ON FEBRUARY 27, Joe Taylor of Leyland died just two days shy of his 89th birthday.lame pants birthday. Few people will remember Joe today, but he was the first man to put Howard Winstone in the seat of his pants in a professional ring.
Joe was a returner to the old school and turned professional in 1951 at the age of 16. Soon after, the Board raised the minimum age for a professional license to 18 and this remained in place until 1975 when it was reduced to 17. Today, it is now 18. Joe is therefore one of the last 16-year-old professional players.
Hailing from Leyland, in Lancashire, Joe was naturally drawn to the Public Hall in Preston for most of his early competitions. The promoter there was Fred Bamber, and Fred ruled that part of Lancashire. Like Preston, Fred promoted regularly at King George's Hall in Blackburn and at the Empress Ballroom in Burnley. In 1950, Joe appeared twice in professional shows at Preston at the age of 15, boxing in three-round exhibition contests, with rounds of one and a half minutes.
When Joe was old enough to take his license, Fred was keen to introduce him in regular competitions, the first of which took place in November 1951 against fellow debutant, Hanley's Freddie Deaks, whom Joe had overtaken. through four rounds. Both guys weighed under 7 pounds. The local newspaper described how Joe, although shorter and narrower, attacked throughout, knocking out the Hanley lad for a score of 'seven' in the second round. He was then matched against Radford's Cheny Barrington, a professional since 1943 and a veteran of 19 competitions, 12 of which were victories. Joe is an anachronism, a real one. He was still 16 years old but he was still happy to face a grown man with a bit of experience. Barrington didn't last long as Joe gaslighted him for two rounds.
Two weeks later, Joe did the same to another Nottingham man, George Homer, knocking him out in just three rounds. At this stage, Bamber could be forgiven for thinking he has a real prospect on his hands and BN confirmed this in a small section titled “KO king at 16”. The article said that Taylor, the grocery store errand boy, was assisted by Harry Gent, a star performer from Chorley who had beaten the great Len Harvey in 1925, and that he I was carried with caution but was a great prospect.
Joe boxed regularly throughout Lancashire until 1953, winning 13 of 16 contests before leaving the game for several years. He returned in 1955, boxing twice at bantamweight, and then retired for several more years before returning at featherweight in 1957. After winning two more contests in the weight class, he retired from competition again for several more years before the contest in September 1959 against Winstone.
Howard Winstone was one of the best fighters to come from these shores since World War II. He won the 1958 ABA title in the bantamweight division and then won the Commonwealth Games gold medal three months later. He turned pro in a blaze of glory, winning his first eight contests with ease before being matched against Joe. As we all know, Howard won everything, and the best night of his career came in 1968 when he defeated Mitsunori Seki to win the world featherweight championship.
Winstone faced Taylor when he was dropped by a sharp right-hander in the first round. Winstone then turned it on, dropping Taylor five times before the referee intervened in the fourth round. It was Taylor's last competition. He stayed in Leyland, working as a mechanic and training boxers at the local gym in Worden Park. He was one of the last of his kind and will be greatly missed.
