England's Olympic Bronze Medallist, Alan Minter Dies Of Cancer At 69

England's former World middleweight champion, and Olympic bronze medallist Alan Minter, died on Wednesday at the age of 69 after a long battle with cancer.

Alan Minter, known as “Boom Boom” born on 17 August 1951 in Crawley, England, Minter fought as a professional from 1972 to 1981 and as an amateur won an ABA championship and represented Great Britain at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, winning a bronze medal in the light-middleweight division.

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At the Olympics, the English professional fighter lost to Dieter Kottysch of West Germany on a highly disputed 3-2 decision. Kottysch would go on to win the gold medal.

The World Boxing Association (WBA) is very sad to learn of the death of former WBA Champion Alan Minter on Thursday at the age of 69 ?? .

-#Boxing | #Boxeo | #WBA | #WBABoxing | #AlanMinter pic.twitter.com/XKcnmaarrd

— WBA Boxing (@WBABoxing) September 10, 2020

As a professional, Minter held the British middleweight title from 1975 to 1976 and won the European middleweight title on two occasions. He also won the undisputed world middleweight title with a victory over Italian American Vito Antuofermo in March 1980.

After beating Antuofermo on a sixth-round stoppage in a return flight, in his second defense on 27 September 1980 at the Wembley Arena in London he lost the WBC and WBA middleweight titles to Marvin Hagler on the third-round technical knockout, after the referee stopped the fight at 1 minute 45 seconds into the round when Minter was badly cut over the eyes.

Sadly the fight is best remembered by a crowd riot after the stoppage, with chairs, bottles, and glasses being hurled into the ring.

Minter only had three more fights after the loss to Hagler, a points win over Ernie Singletar, a split decision loss to Mustafa Hamsho, and a third-round stoppage loss to Tony Sibson on 15 September 1981 for the European Boxing Union middleweight title.

The southpaw Minter finished with a record of 39 -9-1-1nc (23) with most of his losses coming through cut-eye stoppages.