Peter Keenan

Before he took up boxing during World War II, Peter Keenan wanted to be a jockey, but he joined the Anderston boxing club in Glasgow and became the 1948 Scottish area flyweight champion. In the final of ABA Championships that year, he lost to Henry Carpenter. Both Carpenter and Keenan were selected for the London Olympics, but Keenan was a non-starter. He then turned professional and made his début against Al Hutt at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on 17 September 1948.

Keenan went on to win 54 of his 66 professional bouts, 23 by knockouts. In his 11-year career, he won the British, Commonwealth and European bantamweight titles, and was one of a handful of men to win two Lonsdale Belts outright. At the time of his death, he was the only Scot to do so. Keenan had only one world title fight, losing on points to Vic Toweel in Johannesburg in 1952. It was Keenan’s first defeat in 33 bouts. Many regard Keenan as the best British boxer never to win a world title.

After losing his British and Commonwealth bantamweight titles to Freddie Gilroy in 1959, Keenan immediately announced his retirement in the ring in front of 15,000 fans, who spontaneously sang Auld Lang Syne. He was by then, a successful property developer and owner of two Glasgow public houses, Peter Keenan’s Stable Bar (the first pub in Glasgow to be granted an all-day licence) and The Sportsman. In 1962 he became a boxing promoter. Sadly, Keenan was forced into bankruptcy in 1985.