For example, the Watt trademark toughness and courage was seen in March 1980 against Derry-based fellow southpaw Charlie Nash. The Irishman had previously accused Watt of ducking him after Watt refused to fight him in trouble-torn Northern Ireland. However, by climbing off the Kelvin Hall ring canvas in the first round of that March 1980 WBC title scrap and subsequently stopping ex-European champion Nash (who had beaten Jim Watt's nemesis, Ken Buchanan) Watt proved that he was the Irishman's master. Watt had decked Nash four times before the referee halted matters in round four.
The classiness of Jim Watt's boxing skills were seen against 1976 Olympic gold medal winner Howard Davis, who also won the 'best Olympic boxer award' at those Montreal games.
Howard Davis, American golden boy, and his management team of Dennis Rapaport and Mike Jones(who would later both manage 1980s heavyweight hope Gerry Cooney) swaggered into Glasgow in June 1980, cheekily asking about 'Jim Who?', a studied insult implying Watt's lack of international boxing street cred.
But Davis received a painful response to his insulting rhetorical question in the rain at Ibrox Park on Saturday 7 June 1980. Davies may have dazzled the Ibrox ringside crowd with the glaring salmon pink boxing trunks that encased his flanks and which were made for the American challenger by Glasgow boxing referee and bespoke tailor, Len Mullen, but all the real razzle-dazzle came from Scotland's Jim Watt, whose superior boxing over 15 rain-soaked rounds made Watt a deserved winner.
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Overall, being the only Scottish boxer to win a title in Spain (where he outpointed Perico Fernandez in Madrid in February 1978 for the European lightweight title) and notching up a then record number of succesive world title defence wins by a Caledonian ring man, merely cemented Jim Watt's place in the Scottish ring greats Pantheon.
True, Jim may have lost his world crown to Nicaraguan ring legend Alexis Arguello in June 1981, at London's Wembley Arena, but he did go out on his shield by surviving a knockdown to lose by points over 15 rounds. But there was no stigma in losing to a man like Arguello who went on to establish his own ring greatness.
Courage, dignity, skill…all attributes that Jim Watt MBE still retains today and they were the same human qualities that helped transform a 1960s Bridegton soccer refugee into a classy 1980s world lightweight boxing champion.
