Scots boxing legend Ken Buchanan will be laid to rest later this month.
Funeral arrangements have been planned for the lightweight champion, who sadly passed away on April 1 at the age of 77. A memorial service will take place at St Giles' Cathedral on April 25, Edinburgh Live reports.
The procession will pass the former Sparta Boxing Club, McDonald Road and Ken Buchanan statue. Ken, from Edinburgh, had an impressive career after rising to undisputed world lightweight champion in 1971.
He was made an MBE in 1972, with his statue revealed in Edinburgh last year. It was also last year that his son revealed he was suffering from dementia and living in a care home.
Born June 28, 1945, Ken became a professional boxer in 1965. He went on to win the WBA lightweight world title by dethroning Panama's Ismael Laguna in Puerto Rica in 1970, defeating Ruben Navarro in Los Angeles in 1971, and earning 33 other wins. Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Robert Aldridge, said on the day of his death: “Today Edinburgh has lost one of its most renowned sons with the death of boxing legend Ken Buchanan at the age of 77.
“Born in Leith in 1945, Ken Buchanan would go on to become Scotland's first undisputed world champion and was once voted ‘Britain’s Greatest Ever Boxer’ by the Boxing News. Ken won a huge local fan base for putting Edinburgh firmly on the map and in 2016 he was presented with the Edinburgh Award. It is very fitting that his famous fighting hands have been immortalised on a flagstone outside the City Chambers.
“Throughout his life, he showed great appreciation for his native city and its people, and just last August crowds gathered to celebrate as a statue of Ken was unveiled at a public ceremony on Leith Walk. On behalf of the city, I want to convey heartfelt sympathies and condolences to Ken's family and friends. Our city mourns one of its most celebrated sons. May he rest in peace and I’m sure his legacy will be longstanding."
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