JOEY SINGLETON was the first man to win the Lonsdale belt outright at light-welterweight. Now known as super-lightweight, this division was packed with talent during the 1970s after it had been revived in 1973. The division had a brief incarnation in the late 1960s when it was known as junior welterweight. Men boxing at 10 stone have, therefore, held titles in a weight division that has been known by three different names since 1967.
Singleton came from Kirkby, to the North of Liverpool, the same place that had produced the great John Conteh. Joey was a very good amateur, as most pros had been at that time, winning the ABA lightweight title in 1971 while boxing for Kirkby BC. That year, three boxers from this club boxed in the finals, for as well as Singleton and Conteh, Tony Byrne competed at middleweight, losing out to a young Alan Minter.
In 1973, both Singleton and Byrne turned over, signing for Charlie Atkinson, the leading manager in Liverpool at the time. Atkinson had big plans for Liverpool Stadium, a venue that had not hosted a professional boxing tournament for nearly five years. In September 1973, he ran his first show at the Stadium with both Singleton and Byrne featuring. Both won, and Joey was particularly impressive in winning virtually every round against Jess Harper to pick up the Central Area lightweight title in only his third professional contest.
A cut eye loss to Coventry’s Jim Montague later that year did not derail his plans and in 1974 he featured in two important contests. He knocked out Jim Melrose at the stadium in only two rounds to win a British light-welterweight title eliminator and then, at the same venue 11 weeks later, he outpointed Pat McCormack to win the British title.
Under the headline ‘Joey the Champ’, BN reported that: “Skill and subtlety overcame strength and slugging as 23-year-old Joey Singleton outscored Pat McCormack to become Britain’s new light-welterweight champion in a memorable 15-rounder at the Stadium. Local favourite Singleton was floored in the first round and looked on the edge of defeat. But he pulled himself together and ignored bruised hands to gain a stirring victory in only his eighth professional fight.” By the end of the bout, Joey was well ahead and he had beaten a real hard man in McCormack.
The following year two more victories earned him the belt outright. He had looked out of sorts when beating Peckham’s Alan Salter in a non-title 10-rounder at the Royal Albert Hall in June 1975 but, when the pair met again for the title in October, Joey really turned it on, hammering the Londoner in nine rounds in a convincing display. Six weeks later, Joey made the belt his own by winning a 15-round decision over Des Morrison, a former champion at the weight, at Belle Vue, Manchester.
Unfortunately for Singleton, an up-and-coming lad from the Fens was really making a name for himself by 1976 and, when Dave Boy Green (pictured, below right) met Joey for the title on 1 June 1976, the Royal Albert Hall crowd saw the birth of a new star. Singleton was slowly dismantled by the ‘Fen Tiger’ with BN stating that Singleton was brave in defeat, going out like a champion.
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Joey’s career never quite hit the heights after that, he lost three British title eliminators, against Charlie Nash, Des Morrison and Kirkland Lang. He boxed up and down the country in good quality eight-rounders against the likes of George Turpin, Colin Powers, Tommy Glencross, George McGurk and Terry Petersen, and then in 1980 he won the Central Area welterweight title before losing to the Dane, Jorgen Hansen, in a contest for the European welterweight title.
Joey was a fine example of the sort of fighter who abounded in the 1970s and early 1980s, and when he packed it in 1982 it was with a record of 27 wins from 40 hard-fought contests. He deserves to be remembered as one of Liverpool’s finest.
