Till: real terrier from the Black Country
Peter Till…one of the top Midland lightweights of the 80s and 90s
IN boxing, there are warriors - fighters who could prise unrelenting toe-to-toe warfare from a Trappist monk. Then there's Peter Till, the Walsall lightweight tough as the saddle leather that made his home-town famous.
He remains the ultimate Black Country battler. Till's punishing 52 fight career, spanning 1985 to 96, featured some of the greatest fights ever staged in the region's small halls. A portion of his blood-spattered career could've been scripted by Quentin Tarantino. The now 58-year-old faced the division's iron, both at home and abroad. When Peter, a former amateur star, entered the ring, fans knew edge-of-the-seat entertainment followed. They knew claret would flow.
The human buzzsaw was a study in violent perpetual motion. He'd bob and weave into position, deftly duck under opponents' leads, then unleash whiplash hooks. Even the best, including British champ Sugar Gibiliru and Commonwealth titleholder Mark Reefer, found an on-fire Till too hot to handle.
He didn't believe in tame rounds. He sought trench warfare from the get-go. The list of titanic struggles is too long to chronicle in detail. Peter was involved in a see-saw war with British champ Michael Ayers at Spurs' ground White Hart Lane before the Londoner found the punches to see off his tormentor. The battle with unbeaten Gareth Jordan, controversially won on points by the Welshman, was best watched through a curtain of fingers. It remains one of the most exciting bouts I've witnessed from ringside - and I've reported on the sport for 50 years.
In good company…Till with Sugar Ray Leonard
At the conclusion, Till, his face a grotesque mudpack of blood, hurled his gumshield on the canvas in disgust. The crowd showered the ring with coins. "I thought I taught him a boxing lesson on the inside," said Till. His CV is a who's who of the lightweight division's iron in the '90s. The opponents included Commonwealth champ Paul Burke, Uganda's former amateur great Justin Juuko, South Africa's world champ Dingaan Thobela, Denmark's European titleholder Racheed Lawal... All were faced on their own turf, all knew Till hadn't come to merely go through the motions. "I don't think I ducked anybody," said Peter with hefty understatement. "The best I fought? The one that springs to mind is Racheed Lawal." The Dane won by KO in Randers on June 4, 1992.
"He was class. I did really well for a round, then got backed-up to the ropes and he threw a combination. It was almost Sugar Ray Leonard-ish. Left, right, left uppercut - every one was a full punch, the uppercut cut my eye.
"I thought, 'this guy's class. I'm not conditioned for this guy, I'm not schooled for him'." The scars, the chipped features, the numerous times Peter had to trawl the very depths of his durability should've earned the Walsall warrior financial security. It has not. He does not begrudge today's champs their lucrative purses. "They've been spoilt, but they've earned it," he said. "They have dieticians, masseurs - they've earned it.
"We can all look back with envy, we can all look back and be wiser. You probably look back and wish you'd signed for the Sun or News of the World. I'm proud I gave entertainment, 100 per cent.
“Even when I lost, fans wanted to come back and see me again."
Despite the string of epic struggles, there's no slur in his sentences. Till speaks rapid fire, the words thick with the smog of his industrial roots. "I think I was too brave for my own good," he shrugged. "I'm very forgetful. I suffer headaches, but my gran suffered headaches. Everything has to be boxing related - it's rubbish.
"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, I gave value for money and that's what matters. I've bought tickets to see Tom Jones and Queen. If they were crap, I'd say they were crap. It's exactly the same with boxing."
The father-of-two is healthy, content, but has an "itch" that will not go away. He should've faced British champ Steve Boyle, a Glaswegian who possessed the power to punch holes in a reservoir's wall, in a mouthwatering clash at Walsall FC's old ground, Fellows Park. Even by Till's standards, that title clash would've been X rated.
The fight never came to fruition. Poor ticket sales forced promoter Ron Gray to pull the plug. Till remains steadfast in his belief fans would've arrived in sufficient numbers on the night. That, he insists, was the Walsall way. Pinning all on a potential last minute surge in interest is a flawed, even unworkable, business plan. Gray cannot be blamed for aborting the costly mega-show.
"Even now," said Till, "people come up to me and say, 'you would've beaten Boyle'. I don't know, that's the problem. I don't know if I would've beat him.
"I know I was fit and we knew we had to push Boyle back. He looked great coming forward, but get him on the back foot...It would've been fireworks, it robbed the public of that. "Ron jumped ship too early, in my opinion - that's his prerogative. It's forgiven, not forgotten, and, to be fair, he probably feels the same about me.
"I'm very opinionated, which can get you into trouble, but we're all allowed our opinion." It should be noted that in the aftermath of the big fight disappointment, Gray, who steered his charge to number one in the lightweight division, secured a European title fight for Till.
His fighter wanted no more of their relationship and snubbed the golden opportunity. Mellowed with age, Till now admits that was a mistake. "I'm stubborn, that's a fault," he said. "I bit my nose off to spite my face."
With Gray, there was a strategy - and Ron deserves immense credit for steering his charge to British title pole position. When the pair parted company, the planning was replaced by very tough assignments on the road, often taken at short notice.
Till during his days as sparring partner for Barry McGuigan
Peter retired after five strights defeats -three of them in Glasgow. He bowed out with a ledger of 30 wins, 21 defeats and a single draw. There was a comeback of sorts. Aged 49, Till engaged in a charity bout at Cannock's Premier Suite. He looked remarkably fit and sharp, but the barnstorming, relentless action that was the trademark of Peter in his pomp was, understandably, missing.
By then, Till's legacy had already been cemented. He may not have won titles, but he starred in some of the best contests staged in the Midlands. Peter Till was king of the crowd-pleasers.
*Till’s aggressive, come-forward style made him the ideal sparring partner for Irish world champ Barry McGuigan. The pair have remained friends.
"That was awesome," recalled Peter. "At his house, we had a right laugh. We drank cups of tea and got on like a house on fire.
"In the gym, he went one side, I went the other. Not a word was said, he didn't speak to me. The first round, my timing was good, I was catching him, but he was getting closer with each round and put me down with three body shots.
"Afterwards, I asked, 'Barry, have I said something to upset you?' He told me, 'when we're inside the ropes it's strictly business'. That was a massive lesson.”