As a kid Keith used to love watching Barry McGuigan and this was the inspiration behind him travelling to a boxing club in Dalkeith and in the same year at 14 he went along with a pal to Lasswade Boxing Club in Bonnyrigg. Although Keith took 5 o Levels, he used to skip school more often than not, boxing was his pleasure, “I just felt boxing was my thing, like I was meant to do it, I loved training and I loved the smell of the gym”. His mum was dead against her son boxing due to him regularly coming in with black eyes. He eventually wooed his mum into watching him win trophies and every Christmas all he ever wanted was more boxing gear. Bonnyrigg Boxing Club coach Jackie wood who has sadly passed away was the most influential person in Keith’s boxing career, he reminded him of Mickey in the Rocky movies, “He was a great auld guy, he could see my potential and was always egging me on to do better”, and do better he did. Keith won the Eastern district Title every year as a youth and as a senior, he won his first Senior Scottish title in 1990 and continued to do so, I remember boxing on shows with Keith, he was built like a pocket battleship and used to steam right through opponents. In 1992 he went down to the British Championships in England and out of a 12 man Scottish Team he was the only one to win the British ABA Title that year. By this time Keith had a full time job as a butcher and two young kids. He had to use up holidays so he could go away to fight in Internationals, it was all getting a bit too much and something had to give for him to continue doing what he done best. There’s something Keith would like to mention, “In Scotland V England Internationals I only ever lost once”, his only loss was to a boxer called Paul Ingle who went on to win a version of the World Title.
Tommy Gilmour had approached Keith and suggested that he turned professional. Keith’s mate Willie Quinn recently had turned pro with Tommy but he was a bit unsure having to travel back and forth to Glasgow for training. Willie was being sponsored by a local taxi firm and the butchers Keith worked in; Keith was offered the same sponsorship so he would not have to incur any travel expenses. The initial offer on the table was £1000 a fight “At least I would be getting paid for something I loved doing but I never expected to do anything”. Keith left behind an amateur record that read 120 fights with 90 wins.
Keith’s training routine never changed over the years, he would get up and go for a run around 4 miles in the morning, work as a butcher throughout the day and travel to Glasgow for sparring at nights, his boss would let him leave early so he could make the journey west. When Keith was an amateur he openly admits he was sometimes more interested in going out with his mates to the pub but as a professional he gave it his all while holding down a full time job. After racking up an 8 fight unbeaten run he was matched against Louis Veitch for the vacant Scottish Flyweight Title, “The fight was an eliminator, the winner would be fighting for the British Title”, Keith won this fight by TKO 6th. The venue for the British Title fight was the Elephant & Castle, Southwark, London and his opponent was Mickey Cantwell, “I got robbed, it was all over the papers, the English referee gave it to Cantwell who had done an interview for Sky TV claiming he had lost his house, his job, it was a sob story and everyone fell for it, I lost by half a point. The board agreed it was a bad decision and ordered a rematch but he wouldn’t fight me so he vacated the Title”. Keith got a shot at the European Title against Jesper Jenson in Denmark but lost on points, “You really got to knock them out for a draw over there”. He then fought for the British Title again against stable mate Ady Lewis at the St Andrews Sporting Club in Glasgow “ Ady had moved down to Flyweight, fair enough he got the decision and held onto the title for a wee while”.
Keith fought his way back up the rankings and two years had elapsed before he finally got his shot at Damien Kelly for the British and Commonwealth Flyweight titles in Belfast, “Winning the British Amateur Title was a special moment for me but that night in Belfast was the icing on the cake”.
In Keith’s last fight he fought for the IBO World Title against an American based Columbian Jose Garcia Bernal at the Bellahouston Sports Centre in Glasgow, he lost on a split decision, “The American referee gave the fight to me but the two English judges gave the fight to Garcia, I was gutted but happy at the same time because I had gone the distance. I never expected to get that far in my career as a boxer, sometimes I think about how close I was to winning”. Keith walked away from the game at 32, he did not want to become a journeyman and he wanted to go out on a high.
Keith works as a bus driver these days, his favourite film is Dumber and Dumber, “It’s funny as”, his favourite Rocky movie is Rocky IV, that is quintessentially the greatest of the saga, “Rocky had to fight the Russian on Christmas day, everyone at the pictures stood up”. Keith looks up to boxers such as Muhammad Ali, Jim Watt, Ken Buchanan, Barry McGuigan, Marvin Hagler and the list goes on but his All-time favourite boxer is Sugar Ray Leonard, “He had everything and beat Duran”. His old foe Damien Kelly did go on to win the European Title and IBO World Tile.
His advice to young boxers is simply give it 100% no regrets. He still trains regularly to this day and reckons he will continue to do so until he drops. I’ve known Keith for 30 years and he has never changed a smidgen, an extremely modest, fun loving man who is the best o tartan and if you get him on the subject of boxing he’s there till the battery in phone goes dead.
I asked Keith if he had anything else to say, “If I had the chance I would do it all over again”.
By Raymond Fraser Buchanan