The eldest son of Edinburgh boxing icon Ken Buchanan has revealed how he discovered that the prized puncher was his father long after he had idolised him.
Raymond Fraser Buchanan would have posters of the unified world champion on his walls as a young boy but only learned the truth of who his father was at the age of 10. The Scottish boxing legend was a global phenomenon and undisputed lightweight champion from 1970 to 1972.
Raymond, who grew up in Prestonpans, East Lothian, says that he would watch all of Buchanan’s fights on TV during his youth. He says that after the bouts, he and his friends would grab their boxing gloves and try to mirror the combinations they’d seen unfold on their screens at home.
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Raymond said: “I’d say, ‘Right, I’m Ken Buchanan, you’re Muhammad Ali.’ And my pals would tell me where to go and say, ‘No, I’m Buchanan, you’re Ali.’ So that was always the first fight to be settled.”
The East Lothian lad says that he only learned of his relationship with Buchanan after some of his best mates had begun to start calling him Cannon, which rhymed with Buchanan. Raymond had previously been known by the nickname of Rainbow in the past and when he spoke to family members about the new nickname they began to realise that locals in the know may have been talking in front of their children, the Daily Record reports.
That is when Raymond learned the truth. In a shocking revelation, he found out that the woman he considered to be his mother, Rose, was in fact his gran. A woman named Maria, who he always thought was his sister, turned out to be his real mother.
His family also revealed that Buchanan was in fact his dad. Raymond said: “Everything I thought I knew about the people closest to me was wrong. They were still my family and I loved them, but I had to get used to the new relationships. The strangest thing of all was that Ken Buchanan was my hero, and here was the woman I thought was my mum telling me my hero was my dad.”
Shortly after the truth was revealed to him, Raymond, who now resides in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, headed to Meadowbank where Buchanan and his boxing champ mate Jim Watt were playing in a charity match. He headed along with some of his friend who he had told that Buchanan was his dad and the group queued for an autograph.
He said: “My pals were telling me to tell him I was his son, but I was totally tongue-tied and couldn’t say anything to him except, ‘Aye’. But after I got my autograph and walked away, a couple of them told him who I was. I don’t think it was too many nights later that our phone rang, and it was my dad wanting to talk to me.”
A relationship developed after Buchanan visited his son in his black Daimler, with personal plate KB 123, causing a stir on the council estate. He took his son out and kept in contact, but while Raymond met his younger brother and sister, he was never invited fully into the family fold.
Ken had dated mum Maria in the 60s but they split before he was born. Buchanan went on to marry first wife Carol. Buchanan had a disastrous second marriage to Eileen, who left him within six months for another man.
Raymond has written a book about his early life, Boxing Day, which will be published next week. He intends his book to be a positive read because of all he has overcome to reach 56.
But there are harrowing elements, with a pattern of major events happening on Boxing Day, including Rose’s death in 1999. Raymond also had a touching reunion with his dad on August 14, when the boxer’s statue was unveiled and put in place outside the new St James Quarter in Edinburgh.
Fellow Scottish boxing champ Watt also attended and posed for photos. Buchanan narrowly beat his Glasgow rival over 15 rounds in 1973, the only time the two fought, but the up-and-coming Watt earned his respect and a lasting friendship developed
Raymond also took up boxing in his teens and carved out a promising amateur career, at times training under his father’s watch, and even fought him once behind closed doors. Asked who won, he laughed and said: “You’ll need to read Boxing Day.”
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