Nicholas GARGANO

Nicky Gargano’s boxing career lasted just seven years and entirely as an amateur, but in that time the southpaw welterweight won three ABA titles, an Empire Games (now Commonwealth Games) gold medal, a European amateur title and an Olympic bronze medal.

His first senior title was the London ABA welterweight title in 1953 as a 19-year-old, but the following year he won the first of three consecutive ABA welterweight titles. He served in the Army and was the Army champion in 1954 and 1955. Also in 1954, on the day that Roger Bannister beat John Landy in the “Greatest Mile Race of All Time” at the Commonwealth Games, Gargano won the welterweight gold medal after beating Australia’s Rodney Litzow. The following year he won the European amateur title in Berlin to become the first person to hold ABA, Commonwealth Games and European titles at the same time. He was also awarded the prize for the most stylish boxer at the Europeans. Britain’s best hope for a boxing gold medal for 1956 Olympic title, he was beaten in the semi-final on points by Nicolae Linca of Romania and ended up with a bronze medal. In January 1957 Gargano announced his retirement from boxing at age of 22 in order to spend more time in his job as a fruit salesman in Covent Garden, but he maintained contact with the sport as a coach at Eton Manor Boys’ Club, his first club, and the club that produced Olympic champion Harry Mallin. In his senior amateur career Nicky Gargano had 155 bouts and lost just five and two of the men who beat him went on to become established professionals – Peter Waterman and Tommy Molloy