The Legacy Of Benny Lynch

Scotland has produced many boxers in its time but the most important boxer which came from Scotland has to be famous flyweight boxer, Benny Lynch. Lynch was born on the 2nd of April in the year of 1913 and was born in Glasgow where he’d live in a small tenement house. During the time of the Great Depression - where stock prices fell and unemployment reached 25 percent, basically it was an awful time for all and during this time, Benny Lynch learned his fighting skills in carnival booths which were spread all around Glasgow during this time. Benny Lynch cemented his legacy - not only in Scottish history but flyweight boxing history.

At the age of 18, Benny Lynch made his professional boxing debut in a local boxing booth not too far from his home and received five shillings a fight. A shilling was only 12p and it’s barely anything in today’s economy but in those days, it was worth a good bit. Lynch made his professional debut against a man named Young Bryce and he finished him in the second round. He then went on to have his second fight and won that fight by decision just 5 days after this first.

At the age of 19, Lynch had over 40 professional fights and his biggest opportunity came when he was boxing at Kelvin Hall on the undercard which was a big deal for 19 year old, Lynch. 10,000 people witnessed Benny Lynch defeat Carlos Cavagnoli by points. Lunch’s first title fight was against then champion BBBofC British and National Boxing Association flyweight champion, Jackie Brown which Lynch won by TKO in the second round. This would mark Lynch’s first title win in his boxing career. After a while, Lynch wouldn’t be able to make weight and spiralled out of control and forced himself into a life of alcohol abuse and lost his last two fights.

Benny Lynch had a career of 119 fights and won 88 of them. The orthodox boxer will go down in history as one of the greatest flyweight boxers of all time and for good reason too. British boxing wasn’t in a good shape at a time and it was young aspirational boxers like Benny Lynch who really shaped British boxing.