Free Nigel Benn by Nigel Benn Page A

fight.’
    As you can imagine, all the open-class boxers were huddled around the door to watch this fight. The tension was electric as this very good boxer, Harry, had beaten every other person he’d met. But it all changed when I fought him. Harry came into the ring bobbing and weaving about. All of a sudden, I let fly with a left hook, bang, straight on the jaw. Harry hit the middle rope, crashed to the floor and the fight was all over in 17 seconds.
    I didn’t lose one fight in the Army. The world was my oyster. It was a great feather in my cap to beat these men who had been boxing for years and years.
    One fight I remember well was my battle against Corporal Lewis, who was a massive black guy and a real fitness fanatic. He was knocking everybody out like there was no tomorrow. When it came to my turn to fight him, I felt like heading for the closest latrine. I’d seen him in my weight class and he was about 6ft 2in of muscle. He was really, really athletic. You wake up when you see someone like him. As I went for him, I thought, ‘Here we go. I’m going to get knocked out for the first time.’ But I mullahed him. He may have been four inches taller but I punched him through the ropes and knocked the granny and the grandad out of him. I became an instant hero for wiping thefloor with him.
    Eventually, I was given the opportunity of fighting at Aldershot in the open-class army championships. Now we were talking about the élite: the Paras, Irish Guards and Green Jackets. I’d made the grade up from novice and I put everything I had into it, winning the championship.
    John told me later that Captain O’Grady and the Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant were going to put money into me when I left the Army. They saw my potential for professional boxing but are still kicking themselves for not having done anything about it. While I was the toast of most of the soldiers and officers in my battalion, there were one or two who were not happy about my achievements. I really hated one officer, whom I was sure loathed the way I had exploited my boxing abilities. There was no love lost between us.
    It looked like he had pressed his clothes using a cold mess tin rather than a hot iron. He was a right ex-Sandhurst nob. I would still feel like punching him in the mouth if I met him again now. If we were in a war together, I’d be the first to leave on a jet bound for Barbados.
    I could have taken him outside and confronted him in a one-to-one situation with no witnesses present. He irritated me to such an extent that I still feel hatred for him. Our CO, on the other hand, was posh but very nice. And there was another NCO in charge of us, Lieutenant Keegan, who was a lot smoother.
    I have already described how my sex lifebegan at a very young age and that I had been a selfish lover, more interested in satisfying myself and ignoring the techniques necessary for a mutually pleasurable event. This all changed in Germany. The country proved to be a great teacher, particularly its fräuleins.
    Not long after I was posted to Minden, I met a German woman who was much older than me. It was at Snoopy’s nightclub in Bielefeld. I was dressed like a ‘sticksboy’ which was the black fashion then. We liked gold sovereigns, gold ducats on long chains and brim hats. I had a massive ducat, suede shoes and a jacket with an open-neck shirt underneath. She had the hots for me although she was there with another man. She was short with dark hair and a good body. I preferred dark-haired women, although my fiancée, Mary, whom I loved to distraction and lived with when I left the Army, was blonde.
    She came over after I’d gone to the bar and asked for a dance when the reggae came on. Me? I looked around. Apart from John, I was the only black brother there. I didn’t believe this was happening to me. I was still a kid in Germany. I hadn’t even talked to a woman up to that point and this lady had a male friend in tow! Everybody was staring at us.