A native of West Belfast Johnny Caldwell was part of the most successful Irish Olympic boxing team. His bronze medal at Melbourne was one of four won by Irish boxers at those games. A pipe-fitter by profession, he compiled an amateur record of 234 wins from 240 fights but his only other major tournament appearance ended in disappointment when he was outpointed by eventual champion Manfred Homberg in the first round of the 1957 European Championships.
He turned professional in 1958 and, basing himself in Glasgow, Scotland, ran up an impressive series of victories. Caldwell became British flyweight champion in 1960 and then moved up to the bantamweight division. In 1962 he outpointed French-Algerian Alphonse Halimi for the European bantamweight title and the EBU version of the world championships. After one successful defence he was matched with the Brazilian Eder Jofre to unify both portions of the world championship but suffered a crushing defeat in Jofre’s home country. He suffered another setback against local rival Freddie Gilroy in 1962 but rebounded to win the British and Commonwealth titles in 1964. He retired from boxing after losing these titles in 1965 and returned to his former occupation of pipe-fitter. He died following a long battle with cancer in 2009.
Ireland