THE RETURN to the ring for Herol ‘Bomber’ Graham in 1996 at the Concord Centre in Sheffield was an odd affair. He had been gone four years, forgotten in many ways.
At that point, Graham had fought twice for the world title, he had won his first British title 14 years earlier and he would, in 1998, fight one last time for a version of the world title. The story about the last fight in Atlantic City is a movie, a farce, a comedy, a heartbreaking tale. That night in Sheffield, his entire career was on the line in a truly anonymous fight. A win was the only way forward.
Graham was unbeaten in 38 fights when he lost for the first time; he had stopped or knocked out 21 of the men he had beaten and that is always overlooked. He is portrayed – mostly thanks to people who never promoted him – as a boring fighter, a pacifist and a non-puncher. It’s a myth, to be honest.
His first loss was to Sumbu Kalambay in a European middleweight title fight in 1987. It was slender, a round or two at the very most. Less than two years later, it was the same with Mike McCallum in Graham’s first world title fight. It was a split for the WBA belt, a shattering fight and Graham’s life away from the ring was also split.
Graham had been the No.1 contender for five years; he had lost just the once in 42 fights. McCallum, make no mistake, was a great fighter. Graham dropped McCallum in the fifth but lost a point in round eight when he tried to throw McCallum off; if Graham had not lost the point, he would have won the world title.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” Graham told us after the fight. He was broken that night. The corner during the fight had been a nightmare with both Barney Eastwood and Brendan Ingle hollering instructions. There was a dispute before the fight, and the WBA had told Graham that Eastwood had a legal right to be in the corner; the Board had backed the decision and the chaos was outrageous.
“I tried to shut out Eastwood’s voice and concentrate on Brendan’s, but it was impossible,” Graham said. After the fight, Eastwood was critical of his boxer; Graham and Ingle slipped away. It was an ugly moment for British boxing, not just the Bomber.
After the controversial loss to McCallum at the Royal Albert Hall in 1989, Graham was still a top fighter, elite at world level and with a record that any British boxer would be blessed with possessing. He had stopped and beaten some very good men on the road to that point; Mark Kaylor, Rod Douglas, Lindell Holmes, Sanderline Williams, Ayub Kalule, Jimmy Price, Jose Seys, Pat Thomas, James Cook, Johnny Melfah and Prince Rodney.
However, in one of British boxing’s strangest acts, Graham was about to become an invisible fighter, struggling for recognition in the slipstream of Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Michael Watson. They fought their classics and Graham was a spectator – it still makes no sense now. Marvin Hagler knew how good he was and was never in a hurry to give Graham a fight – that is fact, not fiction.
After McCallum, there were two quick stoppage wins and then a vacant WBC middleweight title fight against Julian Jackson in Spain in November 1990. It was just six days after Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank had fought in Birmingham for the WBO version of the title; they were front and back page for their stunning fight.
Meanwhile, Graham was off in the fading summer light for a night against the sport’s number one puncher. And – I think – you know how that finished. Graham was cruising, three rounds up, Jackson was threatened with a stoppage, his left eye closed, his existing retina damage a fear and then he found the punch to end it in the fourth. It was cruel; Eubank was not looking to unify against Jackson, that is for certain.
Graham was out for five minutes and spent the night under observation at a Torremolinos hospital. “It was a lucky punch,” he said. It was, but Graham had helped the one-eyed Jackson by trying to finish the fight. All he had to do was stand up and the referee, corner and doctor would have pulled Jackson out at the end of the fourth round. It was dumb, to be honest – the ref had told both corners that the fourth was Jackson’s last round and last chance.
Graham needed a year after the Jackson fight and during that year, Eubank, Benn and Watson became British boxing’s saviours. Graham is a forgotten man when he returns with a British middleweight title win in Sheffield in December 1991.
There are conflicting stories of sparring sessions between Graham and Eubank; Graham becomes the old man of British boxing. And then he loses back-to-back fights, and he is no longer a risk to Eubank or Benn. He was ignored, he lost, and he went away.
The defeat to Frank Grant in a British middleweight title fight is tough for Graham; it is his 49th fight and the first loss to a British boxer. He walked away for four years and then came back with the Terry Ford fight.
At the Concord Centre on that night in November 1996, a few hundred paid to watch their fallen idol begin the final stage of his career. I would be lying if I told you I remembered the fight wholesale; it was just another Tuesday night in Sheffield, a few hundred words of copy for the paper and a mad dash to an Indian at midnight. It was also the start of the end for the Bomber. He is still missing the respect he deserves; he gave so much and has had so little.
