Professional Career
Owen enjoyed an auspicious start to his professional career, lifting the Bantamweight Championship of Wales after just six contests and knocking out Paddy Maguire to claim the British title after only ten. Guided by manager and trainer Dai Gardiner, Owen steadily grew to dominate the domestic bantamweight scene and by the end of 1978 felt ready to take on his first, big, international test.
His encounter with Paul Ferreri to contest the vacant Bantamweight Championship of the Commonwealth, delivered one of the finest performances of Owen’s entire career. Ferrari, Italian born and resident in Australia, had held the title before and was widely expected to be a difficult, if not insurmountable obstacle to the comparatively inexperienced Owen. Ferreri’s shots were clean and hard and both men boxed well in a fight that went the full distance of fifteen rounds. Towards the end, the Australian began to wilt, his punches seeming to have little effect on Owen as he continued to pressure Ferrari. The judges saw the contest Owen's way and he was proclaimed Wales' first Bantamweight Champion of the Commonwealth.
Owen's victory allowed him to challenge for the division’s European title, held by Juan Francisco Rodriguez of Spain. It was Owen's eighteenth contest and his first overseas and was seen as a controversial match. The fight took place in the champion’s home-town in Almeria amid a series of allegations of foul play by the challenger’s camp. Rodriguez was said to have exceeded the weight limit and his camp to have engaged in gamesmanship designed, amongst other things, to disrupt Owen's sleep. During the contest itself, the champion was stated to have elbowed and butted Owen throughout the contest, whilst his seconds were believed to have smeared his gloves with an agent for the purpose of obscuring his opponent's vision. Owen, who had appeared to dominate the contest, was to be the victim of a hometown decision and the Spanish boxing authorities withheld his purse; apparently an act of spite inspired by an incident that took place in England, some months before.
Until the meeting with Lupe Pintor, this was Owen’s sole professional defeat and was avenged a little less than twelve months later. With the European Championship once more at stake, Rodriguez journeyed to Ebbw Vale and acquitted himself bravely. Four months later and Owen successfully defended his British Championship for the third and final time, winning a Lonsdale Belt outright in the process. His next outing would be to Los Angeles and an encounter with the reigning World Champion.
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—Anonymous, U.S. professional woman. As quoted in Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment, ch. 4, by Mary Niles Maack and Joanne Passet (1994)
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