Name: Joe Bygraves
Career Record: click
Nationality: Jamaican
Birthplace: Kingston
Hometown: Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Born: 1931-05-26
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 6′ 1″
Division: Heavyweight
Manager: Johnny Campbell

Joe was one of 12 children to a Jamaican Police Sergeant, Joe Bygraves was born in Kingston on 26 May 1931. He was  15 when he came to England  hoping to study  for a trade – in his case an electrician - three of His brothers also accompanied him; two settling in London, with Joe and another deciding on Merseyside. 

Then , aged 17,that Joe became more interested in boxing and joined the  Provincial ABC.  He set of with the simple and modest aim of winning an  Olympic title!  Before  joining the Provincial  Joe had  a number of schoolboy bouts in Jamaica , the  results aren't known.

It was not long before he began to show great promise in the amateur game. He won Northern Counties titles at both light-heavyweight and heavyweight, and a West  Lancs and Cheshire light-heavyweight championship – l between 1949 and 1952. He also represented  England, along with Henry Cooper – a future opponent, Pete Waterman and his fellow club member Pat McAteer, against Wales in  May 1952.

Joe lost this bout as well as his ABA semi final the same year and so after  he decided to turn professional. It was an amateur referee who was the cause of Joe turning professional and taking his great friend, Pat McAteer with him. Following an  disagreement Joe became disillusioned with the amateur game and talked Pat into the same frame of mind and together they joined Johnny Campbell's stable in Birkenhead.

Joe earned his living outside of the ring as a ships painter. Joe made his professional debut  at the Liverpool Stadium on 12 February 1953 stopping  Don Maxwell  ( Nottingham ) in the first round. He followed this victory with six straight wins, including a first round stoppage over  former ABA champion, Peter McCann, who also lived in Birkenhead. Joe was rapidly becoming a firm favourite of the knowledgeable Liverpool Stadium fans. Despite his chosen profession, Joe was a deeply religious man and along with his good friend Hogan 'Kid' Bassey, another Liverpool fighter,  were  staunch supporters of the Princes  Gate Baptist Church in Liverpool.

When a boxer wins their first seven contests he is assured of attracting attention and Joe was  and Joe was to be no exception.. He was beginning to get noticed and for his next contest he w as asked to travel to London's White City to take on Stepney's Joe Crickmar. It was a step up in class for Joe and he suffered his first defeat — a fifth round stoppage. Despite losing to Crickmar in a quick return just a month later, Joe gained his revenge at the Liverpool  Stadium in March the following year when he scored an eight rounds points victory.

Wins over the highly rated Paddy Slavin, Frank Bell, Peter Bates and Bermuda's Ed Polly Smith saw Joe continue his rise up the rankings. Like Joe, another young heavyweight was rising fast in the rankings - Bellingham's Henry Cooper, and the exciting young prospect was Joe's next opponent at Manor Place Baths in April 1955. Joe was adjudged the loser over eight rounds but just two weeks later he got back to winning ways with a fourth round KO over Battersea's Eddie Hearn at the Liverpool Stadium. A win over the dangerous Tongan sensation Kitione Lave, always a star attraction wherever he appeared in Britain in the 1950s, followed in Birmingham.

Joe's services were now being sought by European promoters and in October 1955 he travelled to Bologna, Italy only to be disqualified against Franco Cavicci. He returned to Italy six weeks later however, to spectacularly KO the highly rated Aldo Pellegrini in just 50 seconds! Earlier in the year Pellegrini had decked Ingemar Johansson before being disqualified himself.

Although a big man, with a bodybuilders physique, Joe was a clever, fast fighter. He did suffer from a stamina problem however, due in no small way to his training methods. By his own admission Joe disliked training, especially road-work. It was this lack of dedication to training that led to a split between Joe and Johnny Campbell. Joe was also running his own nightclub at the time on Liverpool's Upper Parliament Street, and this may have been a contributory factor in his failing to train fully. Joe may have felt however that he didn't need to train as hard as he should because if there was one thing he could do it was punch. There was no doubt that if he managed to hit you – you stayed 'hit'!

In January 1956 Joe returned to Italy and beat local boy Uber Bacilieri on points over ten rounds. A remarkable achievement. Indeed it was said that a foreign boxer often needed to KO the home fighter just to gain a draw in Italy at the time! The following month Joe had another trip abroad, this time to Gothenburg. Again he was adjudged a points loser over ten rounds but there was no shame in this as his opponent was non other than the 'Hammer of Thor' himself, Ingemar Johannsen of Sweden. Johannsen had KO'd seven of his 12 opponents as a professional previous to his meeting with Joe and he would win the European title just two fights later. The Swede would of course go on to win the world title in 1959.

Joe got back to winning ways with an eight round stoppage win over tough Belgian Marcel Limage in Cardiff. This was in May 1965 and a month later Joe was matched with previous opponent Kitione Lave for t he vacant British Empire heavyweight title. After 15 hard fought rounds at Wembley Pool, the referee raised Joe's hand to declare him the winner on points. The big Jamaican, a champion at last, was scared of no-one and over the next 12 months he met all of the leading British contenders.

Following a disappointing retirement loss against Wayne Bethea in New York, Joe was matched against former British, British Empire and European champion Johnny Williams of Rugby for the first defence of his Empire title. This contest saw him back to his brilliant best and he stopped Williams in the sixth round at Belle Vue, Manchester. Next up was another old opponent; Henry Cooper. It was Cooper's first title shot, but Joe was again on superb form, and he sensationally KO'd the future champion in the ninth round at Earls Court. A further defence followed, this time against another future champion in the shape of Newport's Dick Richardson. Their May 1957 meeting in Cardiff resulted in a draw, which of course meant Joe kept his title. A disputed 15 rounds loss to Joe Erskine in Leicester in November 1957 saw Joe relinquish the crown and although he boxed on for a further 10 years he never fought for a title again.

In his 72 professional contests Joe met some of the country's, and indeed the world's, top heavyweights. Not only did he meet the likes of Cooper, Erskine, Richardson and Johannsen, but he also fought such men as Zora Folley, Karl Mildenberger, Jack Gardner, Billy Walker and Willie Pastrano. He had a total of 19 bouts in Liverpool, he last a fifth round disqualification against Ray Shiel in August 1963, whilst his final contest came at the Anglo-Sporting Club at the Hilton Hotel, London in March 1967; a ten rounds points defeat to Edwardo Corletti of Argentina.

. After Joe retired from boxing he had a 160 acre pig farm in stanmore, middlesex.  He use to name his boars after former opponents he had one called Dirty Dick after Dick Richardson, one day the pig called dirty dick bit him and he had to go to hospital for stiches, he told dick what happened and he roared with laughter. He had a boar called Harry Gibbs after the famous ref, Billy walker and George Chuvale, to name a few. in 1984 and we heard after his funeral that joe had sold the farm and moved back to Jamaica

 As well as raising animals, Joe built a raining camp for boxers, and would often let old-time fighters stay at his Portuguese villa he had acquired during his boxing days. Although Joe's post-boxing career is difficult to ascertain,  He now lives in  Jamaica and Portugal, although not in the best of health.