Rear View Mirror – A look back on the extraordinary career of John L Gardner
Donald C Stewart looks back on the extraordinary career of pub landlord, stabbing victim, and British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion, John L Gardner
Somewhere in the back of my mind, like out the corner of my eye I can remember as a kid watching John L Gardner, 35-4, 29 KO’s, fight. I could pretend I knew when or against who, but it serves to remind me just how on the periphery of the world of boxing his career became. And yet here is a guy with a fantastic pedigree and one who it was an honour to spend time researching.
Gardner’s story starts like many a boxing champ, in poverty and with a childhood that tugs at your heart strings. In the book of his life, he describes his wonderful mother and his best friend, Victor; Victor was an Alsatian dog.
From humble beginnings he became active at the time of a new Government and philosophy which was the height conflict politically in the UK. We had a new dawn in the UK of thinking, addressing and challenging authority. It was a time of economic hardship and though most have long forgotten what we went through and how we came though it, it serves as a backdrop to a former British, Commonwealth and European champion who was an honest pro with a stocky presence balanced with speed and aggression that saw him rarely take a step back from things – out the ring it was to almost cost him his life.
Known as a stocky heavyweight who had both speed and aggression which brought him to the attention of the world, Gardner was to grace the fringes of world contention. Always game, his amateur career had seen him gain the Northwest London heavyweight crown, apparently, in 1973.
A Londoner, he turned over at the age of 20 and went on a five-year undefeated spree that saw 24 fights under his belt with no defeats, which began at the Royal Albert Hall when he retired Brian Hall in the 2nd round of a scheduled six. By 1977 he got his first belt when he beat Denton Ruddock for the Southern Area title in the Royal Albert Hall once more by stopping him in the 8th. This was despite recording his very first loss – a first-round knockout by Ibar Arrington at the Empire Pool Wembley 3 months earlier. Gardner in that instance was caught cold and cemented a reputation as a slow starter.
The Ruddock fight had been an eliminator for the British title and the vacant British and Commonwealth titles, both titles had been vacated by Joe Bugner, once more at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1978 Gardner took on and beat Billy Aird by stopping him in the 5th round.
He was on a roll and following a couple of non-title bouts he defended that British title in 1979 against the legendary Paul Sykes. Legendary because Sykes though he had a short boxing career he accrued a longer prison one, becoming one of the most difficult inmates in the British penal system. That night though he was forced to back down and was stopped in the 6th. Years later Gardner’s son told the tale of how his father had even gone into Sykes’ dressing room to show he was not intimidated by the man.
Gardner vacated the British title and then went in for only his second defeat – on points to Jimmy Young. It was not to stop his progress to another title and in 1980, at the dawn of a new decade he went into the ring against Belgium’s Rudy Gauwe. It was another stoppage win for the Londoner, this time in the 9th, and he won the EBU title, the belt he had relinquished his British crown to attain.
Momentum was building and after defending his European title once – in Italy, knocking Lorenzo Zanon out in the 5th round in the November of 1980, he then vacated it hoping he would get a world title shot. Four months later he knocked out future WBA cruiserweight title holder and heavyweight title opponent for Larry Holmes Ossie Ocasio at the Wembley Arena.
Gardner has a unique record in that he never lost a title fight in his professional career. It makes what happened next more interesting. Perhaps, had he been more of a mouth and liked the limelight, he would have forced his way into world title shots, but it was not to be. He was ready for a world title opportunity, but then who was to be next in his professional career? Who was next up? A certain Mohammad Ali.
Gardner signed a contract to take on this legend, but let’s remember where Ali was in the early 80’s. He was not the figure he had been and, to put it mildly, and the effects of his boxing life were all too evident to those who knew him: he was not a well man. But before Gardner could get his career defining fight, Ali retired. Scheduled to fight in Hawaii, not too shabby, Gardner was thwarted but he had faced Ali in a ring before. On TV, in the late 1970s Gardner had participated in an exhibition with the icon. Gardner showed his skills and afterwards, again according to his son, speaking to Boxing News, Ali was very complimentary about his old man. Now though there was to be no professional equivalent under the lights and with championship rules in place. There would be no world title belt or world title shot on the line for Gardner.
Instead, in 1981, he got in the ring with a man who was fancied to beat him – Michael Dokes. In Detroit, Michigan, John L Gardner was knocked out after 4 rounds, by a man who was in his prime, undefeated in the Joe Louis Arena. Gardener hung up the gloves not long afterwards; he was only 28 years of age – 39 fights, 35 wins and 29 by way of knockout with only 4 defeats.
The lure of the ring was, however, too much for him and in 1983, he made an ill-fated comeback. Gardner fought 3 times in 3 months and managed 2 wins but then came the inevitable knock out. He was stopped in 30 seconds of the 2nd round by Noel Quarless in what was to be his last fight leading to a second and final retirement.
Retirement saw him firstly in the drinks business with a pub before he sold mailing equipment for Pitney Bowes. The colour of his life in the ring was matched with the unbelievable colour of his life thereafter as that pub he ran was part of an arson attack and where Gardner was stabbed no fewer than 14 times outside of it by a drug dealer!
The story of that night simply told was that The Three Tuns Pub in Gateshead, where Gardner plied his trade, was a notorious den. On Hallowe’en one year a local drugs dealer took offence at Gardner refusing to serve him. He took it so badly that that he came into the pub with a ski mask on and a knife. An eight-inch blade was plunged into Gardner’s chest, abdomen and neck.
Gardner survived and recalling the event, years later, Gardner told of it as follows, it as follows, it “He thrust the blade into my chest, and I felt a warm trickle run down my stomach. He stabbed me in the abdomen and I went down. He was manic, screaming, jabbing the knife in my neck. He was butchering me, slicing me up. I was hitting him on the top of the head, but the blade came down again and again and again. Blood was squirting out of me. My intestines were sticking out like cauliflower. I was screaming out.”
Gardner’s wife was not left out of the assault and suffered 4 wounds as she tried to help.
Gardner recovered, as did his wife, though he was left scarred down the side of his body and unsurprisingly left the area whilst the attacker got a 14-year prison sentence.
As for Gardner, having relocated in the northeast of England, his son, Ross, became a professional boxer fighting once – and finishing his pro career undefeated! In an interview with Boxing News, he spoke warmly of his old man who had become his trainer, and if there are any final words, it should be the man who knew him best, his own son that should serve to sum up John L Gardner.
“People forget dad was undefeated British, Commonwealth, and European heavyweight champion and handed his belts back, which he regrets now because he wishes he could have given them to me. … I’ve watched dad’s fights and one that stands out for me is the Paul Sykes contest. He was a bully, but dad fronted him out in his own dressing room and then made him quit and turn his back showing just how much of a bully he really was. Dad’s also been in there with the greatest. He boxed an exhibition with Muhammad Ali who said afterwards that my dad was a very tough man – now that’s something to be proud of!”
The whole career is something to be proud of. Gardner may be remembered by some more for the attack than anything else, but we should never forget a man who fought hard and entertained. His win for the European title, beating of Sykes with every known London gangster present and the fact he never lost a title fight means he is a boxer we should celebrate for his career in the sport and not for anything else thereafter; I must work out which fight I saw him in! I’m away to YouTube…
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