There are few stars in Scotland’s illustrious sporting history that can rival the achievements and iconic moments that Ken Buchanan experienced during his impressive boxing career.
Ken who was born in 1945, in Edinburgh, was considered one of, if not the greatest fighter in Scottish boxing history.
The orthodox scrapper wowed crowds around the world and even struck up a life long friendship with Muhammad Ali, who once fought on Buchanan’s undercard when fighting at Maddison Square Garden (MSG).
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Oliver Buchanan - no relation to Ken - runs the ‘Humans of Edinburgh’ Facebook page, and he interviewed Ken after receiving permission from his family.
In the interview Ken said: “The most important thing, the thing that made me fight, was the fact that I was successful, I done well, in Los Angeles, San Juan, I topped the bill at Madison Square Garden, around 5 or 6 times, and twice Muhammad Ali was on my undercard.
“We had a great reputation, the two of us you know, when I was top of the bill and he was on the undercard. Muhammad was great, Floyd Paterson- he was brilliant. MSG, it is the Mecca, it’s the big stand, it’s a brilliant place.
“I was world champion for just over two years, then I had some non title fights with different guys in America, and in London, Italy, France, Spain. I had a great time. I learned a lot from the people I fought, it’s changed a bit now, but there’s that many fighters now, there’s about ten top champions, it’s all changed now. When I was boxing, you just had one world champion, and there was only about three weights.
“It’s great to see Josh do well, he is a brilliant guy, he’s great, he changed his life.”
Ken reminisced over his outstanding career that saw him not only brush shoulders with giants but also saw him considered as one.
The ‘Fighting Carpenter’ fought 69 times throughout his career, losing only eight and winning 27 by knockout.
Not afraid of fighting someone on foreign soil, Ken fought for the world title in Puerto Rico in 1970 against Ismael Laguna from Panama, who at the time was the WBA lightweight champion.
Buchanan then fought again on foreign soil as he was denied the opportunity to defend his title at home due to a dispute between the British Boxing Board of Control and the WBA.
He acquired the vacant WBC championship and became the undisputed world lightweight champion after defeating Rubén Navarro in Los Angeles in 1971 during his WBA defence.
Buchanan was then granted permission to defend his world championship in the UK by defeating the former world junior welterweight champion Carlos Morocho Hernández by knockout in round eight, during a bout at Wembley in May of 1971.
Speaking in 2016 following the death of Muhammad Ali, Ken spoke warmly of the friendship he had struck up with potentially the most iconic fighter in the sports history.
He told the Daily Record : “I’d just won the WBA lightweight title against Ismael Laguna in Puerto Rico a couple of months earlier and I was asked to top the bill at Madison Square Garden in New York in December, 1970.
“The Americans liked me – I’m the only Scot to top the bill at the Garden twice – and, on this occasion, Ali was a late addition to the undercard.
“It was odd being the headliner, even though I was a world champion and he wasn’t at that time.
“He was fighting Oscar Bonavena that night. It was only his second bout since his three-year ban and it would be his last before he took on Joe Frazier to try and regain his world title.
“The organisation was a bit shambolic that night, though, and just after I’d got to the venue, his trainer, Angelo Dundee, came to the door and asked me if Ali could share my dressing room.
“There had been some sort of mix-up by the promoter and the big man didn’t have anywhere to change. You just can’t imagine that happening to a man of his stature nowadays, can you?
“Can you imagine what would have happened if it had been Frank Sinatra instead of Ali? He’d probably have tried to shoot me, although I would have fancied my chances of taking him out.
“To this day, I still don’t know why Ali didn’t have a dressing room allocated to him. Anyway, I told Angelo it wouldn’t be a problem.
“However, when he and his team came in, I found a bit of chalk on one of the tables and drew a line on the floor halfway across the room.
“Ali looked at me and asked: ‘What’s that for, Ken?’ and I told him that this was MY dressing room and that he was being allowed to share it.
“However, I warned him: ‘If you don’t keep to your side you’ll get some of this’ and shook my fist at him. The whole room went quiet – and then Ali and I both burst out laughing. He was a great guy.
“As I was sitting on the table having my hands bandaged by my manager, Eddie Thomas, I could hear this wee commotion behind me.
“When I turned round, Ali was shadow boxing but Eddie told me he’s been jumping over the line and back when I wasn’t looking. I said: ‘I’ve already told you once…’
“Then I said: ‘Don’t forget who’s world champion here – once you’ve got a world title THEN you can come into my half of the room!”
After this the two became friends for life - Ali probably enjoying the showmanship and character of Ken that mirrored his own.
Ken later acted as a mentor and great source of inspiration for Josh Taylor, who followed in the boxing greats footsteps by beating Jose Ramirez on foreign soil to become the first UK fighter to become unified world champion of the four belt era.
The last time a UK fighter had achieved Taylor's feat was when Ken Buchanan became unified champ in 1971.
