John Caldwell: world bantamweight boxing champion, 1961-62

John Caldwell died of cancer on July 11, 2009, he was 71 A brilliant, quick and clever boxer, known as the Cold-eyed Killer, John Caldwell was an Olympic medal-winner and held the world bantamweight title for eight months in 1961-62. Had he not then come up against the great Brazilian Eder Jofre, who was to dominate the bantamweight and featherweight divisions for the next ten years, his reign at the top of his sport might well have been longer.

The third of seven children from the Lower Falls area of Belfast, Caldwell began boxing at the age of 10, when he joined the Immaculata Club, winning a host of titles including both Ulster junior and senior titles in 1955 and 1956. At the Melbourne Olympics, in 1956, he won a bronze medal for Ireland at flyweight, losing on points in the semi-final to Mircea Dobrescu, of Romania. On his return there was a huge street party in his native Cyprus Street. “The whole street was out to cheer me,” he said. The scene would be repeated five years later when he won his world title.

Throughout his career Caldwell attended Mass every morning after running. He continued to do this when he moved to Glasgow to start his professional career under Sammy Docherty, a bookmaker and part-time promoter. There his exercise regime and strict dieting inspired Jimmy McGrory, the Celtic football club manager, to approach him for advice.

Caldwell won his first 21 professional bouts, beating Frankie Jones in three rounds to win the British flyweight title, before stepping up to bantamweight in 1961 to win the world bantamweight title at the Empire Pool, Wembley.

That night he boxed brilliantly for a runaway points victory over Alphonse Halimi, the French-Algerian champion who had beaten Freddie Gilroy, Caldwell’s room-mate in Melbourne, for the title seven months previously.

Caldwell won a rematch five months later, but then had to travel to São Paulo to face Jofre, the NBA champion, in front of a hostile 18,000 crowd. He lost in the tenth round.

A match was then set up with Gilroy, from North Belfast, for which 12,000 crammed into the King’s Hall, with some even said to have climbed on to the glass roof to see the action. Gilroy won on a ninth-round stoppage due to cuts and retired rather than give Caldwell a rematch.

Cuts would trouble Caldwell for the rest of his career, and he won just three of his remaining seven bouts. He took the British and Commonwealth bantamweight title against George Bowes, but lost against Alan Rudkin before retiring with a professional record of 29 wins, 5 losses and a draw.

Life in retirement was not particularly kind for Caldwell. The money he made in his career soon went. A trained plumber, he worked for some time as a pipefitter and as a taxi driver, living in the heart of the Troubles in West Belfast. In 1975 he emigrated to Canada to try to start a new life, but that did not work out either: “For six weeks, I wandered the streets looking for a job,” he said. “Then I got the offer of one — clearing up sewage. For the first time in my life I felt unwanted, like a leper in a strange land. I just packed up and flew home.”

He is survived by his wife and five children.

John Caldwell, world bantamweight boxing champion, 1961-62, was born on July 7, 1938.