Ex Professional boxer Willie Quinn was a big crowd puller in the 90’s both inside and outside the boxing ring, at one time he had more followers than Geronimo. Willie hung up his gloves in 2001, his trademark was making a T sign with one glove touching the other forearm that would send his fans into a frenzy, he was better known as Willie ‘The Mighty’ Quinn.



Let me take you back to the winter of 1997, January the 18th to be precise. Willie travelled down to Derbyshire, England, with hoards of his loyal fans also making the trip south and the prize at stake was the British Middleweight Title. Willie had come a long way in the pro ranks and had earned his right to fight for the Lonsdale Belt. Green Bank Leisure Centre, Swadlincote was the venue and the formidable opponent standing in front of 24 year old Willie was British Champion Neville Brown who held the Lonsdale belt outright. However, this was not the only obstacle Willie had to overcome on that winter’s night hundreds of miles away from his hometown of Tranent in East Lothian. His wee brother Tommy was 21 years old, whose record stood at a perfect 8-0, was also fighting on the undercard. Tommy suffered a severe blow during his fight and had to be treated in the ring by doctors for 12 minutes, he was put on a drip and given oxygen as they rushed Willie’s younger brother to hospital, Willie says, “My brother got knocked unconscious, he was in a coma, it was a really nasty one”. No one will ever know what affect this truly had on him, Willie stared god in the face of adversity, but I asked him, “I had been training hard all through Christmas, there were a lot of people down to support me and I didn’t want to let them down but what had happened to Tommy was always on my mind”. I remember the fight well, Willie looked very anxious before the bell sounded and when the bell rang Willie ‘The Mighty’ Quinn looked more intent on taking Brown out with a single shot as opposed to boxing him, in the 3rd round Willie hit Brown with a devastating punch that scattered him over the canvas and onto his back and for that moment it looked like Brown would not make it back up for the count but using elbows and sheer determination he just made it back onto his feet to beat the count of 10. Willie had produced a titanic effort in the first three rounds that by the fourth he had little to offer and the referee stopped the fight in favour of Brown who had come out looking rejuvenated after a minute on his stool. Willie Quinn was a mere second or two away from becoming British Champion but more to the point his brother Tommy made a full recovery. 

I’m taking you further back to the year of 1985 where Willie and I boxed for the same amateur club Haddington ABC, the club originally started in a hall above the British Legion in the heart of the town then moved to the old unused Co-Operative store and that’s where I remember Willie from. He was the smartest dressed boxer I’d ever seen coming to training, Boss jeans, Boss shirt, Boss jacket and even Boss aftershave, young Willie liked to look after himself; he looked naturally comfortable in the boxing ring and trained as hard as anyone at the club.

Back then Willie openly admits he was a ladies’ man, as he likes to put it; he played rugby but was not really interested in football or any other sport for that matter. He could handle himself on the street and had a reputation, he said, “I was always the tough nut, I was known as the tough laddie from Tranent”, his father Tommy spotted this and took him to Haddington ABC three times a week, that’s where he became friends with Stephen Wilson, a man who went on to become an Olympian, representing Great Britain in Barcelona, and as a professional lost to Joe Calzaghe for the British Title. Willie would sometimes concede up to a stone in weight to do exhibitions with Stephen as amateurs when they could not get an opponent to fight.

Barry McGuigan was Willie’s childhood hero but his biggest influence was the Rocky films, he said, “I always watched the Rocky movies, this drove me to train harder and I still watch them to this day. They are such great movies, this made me train harder to be the best”, incidentally Willie’s favourite movie is Rocky III with Hulk Hogan in it, I did not even touch on the subject of Rocky IV. His all-time favourite boxer is Sugar Ray Leonard.

Willie had 50 amateur contests and fought for his country a number of times and had been Scottish Amateur Champion but fighting for trophies was no longer an attainable pleasure so the idea of fighting for money was the way forward and on the 9th October 1991 Willie made his professional debut at The St Andrews Sporting Club in Glasgow, losing on points to a more experienced opponent Mark Jay, however, Willie avenged this defeat by way of TKO in the 1st round on the 21st November 1994 at the Magnum Centre, Irvine, Scotland. Back in those days Willie had to travel to Glasgow for training after a hard days graft.

Willie has particular fond memories of working with trainers such as George Borden and Peter Harrison, who helped Willie go on to become WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight Champion on the 1st of June 1995 beating England’s Paul Busby by TKO in the 8th round. Willie went on to say, “I think winning the WBO Inter-Continental Title in Musselburgh was the highlight of my career, this put me in line for a World Title shot, and I was now rated No 3 or 4 in the world at the time. I had packed in my job and was lucky enough to get good sponsorship by a local taxi firm, Andy Nailor helped with travel, money wasn’t a problem at this time and this allowed me to fully concentrate on my career”.  By this time Willie performed to capacity crowds and marching round the ring arousing his fans by making a T sign with his arms followed by his mate holding the St Andrew’s cross high above his head, the crowd went berserk singing his entrance song with uncontrollable excitement.  There were even rumours that Willie was in line to get a crack at WBO World Champion, Steve Collins.

The Mighty went on an unbeaten winning streak of 19 wins with 12 inside the distance, I asked Willie about this, he said, “My career was getting better and I had a bigger following as the years went on. When you start winning, moving up the rankings and getting closer to a title shot it’s a great feeling, I was training really hard, twice a day, five days a week”. Willie used to spar with the likes of World Champions in Nigel Benn and Steve Collins, Nigel Benn even came up to Scotland to meet him.

Neville Brown ended Willie’s unbeaten run, he won his next three fights and lost in an eliminator for the British Title to Sven Hamer. Willie did go on to win the Scottish Super-Middleweight title against Jason Barker in Glasgow by way of TKO in the 4th round, he said, “I was proud to be Scottish Champion and it put me back up in the ratings”. This opened the door for Willie to get a shot at the British and Commonwealth Champion David Starie but it was not to be for The Mighty, he ended his career with a rematch against Jason Barker by stopping him in the 2nd round at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.

I asked Willie about his toughest fight and he went on to say, “I fought Giovanni Pretorius in South Africa, he had fought Robin Reid for the WBC Championship of the World and was rated No 2 by the IBF. I had to come down to Middleweight, this was a whole different experience, I had no support from the crowd, it was like being thrown into the lion’s den, I lost on a split decision but felt like I got robbed”.

I asked Willie what advice he would give to young amateurs or professionals today, he replied, “My advice would be to turn pro at the right time and make sure you’re looked after well, the professional game can be cruel so you have to look after No 1”.

Willie was asked to strip for charity and someone took pictures of him that ended up in The News of The World, he said “I thought why not, it was for charity but before I knew it I had started a wee agency and it was a good laugh at the time”.

These days Willie puts on as much clothes as he can because he works off the north coast of Scotland as an oil rigger but he still works out hard and actually looks bigger and better than when he was a boxer, that’s dedication.

The Mighty Quinn Professional Boxing Record Stands, 28-5, and three of the contests were for British and Commonwealth Titles.  

Willie has been in the lion’s den, he’s stared god in the face of adversity but got married last year to a beautiful model Gillian, so in the end Willie really did win; you ain’t seen nothing like The Mighty Quinn.   

By Raymond Fraser Buchanan

Willie ‘The Mighty’ Quinn Entrance Song, you need to close your eyes and imagine a capacity crowd singing this as you enter the ring. Please click HERE.

Unsung Hero Alec Mullen

For those of you who have never heard the name Alec Mullen, he is one of the most successful boxers ever to come out of Ayrshire. 


Alec Mullen was born on the 8th of February 1966, for any true Scotsman it's not a year we care to remember with fondness because it was greatly overshadowed by the most significant thing to happen on British soil, our neighbours - the auld enemy - England, won the World Cup. However, Alec was born 8 weeks premature and caught pneumonia when he was 3 months old, the doctors never gave him a chance and all his family had to be called upon. Alec defied the odds of survival and this was just the first battle he went on to win.

Alec’s great-grandfather hailed from a large Mullen family of 14 from Limavaddy, Londonderry, Northern Ireland in the early 1900’s, when the family grew up they descended to all over Ayrshire and parts of Glasgow. He was a hard working, teetotal, non smoking, ladies man who fathered children all over Ayrshire including 9 children to his dad’s mother.

Like so many of his generation, Alec Mullen’s childhood hero was the man considered to be the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali.

Alec was raised in a run-down area called Springside, Irvine, in Ayrshire, Bonnie Scotland. His dad took him along to a boxing club called Witchknowe that was situated between Irvine and Kilmarnock at the tender age of 7 years old. Alec said “My dad was never a boxer but he went along to train at the club in his mid 20’s, he also took my brother’s Johnny who was 8 years old, Boyd 6 and my youngest brother Joe who was only 4”. The man who trained the club was Tam Brown who incidentally was the Scottish National Coach at the time, “That’s how it all started for me in 1973”.

In 1975, Alec’s dad went on to start his own local club in the village of Springside, the facility they used was the local community centre, Alec told me, “We got a room to use 3 times a week in which we had to put the ring and bags up every night, then take them back down again, every night”. In 1979, the local council gave Alec’s dad the old school that had been lying derelict for years to use as a boxing club.

I asked Alec what age he was when he had his first fight and without flinching he retorted, “I was 10 years old, you had to be 11 years old to fight so they had to lie and say I was 11. Back then there were no medical cards; I turned up on the night at the Palace of Parks, in Bellahouston, filled in a wee form with my age and experience, I won my 1st, lost my 2nd and 4th , then I never lost a fight till I was 15”.

 No different from any other kid at the time Alec liked a wee kick about with a football; he was in his school B team, never the A. It was boxing that Alec excelled in. As a junior he would get up at 5.30am to go for a jog as far as 3.5 miles and do stomach exercises before going to school, his mother would have his tea ready for him when he got home from school  so he could be at the boxing club for ten past five every night. Over the years Alec’s training regime never changed much.

In 1981, at the age of 15 years old Alec became the British National Schoolboy Champion, Alec told me, “There was not a lot of Scots boys involved back then, it was 2 years later that the Scottish ABA embraced this competition. I entered it by way of the North West Counties as there were less rules and regulations back then. It was a great feeling; you had to win 6 fights to win it and the rounds of the competition were staged every fortnight, from the first round till the final. I fought my way through from Blackburn, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newport and the final was in the Assembly Rooms in Derby”. This was some achievement and a true reflection of a boy who strived to achieve success in boxing by going beyond the beyond.

Alec’s first memory in life was going down the pit road to collect coal; this was to become a way of life for Alec.

Money was tight and jobs were hard to come by so anything you could bring to the table was a godsend. Alec, his brothers and his cousin Harry whom he looks upon more of a brother were continually on the lookout for coal and even more to be honest. Alec said “We stayed in a village surrounded by miles of countryside; there were 5 farms within a mile radius so you can imagine feeding ourselves wasn’t hard. There was tattie’s and turnips off the fields, rabbits, hares and ducks courtesy of oor Joe and his ferrets and off course our pet dog Trooper, who was a Rhodesian Ridgeback breed of dog whose origins come from South Africa where they were used to fend off lions. While its master made the kill, Joe would sometimes get a rabbit caught in one of his traps; he would skin it there and then and feed it to the dog”. Alec went on to say, “In the winter of 1985 the police searched our house after a tip off, they turned beds upside doon the lot, believe it or not they were looking for coal that we were stealing from the opencast mine in Kilmarnock. One of the policemen took me outside to the garage round the back and said “Open the door of the garage son”, so he could have a look inside, there was about 6 ton of coal in there so I was starting to get a wee bit worried, the police officer popped his head in and turned to me and said “You will not go cold this winter son”, he went into the house and shouted to the other 3 police officers, “Right boys, come on, there’s no coal here”,  and off they went, what a relief that was”. The garage was later used as a boxing club.

Alec turned senior at the age of 17 and won the Scottish Light-middleweight Title 3 years on the bounce, 1984, 85, 86, they were all televised live on the BBC. He also picked up a gold medal in the inaugural Gaelic Games in Wales that included all countries who were Gaelic spoken, including Canada. Alec represented his country 18 times, winning 15 of them. One of Alec’s most memorable victories came at the Caird Hall in Dundee against Rod Douglas, who previously beat him in the final stages of the British ABA’s that took the eventual winner, Douglas, to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 1984. Alec got his revenge not long after Douglas returned from Los Angeles and it was also broadcast live on the BBC. In 1985, Alec’s cousin Harry won the senior Scottish Welterweight Title in the bout preceding his second consecutive Scottish Title. Alec fought 3 Olympian’s as an amateur triumphing over 2 of them.

When Alec was 18 years old there was mass unemployment and a guy offered him a cassette player for £40 but Alec did not have the money, his father lent young Alec the money to purchase the cassette player on the condition he paid the money back. Alec was offered a job as a door man (bouncer) at a pub in nearby Dreghorn, he now had the means to repay his father’s loan and he continued to be a bouncer all over Ayrshire till he was 34.

After Alec won his 3rd Scottish Title in a row the 20 year old man from Ayrshire cemented his place in the Scotland squad who represented their country at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, he said, “It was a big buzz that year because it was in Edinburgh, the training was hard, we were based in Rosyth Naval Base every week for 2 months”. Alec went on to win a Bronze medal in the capital and was more than delighted with his achievement.

After a long illustrious career as an amateur Alec decided to turn professional with Scottish boxing manager Alex Morrison, he told me, “I’d been boxing that long I just wanted to earn a wee bit of money, I thought I could have been at least British Champion. In the mid 80’s not many people had bought their own house so I thought if I could make enough to buy my own house, I’d be happy”.

Alec made his professional debut at the St Andrews sporting Club at the Albany Hotel in Glasgow, he was now fighting as a middleweight and at 6’ 2” he was growing faster than B&Q, he stopped his opponent Gary Pemberton by way of a technical knockout in the fourth round, the fight had been scheduled to go 6 rounds. Alec immediately stepped up to fighting 8 rounder’s and after an unblemished 6 wins with no losses things were starting to look up for the big man from Ayrshire.

However, big Alec, who’s father had trained him all his career from amateurs to professional were attending a boxing show in Solihull, England, and his dad says to Alec “Look at the build on that guy”, Alec could not really see the definition on the boxers body. This led to a medical by the British Boxing Board of Control, they asked Alec if he wore glasses, which he did, he could not read the writing on the board in front of him without his glasses so the BBBoC took Alec’s boxing licence off him only a year into his professional career, he said, “I was only 21 years old and my career was finished, I didn’t know anything else but boxing. I remember going into the careers office after leaving school and they asked me what I was going to do, I said professional boxer, I didn’t want to be anything else, I wanted to be the Champion of the World”.

Alec went straight into training boys at his dads club in Springside from 1987 – 1999, it was in the year 1999 that his wee brother Joe died, as an amateur Joe had won Scottish Titles, British Titles and 2 Gaelic Games Gold Medals, he had 12 fights as a professional and 10 years after his boxing career had ended Joe passed away with a brain haemorrhage and it was Alec who found his brother lying on the couch dead. This had a traumatic affect on big Alec’s life he said, “I was disillusioned with boxing”, and this lead him to turn his back on boxing. He threw everything out his house that reminded him of boxing, including all his International vests and his Commonwealth Games team suit that he proudly kept in his wardrobe. He would have binned the trophies he won but he had given them all to his mother.

From 1999, Alec worked on the railway travelling all over Britain but after the local police put out an appeal looking for someone to run a boxing club in the area in 2006, he spoke to his wife Sandra who encouraged Alec to go back to the sport he loved and do what he does best.

The neglected scheme Alec lives in is called Vineburgh, so he decided to call the boxing club, Irvine Vineburgh, because he wanted people to know they were from Irvine. The building he was given was an old scout hut that had been lying derelict for 30 years, he got a lot of help from the community association and by working on building sites he got a lot of help from the site manager giving him building materials.

The Irvine Vinburgh Boxing Club since 2006 has produced 14 Scottish Champion’s, 3 British Champions and a European Junior Bronze and they have brought through a boxer who was Scottish and British Champion at amateur level, who is now 4 fights unbeaten as a professional, Ryan Collins. Alec says, “Ryan made his pro debut last year as a super-featherweight, I wish all the boys had the commitment and dedication he has, he’s a full time pro and goes to college to study sport and nutrition”, Alec has been with Ryan every step of the way and holds a professional coach and seconds licence.  Alec spends 5 nights a week at the club also Saturdays and Sundays when there is championships coming up. I asked him what a typical night at the club would involve, he said “Skipping, bags, bag work with pad work, shadow boxing and we always finish with a circuit”.

I asked Alec what advice he would give to any aspiring young boxer, he told me, “Its a short career, you have to maximise it and dedicate yourself, the years flee in, so good living and hard training are the key to success”.

Alec’s mother has been a vital key to his success, she worked around him making sure everything he needed from meals to the clothes on his back were ready and laid out exactly at the correct time so her son could maximise his time in the gym. She not only brought up her own 7 children but most of his cousins as well, as his dads other brothers marriages ended she looked after everyone who needed a place to stay without a fuss. Alec told me he stayed in a 4 bedroom house but one was used as weights room with a weights bench and dumbbells to name but a few of the training equipment his father used. In the 1970’s there was up to 14 people staying in the house at the one time.

On a lighter note, Alec’s all-time favourite boxer is Tommy ‘The Hitman’ Hearns, his favourite boxing film is the Raging Bull, a film that is based on the true story of legendary boxer Jake LaMotta, he can be excused for saying his favourite Rocky film is Rocky II, because he has only watched the first 3, he is only one film away from the epiphany of relishing Rocky’s finest ever movie, Rocky IV.

I asked Alec what his thoughts were on Scottish boxing and he replied “One day I would like to see more funding and support for Scottish boxing clubs from our own Scottish government, the Irish ABA have a strong financial backing from their government and look at the results they are getting on the big stage. A smaller country than ours like Panama whose President passed a motion to make boxing Panamas number 1 sport and they reaped the benefits for years producing class fighters including none other than Roberto Duran”.

Alec likes to think he is a better coach than he was a boxer and who could possibly argue that against his current record as head coach of Irvine Vineburgh but unbeaten as a professional and as an amateur he fought in over 120 contests, winning 105.

As it’s supposedly politically incorrect to use the other term, Alec calls a shovel a shovel, he’s a genuinely honest and extremely modest man, and he truly is a Scottish Boxing Unsung Hero.

By Raymond Fraser Buchanan,

 Irvine Vineburgh opening times vary from Mon to Fri 5pm upwards depending on age and experience but if you would like to contact Alec for more information you can contact him on his mobile 07774 172373.

Additionally if there is anyone wishing to provide sponsorship for Irvine Vineburgh, contact Alec on the above number.