Jimmy Dunne

A former Liverpool docker, Jimmy Dunne started boxing at the age of seven at the same school that Lonsdale Belt winner Ernie Roderick attended 25 years earlier. Dunne did not start boxing seriously, however, until he was in his teens. An England international in 1963, Dunne became the ABA lightweight champion after outpointing Tommy McEvoy in 1964, and as the reigning champion he went to the Tokyo Olympics. At the Games, Dunne managed to beat the Cuban Bienvenido Hita in a rare defeat for a Cuban boxer at the Olympics in those days. Sadly, Dunne was beaten by the Philippines boxer Rodolfo Arpon in the next round.

Dunne turned professional after the Tokyo Olympics, and in a five-fight career lasting nearly 12 months, he won three bouts, drew one, and lost one. Dunne´s brother Harry was an ABA standard boxer while his nephew Colin Dunne was a WBU world lightweight champion.

In an interview with journalist Ian Hargreaves of the Liverpool Echo in 1964, at the time that Beatles hysteria was taking Britain by storm, Dunne said: “The Beatles? They´re a lot of kids. Just a craze and it will be over soon. Can´t think what people see in them.” Fortunately Dunne knew more about boxing then the world of pop music.