Bobby Neill (born 10 October 1933)Hall of Fame beckons for ring legend Neill
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The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pa ...

'', 11 September 2004. Retrieved 18 May 2016 was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom *Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe eel, ...

who was British

Featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

Champion between 1959 and 1960.

Early life

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, the son of Andrew Neill, a

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Obituary: Charlie Hill, boxer
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'', 12 July 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2016 and Sarah Richardson. He had an older brother Frank, a younger brother Andrew, and two younger sisters, Myra and Marcella. Neill attended Trinity Academy, and boxed out of the Sparta Amateur Boxing Club, representing Scotland at amateur level despite suffering serious injuries in a car crash.

Boxing career

He made his professional debut in May 1955 with a second round stoppage of Denny Dennis. He won his first 15 fights, including an eighth round stoppage of Matt Fulton in September 1956 to take the vacant

BBBofC The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) is the governing body of professional boxing in the United Kingdom. History The British Boxing Board of Control was formed in 1929 from the old National Sporting Club and is headquartered in Cardiff ...

Scottish Area featherweight title, and a first round stoppage of

Charlie Hill Charles Allan Hill (July 6, 1951 – December 30, 2013) was one of the first Native American stand-up comedians, to appear on major television shows such as the Richard Pryor Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letter ...

in December. He was named 'Best Young Boxer of the Year' in 1957 at the British Boxing Writers Awards. He suffered his first loss in January 1957, when he was stopped by the then unbeaten Jimmy Brown. His second defeat came three months later against Victor Pepeder. Later that year he was again seriously injured in a car crash, the resulting surgery shortening one of his legs, with surgeons telling him that he would never box again, but despite this Neill regained his fitness and continued to have success in the ring. He challenged for Hill's British featherweight title in April 1959 at Nottingham Ice Rink, stopping the defending champion in the ninth round after knocking him down nine times. Two months later he knocked out Terry Spinks in the ninth at the Empire Pool,

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. His next fight was a loss to Davey Moore, the American stopping him in the first round. Neill started 1960 with wins over Alberto Serti, Germain Vivier, and Jimmy Carson, but was stopped in the fifth round in June by Johnny Kidd. In September he made the first defence of his British title against Spinks at the

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. The fight was stopped in the seventh round due to cuts sustained by Neill. They met again for the title in November, Spinks this time knocking out Neill in the fourteenth round, leaving him in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

and requiring surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain.Jones, Ken (1998)
Boxing: Old boxers don't always fade away, some succeed in real life
, ''

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'', 12 February 1998. Retrieved 18 March 2016

Post-fight career

Neill subsequently retired from boxing, and within a few years began a second career as a trainer, working with Spinks and other boxers such as

Alan Minter Alan Sydney Minter (17 August 19519 September 2020) was a British professional boxer who competed from 1972 to 1981. He held the undisputed middleweight title in 1980, having previously held the British middleweight title from 1975 to 1976, a ...

Lloyd Honeyghan Lloyd Honeyghan (born 22 April 1960) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1995. He reigned as the undisputed welterweight champion from 1986 to 1987, and held the WBC, '' The Ring'' magazine welterweight titles twic ...

Alan Rudkin Alan Rudkin MBE (18 November 1941 – 22 September 2010) was a British national, Commonwealth, and European bantamweight boxing champion (1965–1970). He was born in St Asaph (Wales), as his pregnant mother was evacuated from Liverpool during ...

, and

Vernon Sollas Vernon Sollas (born 14 August 1954) is a Scottish former boxer, businessman and music manager, who was British featherweight champion between 1975 and 1977. Career From Edinburgh, Sollas fought as an amateur out of the Madison ABC, and in 1972 ...

. He also worked as a boxing adviser on television shows including ''

Minder A minder is the person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something, i.e. a person who " minds". Government-appointed persons to accompany foreign visitors are of ...

''.

Personal life

Neill married Laurie Steadman in May 1961, they had a daughter Michelle born in 1962 and a son Fraser born in 1965. After Laurie died he married Maria Zola.

Death

Neill died of complications related to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. His funeral was held at

Enfield Crematorium Enfield Crematorium is a crematorium located on the A10 road (England), Great Cambridge Road, Enfield, London. It was opened in 1938 and consists of of land, most of which is dedicated to the gardens of remembrance. The crematorium is a loca ...

on 10th March 2022.

Honours

In 2004 he was inducted into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame.

References

External links

Career record
at boxinghistory.org.uk *
"Bobby Neill Wins Title (1959)"
British Pathé News * {{DEFAULTSORT:Neill, Bobby 1933 births Living people Scottish male boxers Featherweight boxers Boxers from Edinburgh