Lloyd Honeyghan

Infobox_Boxer|name=Lloyd Honeyghan
realname=Lloyd Honeyghan
nickname="Ragamuffin Man"
weight=Welterweight
nationality=flagicon|UK flagicon|Jamaica
birth_date=Birth date and age|1960|4|22|mf=y
death_date=
birth_place=Jamaica
home=Bermondsey, England
style=Orthodox
total=48
wins=43
KO=31
losses=5
draws=0
no contests=0|

Lloyd Honeyghan (born April 22 1960) is a retired British boxer. Born in Jamaica, he was WBC/WBA & IBF welterweight champion from 1986 to 1987. and WBC welterweight champion from 1988 to 1989.

Honeyghan stunned the boxing fraternity when he forced super-star Donald Curry to retire at the end of round six on September 27 of 1986 to win the world Welterweight title. Before the fight Curry dismissed his unknown foreign opponent, asking "Who is this ragamuffin?". Honeyghan adopted the title "ragamuffin" or "Ragamuffin Man" with relish.

The fight had taken place one night after another "expert shocker", when Edwin Rosario knocked out Livingstone Bramble in two rounds to claim the WBA world Lightweight title, and one week after Honeyghan's win, Ring Magazine mentioned his victory on their "Weekend of shockers!" issue's cover. (Rosario's photo was featured on the cover of that issue).

He then changed his boxer-puncher style to that of more of an out-and-out slugger.In his first defence he caused controversy by racing across the ring and hitting his opponent Johnny Bumphus as soon as the bell sounded. Bumphus was given time to recover but the fight had been knocked out of him already and he did not last much longer. In his second defence of the title, Honeyghan defeated American Maurice Blocker on points. He become a crowd pleaser with his all action style of fighting and recorded one of the fastest wins in a world title fight with a 40 second blow-out of former light welterweight champion Gene Hatcher.

He lost his title to Jorge Vaca in 1987 when a clash of heads meant that the fight had to be stopped due to a cut sustained by Vaca. The scorecards at the time of the stoppage favoured Vaca.

Honeyghan became only the second British boxer in history to regain a world title when he knocked vaca out in a return fight, the first being Ted "Kid" Lewis earlier in the 20th century.

Honeyghan disagreed with the WBA's rules that allowed fights to take place in apartheid South Africa, so he publicly dumped the WBA world Welterweight belt into a London trash bin soon after winning it, relinquishing the title rather than defending it against South African Harold Volbrecht. This move would prove significant, as soon after, the WBA stopped sanctioning fights held in South Africa.

He had to apologise to the WBA for his previous actions in order to fight for the WBA title in 1990 against Mark Breland. By this time Honeyghan was past his best having lost the WBC title to Marlon Starling in 1989 and was stopped in 3 rounds after being knocked down 6 times. Honeyghan claimed to be weight-weakened, but was probably suffering from the effects of the punishment he had taken in the Starling fight.

He carried on boxing at light middleweight and was still good enough to win the Commonwealth title at this weight. He retired after he was stopped by Adrian Dodson in 1995. Following his retirement he tried his hand at boxing promoting but without the contacts did not make much of an impact.

He is a speaker on the after dinner circuit and sometimes can be found ringside at some of the major shows in London.

ee also

* List of British welterweight boxing champions
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-Succession box
before=Jorge Vaca
title=WBC Welterweight Champion
after=Marlon Starling
years=29 March 1988– 4 February 1989Lloyd once stated before a title fight against Maurice Blocker, that if he couldn't get a bout with Sugar Ray Leonard, he would retire, on return to London, Honeyghan's manager, and promoter Mickey Duff said it was nonsence.

External links

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when asked in a December 2007 interview with Sky, "Do you think Witter would beat him (Hatton)"?, Lloyd replied "Yeah", "Just the wrong style" "I think the one he (Hatton) should stay away from is Junior Witter