Eric Blake

Eric Blake started boxing with the Caius Boxing Club in Battersea before joining nearby Battersea ABC, Britain’s oldest boxing club. While at Caius he was an ABA national youth champion in 1963. In 1967 he was runner-up in the senior ABA light-middleweight final when, despite having his opponent, Alan Edwards, on the canvas in the first round, he still lost. After a switch to Battersea, Blake won the ABA title the following year and then went to the Mexico Olympics as one of the fancied fighters in the light-middleweight division. After two wins, Blake was eventually beaten by the Cuban Rolando Garbey when the referee stopped the contest in the final round of their quarter-final bout.

A plasterer at the time, Blake turned professional in January 1969 and between then and defeat by Pat McCann at Nottingham in 1973, had 22 bouts, with a 13-9 win-loss record.