Turning Professional
He turned professional at the age of 34. Mountjoy's first success was in the 1977 Masters at the New London Theatre as a late replacement, and his first professional tournament. He beat former world champions Fred Davis, Alex Higgins and the then current champion Ray Reardon 7–6 to win the title.
At the world championship a couple of months later, he beat Higgins again in the first round but lost to Dennis Taylor in the quarter-final 11–13. At the end of 1977, he made the final of the first ever 1977 UK Snooker Championship losing to Patsy Fagan 9–12. He did win the title a year later beating David Taylor 15–9, and in the same season he beat Ray Reardon to win the Irish Masters 6–5.
After winning the first two World Cups for Wales in 1979 and 1980, he suffered an illness which partially paralyzed his face.
With the problem cleared, he reached the final of the World Snooker Championship in 1981. He beat Eddie Charlton, Dennis Taylor and Ray Reardon in the semi-final (in which he made 145 break, a championship record at the time). He then played Steve Davis in the final. Davis was favourite to win his first world title, and appeared to be racing to an easy victory when he won the first six frames of the match. Mountjoy recovered however, and on several occasions came close to drawing level. Trailing 11-13, and by 60-63 in the 25th frame, Mountjoy looked certain to close to within one frame but missed a simple blue off its spot. Davis went on to clear the colours, and Mountjoy would win only one more frame as Davis eased to an 18-12 victory.
After that run at the World Championship, he had only a short run of titles, and he won the Welsh Professional Championship in 1982 and 1984 to go with his 1980 title. He was back in the final of a major again in the 1985 Masters tournament, losing to Cliff Thorburn. Mountjoy also reclaimed the Pot Black title in March that year, having previously won it in 1978.
He won another Welsh title in 1987, but his career struggled including a 1–9 defeat to Steve Longworth in the 1986 UK Snooker Championship. By 1988, he was out of the top 16 in the World Rankings.
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