Jimmy Revie

Jimmy Revie was a British featherweight champion of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a southpaw from Stockwell in South London whose career sat in the heart of a golden stretch of British boxing. He died on 13 September 2026 at the age of 79, from complications of dementia, with Italian boxing outlet BoxeRingWeb among the first to report the news as tributes circulated later that week.

Born on 8 July 1947, Revie grew up in a South London neighbourhood that had long produced fighters. As a schoolboy he already stood out: Boxing News later recalled that in 1960 he won the National Schools Junior Class A title at Shoreditch Town Hall and took the Gold Star for the most stylish boxer of the day. He turned professional in September 1966, stopping Brian Gullefer in the fifth round, and ran up thirteen straight inside-the-distance wins before his first defeat.

That first setback came in February 1968, when he challenged Jimmy Anderson for the British junior lightweight title and was stopped in the ninth. Revie dropped to featherweight, won his next six fights, and in March 1969 claimed the British featherweight title vacated by Howard Winstone, beating former British Empire champion John O'Brien after the referee halted the contest at the end of the fifth because of eye injuries to O'Brien. He was presented with the belt by Winstone himself.

Revie's championship reign became famous for razor-thin points margins. In October 1969 he beat European champion Tommaso Galli by half a point, then Ecuadorian champion Miguel Herrera by the same margin twelve days later at the Royal Albert Hall, where sections of the crowd booed the decision, and Algerian Ould Makloufi by another half point that November. After a second-round stoppage loss to Tahar Ben Hassen in April 1970, he successfully defended the British title against Alan Rudkin at Wembley's Empire Pool in September 1970, again by half a point.

In January 1971 he challenged Jose Legra for the European title at the Anglo-American Sporting Club in Piccadilly and lost a unanimous decision over fifteen rounds. That July, defending against Evan Armstrong at Grosvenor House, Mayfair, Revie was well ahead on points when Armstrong knocked him out in the twelfth to take the belt. He rebuilt with seven wins and a British title eliminator over Vernon Sollas in 1974, then lost a controversial rematch for the vacant title in March 1975 when Sollas stopped him late in the fourth after hitting him while he was down. His last fights included losses to future world champion Jim Watt and future European champion Charlie Nash in 1976. His final professional ledger stood at 38 wins (23 by knockout), 9 losses and 1 draw across 48 bouts.

Beyond the ring he appeared as Leon Cole in Jim Goddard's 1980 film King Billy. In later life, living with dementia, he and his wife Louisa became part of the wider conversation about care for retired boxers; Louisa publicly backed the Ringside Charitable Trust's campaign for specialist support, a cause highlighted in BBC coverage of boxing's long-term health crisis. He is remembered as London's KO specialist of his amateur and early pro years, and as a British champion whose title reign was built on hard nights and the narrowest of decisions.