I remember back in the mid 90s he was a studio pundit for sky. he always seemed like a genuine guy. i liked him.
I hope Boris Johnson gets up off his arse and on his bike and comes out and says something about this shit.
VERY sad. He was a great guy. Genuine. Only lost one fight in his career and that was to Lennox Lewis.
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Agree totally mate. He's trying to convince us to use bikes on the busiest fucking roads in the country and you get shit like this. Fuck Boris
Not long ago I downloaded his fights. A solid fighter and the impression I got from his interviews was that he was a humble, honest guy.
I don't know anyone who had a bad word to say about Gary. Top bloke. I remember reading in Lewis' autobiography how he got his sparring partners to wear red X's above their eyes in preparation for the Mason fight as they knew about the issues with his eyes, so Lewis could hit that spot with his eyes closed come fight night. Obviously the tactics worked a treat, but ended Garys career.
Yea you can't blame Lewis for doing it, it's dog eat dog and you have to do whatever it takes to win. It's just a shame it happened to Mason and cut short his career as a consequence. He had alot of financial problems after boxing.
R.I.P. Sounds like he was a good dude, though I can't pretend to be too familiar with him. This quote struck me as odd, though: "Mason is the first person to die in a cycling incident in London in 2011, according to Transport for London." How dangerous is it to ride a bike in London that it's worth mentioning he's the first to die in a cycling accident in a year that's only one week old?
Is this part really true? "On 6 March, 1991, unbeaten Mason was the favourite going into a fight against up-and-coming 25-year-old Lennox Lewis."
Is it hard to believe? Always remember that Lewis was getting stick from the New York post after he blew out Grant. In 1991, Lewis was regarded in England as being as much Canadian as English, and of course Mason, like todays version of Haye, would have been much more feted than Lewis, at that time.
It remember it being 50-50..if anything Lewis had the slight edge. I thought Mason was going to win though and jumped on the Lewis bandwagon immediately after that fight after seeing how easily he handled Mason.
I meant in terms of betting odds, not popularity. Anyway, Sly answered the question... have to say I'm surprised that Mason was on that level. I've only seen a few of his fights, and that's only because I was in Europe at the time. I just don't remember that much hype about him, whereas LL was pegged as a future star seemingly from the Olympics.
There was definitely far more hype surrounding Lewis than Mason at the time. Mason was hardly noticed, even in Britain. He was the British champion at the time of the fight and Lewis was the European champion I think. Thing with Gary Mason was this: he had a very heavy punch, a solid chin but he was perhaps the SLOWEST fighter i have ever seen in the ring. That lack of speed was always going to catch up to him when he stepped up in class.
Ah gotcha. Thanks for the insight. Kinda feel bad I never followed his career. Sport definitely needs more like him, and sad that he'll be more celebrated in death.
Wasn't Mason ranked to the top-10 by The Ring back then when it still meant something? I think I have seen his name at least at #10
