol Graham in a British title fight. Manners was a Leeds fan, a big one.

He had two fights that night and won them both inside a total of about 30 seconds. Here is the story of the night at Elland Road when Manners knocked out Lee Crocker in the ring and Paul Sykes in the home dressing room. Two shots, two wins, one night.

nick manners
Nick Manners

Manners had been in prison with the infamous Sykes, but he never knew him. He avoided him on both sides of the bars and that was sensible. They finally met at Elland Road and Sykes had been drinking and was in a nasty mood; Manners was just getting ready to fight.

โ€œIโ€™d seen him at a distance, but Iโ€™d kept him at a distance for a good reason,โ€ Manners said.

Manners perfectly recalls the mood that descends when a lunatic arrives in a bar, in a room or in a gym. It is that sense of trouble, unavoidable trouble. Sykes was psychotic, remember. Manners was warming up with Jason Barker, one of the original Pretty Boys. Sykes crashed into the area they were using. โ€œYou two fighters?โ€ he asked. They were in boots and shadow boxing. Sykes got in Barkerโ€™s face and told him: โ€œIโ€™d rather f*** ya than fight ya.โ€ The mood had seriously changed. Brendan Ingle intervened and there was calm, Manners moved away, but Sykes followed Manners into the changing room.

โ€œTwenty seconds later the doors abruptly opened and Sykesy comes storming through continuing his rant,โ€ said Manners.

At that time, Sykes had reached peak notoriety. There had been television shows, he had told his stories of wild manhunts all over the world. More than that, he had terrorised cities and towns in Yorkshire. He had also lost a British heavyweight title fight in one of the most savage legal beatings ever seen in a boxing ring. In short, Paul Sykes was to be avoided at all costs. Manners was trapped.

In the changing room, Sykes was cunning and dropped the sleaze act, and offered to help Manners warm up. Sykes was a big and intimidating lump. In prison, Manners had sneaked a couple of looks, but nothing more. Manners gently refused, but found himself having to back away, moving round a table several times. At some point, Manners questioned his own bravery.

โ€œI was backing off this strange guy, when in 20 minutes I was going into the most important fight of my life?โ€ Manners tells the story well, trust me. You really get the sense of confusion and doubt.

At some point in this sinister pantomime, Manners stands his ground and tells Sykes that his guidance is not needed. Sykes just kept marching forward, talking gibberish and throwing his own punches of instruction. And then, wallop. Manners had backed up enough and let a single left hook fly and down and out went Sykes. Gone, sleeping on the dressing room floor.

โ€œNow,โ€ Manners writes, โ€œI had another Paul Sykes problem. Heโ€™s no longer stood up rabbiting on, heโ€™s fast asleep on the floor. Itโ€™s harder than when he was vertical because heโ€™s now horizontal and in a heap on the floor.โ€

Manners explains that it was fear that led him to take care of Sykes and not because he wanted to brag about it. Manners was, remember, getting ready to get in the ring at the home of his beloved Leeds United. It was his glory night and Sykes was set to ruin it.

Manners drags Sykes into the shower and turns it on full blast. Sykes wakes, regains his feet unsteadily and looks at Manners. โ€œGood shot that, kid,โ€ he said and then he staggered off. It’s a fine story on a night when Grant shocked British boxing.

There are a lot of Paul Sykes stories, but I like this one. I also like the one where he swims across a strait somewhere in Indonesia and knocks out a shark. Sykes looks down the lens and gives advice on banging out a shark. Priceless. Iโ€™m not sure Sykes ever told the story about the night at Elland Road when he got knocked out by Nick Manners.

In 1997, Manners won the Central Area light-heavyweight title and just three weeks ago in Cannock he was finally given the belt. It’s another story and itโ€™s in his book.

As Josh Warrington says in the book about Manners, who works with the other legend of Leeds, โ€œhe wears his heart on his sleeve, heโ€™s very loyal and heโ€™s a man you can trust.โ€ That is testament enough for me. And he sparked Sykes the shark slayer.

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