By Emmerson Campbell
Having straddled the best that Britain and Antigua has to offer in the way of facilities for amateur and professional boxers it is no wonder that former World Boxing Council’s (WBC) Junior middleweight champion, Maurice Hope wants better facilities for the regions boxers.
“I would like to see more facilities, more equipment and a lot more sponsors in the sport of boxing. I have been all over the World and the Caribbean boxers are behind with the equipment,” Hope told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Hope, who grew up poor, was born on December 6, 1951 in St John’s Antigua but left Antigua with his six other siblings at the age of 11 to join his parents for a better life in London, England.
He was a star as an amateur boxer in England and eventually represented Great Britain at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany.
Hope duly made his professional debut against John Smith on June 18, 1973 winning the eight round decision in Nottingham on points.
Yesterday Hope said that besides winning the World title he had several other notable experiences and accolades in the sport of boxing.
“Other than winning the Word title I went to the 1972 Olympics in Munich (Germany). I also won several titles in England including the British junior middleweight title, the British Commonwealth junior middleweight title and the European Boxing Union junior middleweight title,” he said.
Hope is currently in Guyana on a Christmas vacation at his wife’s residence in Agricola.
Hope won the World title in 1979 by a ninth round knockout of then WBC world champion Italian Rocky Mattioli in San Remo, Italy.
This is his third visit to the ‘Land of many Waters’
And the father of two revealed that he started boxing when his older brother, who was also a boxer, told him told him to accompany him to a gym session.
“Well I started to box at the age of 10 and my first fight I was 11. I started to box because I had a bigger brother who was a boxer and one day he took me to the boxing gym and that is where it started,” Hope told Stabroek Sport.
Hope, 60, who is the national boxing coach in his native land, is also Antigua’s first and only World champion.
He says he has a passion to find another ‘Maurice Hope’ in Antigua and as such continues to toil daily and work with young pugilists.
Hope, who stressed that he would like to see better boxing facilities and sponsorship for regional boxers, had three successful title defences before losing to Wilfred Benitez.
His record reads 30 wins, four losses and one draw in 35 bouts, with 24 wins by knockout.
Benitez would later became the first Latin American to win World titles in three different weight divisions; the youngest boxer in history to do so, and the first in 40 years to achieve that accomplishment.
The former World champion noted that the low point of his career was being robbed of his first World title against the then WBC champion German Eckhard Dagge in Germany in 1977 after he outdueled Dagge over 15 rounds but the fight was declared a draw.
He made his professional debut in 1974 and retired in 1982 and said that he is enjoying life after boxing.
“I have been enjoying life off of boxing since then. My life after boxing has been good. There is nothing harder than the sport of boxing. I’m a proud man, I feel like I am a role model, an example.
“I am the national coach, I work with the government, and I’m glad I get the opportunity to occupy the time of kids that need something positive to do, you know channel their direction into something positive, he said.
In recognition of Hope’s achievements while a resident in Great Britain, the London Borough of Hackney named a major cycle route after him. He was also given an acre of land in St John’s, Antigua.
Hope is scheduled to return to Antigua today.
