Former boxing manager Terry Lawless dies aged 76

Tributes are flooding in for former boxing manager Terry Lawless who died in the early hours of Christmas Eve at the age of 76.

Lawless, best known for steering Frank Bruno to a world title challenge against Mike Tyson in 1989, managed more than 50 boxers including a young Joe Calzaghe.

The Londoner, who moved to Marbella with his wife Sylvia after retiring, suffered from ill health for years and died in a Spanish hospital following a gall bladder operation.

Jim Watt, one of six Lawless-trained-and-managed boxers who went on to win world titles, remembers Lawless’ phone call that revitalised his career:

“Terry said to me he'd always felt I could have achieved more than I had done and reckoned if I signed up with him, we could maybe put that right,” said Watt.

“That one phone call just completely changed my life.

“If Terry hadn't picked up the phone that day, I would never have been world champion and would never have had the life that I've enjoyed ever since.”

Born in West Ham on 29 March 1933, Lawless took out a boxing manager’s licence after completing National Service in the mid-1950s.

In a career spanning 45 years, he managed boxers such as John H Stracey, Maurice Hope, Watt and Charlie Magri to world title success.

Based at the Royal Oak gym in the Canning Town district of London close to where he was born, Lawless was famed for his father-figure approach to boxing management.

Following his retirement, the fitness fanatic often said he was happy to be remembered as the manager who did not want his boxers to get hurt.

“Terry is that rare breed of manager who treats his boxers like sons rather than fighters,” wrote Watt in his autobiography, Watt’s My Name.

Jimmy Tibbs, who was moulded by Lawless as a fighter and trainer, now trains Beijing Olympian Billy Joe Saunders and world lightweight title contender Kevin Mitchell.

“I’m dumbstruck and so sad,” said Tibbs.

“He was always a safety-first man - that was the only way to describe Terry.

“When I became a manager, though not as big as he was, I had a lot of fighters and that rubbed off on me, I was sometimes too safety-first.

“He was very compassionate.”

Lawless signed Bruno at the age of 18, but the pair had split by the time the London-born heavyweight beat Oliver McCall to become world heavyweight champion in 1995.