Lenny McLean - Unlicensed Boxing

Unlicensed Boxing

When Frank Warren formed the National Boxing Council in the 1970s, it allowed the toughest underground fighters in Britain to compete legally. McLean, unable to become a licensed boxer due to his violent reputation and criminal record, entered the world of unlicensed boxing (which, though legal, was not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control), and he quickly became one of its brightest stars.

McLean, who in his prime was six feet two inches (188 cm) tall and weighed over twenty stone (127 kg), boasted that he could beat anybody, in either a legitimate match or in an unlicensed match with or without gloves, and reputedly sent out challenges to many of the famous boxers of the day, including Muhammad Ali and Mr. T, though neither contest materialised.

McLean's fights with rival Roy "pretty boy" Shaw, a former patient of Broadmoor Hospital, were described by critics as among the bloodiest of the century. McLean lost to Shaw once via verbal submission, which McLean justified by claiming his gloves had been tampered with reducing their manoeuvrability. McLean beat Shaw in a rematch, and Shaw reputedly demanded a third contest. In one of McLean's most notable matches, at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London, in April 1986, McLean ended the long standing feud between them with a dramatic first round knockout in which Shaw was knocked out of the ring.

However, McLean was not invincible nor a professional athlete and large portions of his career cannot be verified. He was allegedly twice knocked out by Johnny "Big Bad" Waldron during the early days of his boxing career, both times in the first round. He was also knocked out in the first round by George Langley and Cliff Field (neither knockout loss is mentioned in his autobiography) and beaten on points by Kevin Paddock, although McLean always maintained that he had never lost a fight "on the cobbles," or outside the ring.

Despite these defeats, McLean claims to have competed in almost four thousand fights over three decades, and only lost a small number of these. This led many to accept McLean as the unofficial Heavyweight Champion of the World in unlicensed boxing.