Lloyd Honeyghan

Lloyd Honeyghan (born 22 April 1960) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1995.

He boxed for England but never won an ABA title, being beaten in the English semi-finals by Joey Frost in 1979.

In the 1980 ABA championships he was beaten early in the competition on points by Gunther Roomes, at the South East Division of the London championships and decided to turn professional.

Honeyghan turned professional with Terry Lawless in 1980.

He debuted with a six-round points decision victory over fellow novice Mike Sullivan.

He won his first 13 fights, including a victory over the tough Kostas Petrou.

At regional level he held the British, European and Commonwealth welterweight titles between 1983 and 1985, and the Commonwealth super-welterweight title from 1993 to 1994.

Honeyghan was born in Jamaica and spent his early years there living with his grandparents.

He came to England at the age of nine to join his parents who had settled in Bermondsey.

He took up boxing at the age of 11 with the Fisher Amateur Boxing club.

He was a good, rather than an outstanding amateur boxer.

Before positioning himself for an eliminator against the capable Lloyd Hibbert for the British welterweight title on 18 January 1983.

Honeyghan outpointed the future British super-welterweight champion over ten rounds.

He followed this by capturing the Southern Area welterweight title with a fourth-round knockout over the dangerous Sid Smith in March 1983.

Honeyghan captured the British welterweight title via a twelve-round points decision against the tough Cliff Gilpin on 5 April 1983, after suffering the first knockdown of his career in the second round.

Honeyghan later stated that Gilpin gave him one of his hardest fights.

He remained busy throughout 1983, travelling to the United States to defeat Kevin Austin, then outpointing US contender Harold Brazier in London before rounding off the year with a clear points victory in a British title rematch with Cliff Gilpin.

In 1984 Honeyghan fought only once, defeating Roberto Mendez.

He suffered a broken thumb and had to have a pin inserted into his left hand to keep the bone in place.

On 5 January 1985 he captured the European welterweight title with a highly impressive third-round knockout of future two-time super-welterweight world champion Gianfranco Rosi in Perugia, Italy.

In sparring preparing for the contest Honeyghan had been knocked out by former ABA champion David Dent, who was not known as a puncher.

However, it didn't affect his performance as he achieved the rare feat of a foreign fighter obtaining a victory in Italy.

Following this, Honeyghan defeated R W Smith (better known as Robert Smith) who is the current General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control in six rounds.

He kept extremely busy during 1985, defeating three US contenders in world title challenger Roger Stafford, followed by Danny Paul and Ralph Twinning.

Honeyghan and Lawless parted company because Honeyghan believed that Lawless was spending too much time on the career of Frank Bruno and not enough on his career.

As such the two couldn't get on and things came to a head following an altercation between Honeyghan and his trainer Jimmy Tibbs, in the Royal Oak gym run by Lawless.

An argument between the two ended up with bystanders having to drag them apart.

Following the incident, Lawless banned Honeyghan from his gym; Honeyghan promptly signed with Mickey Duff.

Honeyghan appointed former British featherweight champion Bobby Neill as his new trainer and closed out 1985 with a stoppage victory over fellow world rated Briton and former stablemate Sylvester Mittee, for the British, European, and Commonwealth welterweight titles.

He reigned as the undisputed welterweight champion from 1986 to 1987, and held the WBC, The Ring magazine welterweight titles twice between 1986 and 1989.

On 20 May 1986 Honeyghan stopped top US contender Horace Shufford in eight rounds in London, earning him a title shot against the unbeaten and undisputed welterweight world champion Donald Curry of the US.

On 27 September 1986, Honeyghan defeated Curry for the undisputed welterweight title.

The fight took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was televised by Showtime.

At the time Curry was considered to be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world with his only possible rival being Marvin Hagler.

Honeyghan was given little chance by the majority of the media.

However, there were rumours that Curry was having difficulty making the welterweight limit and that this would be his last fight at the weight.

The betting odds prior to the fight were 7.5–1 against Honeyghan.

His manager Duff placed a bet of $5,000 on Honeyghan to win.

When he told Honeyghan what he had done he said that they could split it down the middle.

Duff refused and told him to place his own bets.