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Pat Clinton

© SCRAN

Scottish flyweight great Pat Clinton's Croy birthplace in Dunbartonshire has fighting connections going back to Roman times, when it was selected by the Romans,as a key point in their Antonine Wall defences.

How appropriate then that Pat Clinton would take this Roman connection full circle by winning his European flyweight crown by beating Salvatore Fanni in the Italian's home town in August 1990. Nor does the marriage of Latin connection and Clinton ring triumph end there.

In 1992, in an emotional evening in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall, Croy and Scotland's pride, Pat Clinton, made Dad Billy Clinton's dream come true for 12 months between 1992-93 when Pat outpointed defending WBO champion Isadore Perez from Mexico over 12 torrid rounds.

This famous ring victory prompted Clinton's manager and promoter, Tommy Gilmour, when asked post-fight if he would grant beaten Perez a rematch into the unforgettable reply: "No. The Mexicans didn't grant a rematch at the Alamo!"

Every story has a beginning and Pat Clinton's (born 4 April 1964) has its roots when rising boxing star of the 1940s, Billy Clinton, from Auchenstarrie met and married his beloved Sadie from the neighbouring Croy hamlet of Smithston. In due course, the couple had a family of ten children - six boys and four girls.

Meanwhile, Billy Clinton came from solid boxing stock.His brother Jim won two British A.B.A. boxing titles in 1944 and 1947 and Billy himself, won the same Scottish pro flyweight title in Perth in 1940 that son Pat would also win 47 years later. Even more impressiively, on 14 December 1940, Billy Clinton beat Dundonian Freddie Tennant who once drew and outpointed the great Benny Lynch in the 1930s.

But Billy Clinton's dream of emulating Benny Lynch by winning a world title some day was destroyed inside two rounds on New Year's Day 1941 in Dundee by big-hitting Ayrshire southpaw Jackie Paterson.

But Billy Clinton's unfulfilled dream became an inspiration to Billy's youngest son Pat, whom Clinton senior has himself selected as the boxer with the most potential among his six boxing sons - Michael, William, (known as Billy junior) Peter, Danny, Bernard and Pat.

Pat Clinton was born in the same month of April 1964 as Hamilton flyweight great Walter McGowan unsuccesfully made a challenge for the same European flyweight crown in Italy that Pat would later win in that same country.

Nor was that the only link between Walter McGowan and the man from Croy who would succeed Walter as a world flyweight champion nearly a quarter of a century later.

Like wee Walter, Pat had aspirations to be a jockey but a fatal heart attack, which killed Pat's Dad Billy, in 1980, made Pat determined, instead, to realise his late dad's boxing dream of becoming a bona fide world boxing champion.

In a 1990s interview Pat told me: "I owe my father Billy Clinton everything regarding boxing. He taught me everything - how to move, how to counterpunch, not to mix matters in the ring unless desperate, how to box for all my openings."

And Billy Clinton had taught his southpaw son well. The proof? Shortly after Billy Clinton's death Pat boxed in 1981 in Jersey in an amateur tournament. There, he outpointed England's Duke McKenzie who went on to win, at pro level, two WBO titles - Bantamweight, Super-Bantamweight - and an IBF flyweight title.

Soon the educated Clinton southpaw style brought even more ring glory as Pat stormed to two British A.B.A. flyweight title wins, in 1984 and 1985.

Pat also took the USA's world amateur champion, Steve McCrory, to a majority points verdict in spite of boxing at 5,000 feet above sea level in Reno, Nevada. Similalry, in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games Pat Clinton was only beaten by the eventual silver medal winner.

Equally, the ring triumphs continued once Pat turned pro under London-based Burt McCarthy while being coached by legendary English trainer Jimmy Tibbs with elder brother Michael playing a key advisory role. Then, on 9 March 9th 1988 Pat made Scottish ring history by becoming the first ever Caledonian flyweight to meet and beat a fellow Scot for both the Scottish and British crowns in London, after Pat stopped Glasgow's Joe Kelly at Bethnal Green's York Hall.

A following European title bid against Turk Eyup Khan, in February 1989, ended with Pat being outpointed and hit by what he told me was the hardest single punch he ever took in ring warfare. Yet, the man from Croy still took the tough Turk the full championship distance to lose on points. Also Pat had fought Khan down to the wire with the hand problems which would subsequently bedevill Clinton throughout his ring career.

Then followed a succesful British title defence against Welshman David-Alyn Jones - stopped in six rounds - and a frustrating eight-month injury-induced wait for a European title shot. Yet, it was a wait well worth the months of frustration, for Clinton succeeded where Walter McGowan had failed (albeit due to a disgraceful drawn hometown decision against Italian homeboy, Tomasso Galli). He won in Italy the same European crown cherished by wee Walter in the 1960s, outpointing Italian Salvatore Fanni in Caligiari even though Signor Fanni decked Pat in the tenth round and despite Clinton damaging a tendon in his right hand.

That triumph over Fanni, however, marked the end - on good terms - of the association between Pat and Londoner Burt McCarthy. But, at this point, elder brother Michael fulfilled his role as gate guardian of Billy Clinton's dream and the elder Clinton went to see Glasgow promoter, Tommy Gilmour junior. Gilmour promised Pat and Michael Clinton a world flyweight title shot after two bouts under his management, plus as an added bonus Pat that would get to work with the ring coach that Billy Clinton had always rated highly, ex-1962 Commonwealth Games featherweight gold medal winner from Blantyre - John McDermott MBE.

And McDermott's take on Pat Clinton? "Pat was technically brililant, gutsy and had an enormous self-belief…"

And so to the Kelvin Hall on 18 March 1992, courtesy of Tommy Gilmour's negotiating skills, John McDermott's brilliant ability to read an opponent and Pat Clinton's burning ambition to make his dad's dream a reality by drubbing yet another Latin boxer, defending champion Isdaore Perez of Mexico.

It wasn't easy that emotion-filled night in the Kelvin Hall. Bringing dreams to fruition never is. After the halfway stage, veteran of 57 bouts Perez forced Pat, who had suffered the old Jackie Paterson curse of weightmaking problems, to fight out of his skin. Helped by a picture of his dad Billy Clinton, which was shown between rounds in his ring corner, Pat battled to a points win after 12 rounds.

It was a world title victory that provoked such emotional scenes of post-fight joy that even today promoter and manager Tommy Gilmour claims that this Clinton world flyweight win is still his most cherished boxing memory. No wonder!

Afterwards, as Pat told me, later that evening he and Mum Sadie had an especially emotional reunion in his mother's living room. After all, nobody knew better than Sadie Clinton what the fulfilment of Billy's dream really meant to the whole Clinton clan - it had dominated Pat's life for so long.

Still, weight problems continued to dog Pat as they had dogged other Scottish flyweight greats. As a result, Pat looked very unimpressive in beating Englishman Danny Porter in a WBO title defence at Glasgow's SECC Arena on points over 12 rounds in September 1992 - a poor performance stressed by the fact that Clinton had already previously stopped Porter inside five rounds at Watford in a British title defence in October 1989.

Eight months later and Pat, still plagued by weight and hand injury problems, lost his title to that hammer of Scottish fighters, the diminutive South African Jake Matlala, with Pat being stopped in Glasgow inside eight rounds.

An ill-fated comeback at bantamweight eventually petered out but today Pat Clinton can look back with pride on a career that saw him win World, British, European and Scottish flyweight crowns as well as being the first Scot to win a European flyweight title in Italy…as well as fulfilling Billy Clinton's dream.

Written by: Brian Donald