Clive Myers v Kung Fu
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Originality and Ignorance
1974 was a good year for débuts, arguably the last year of consolidated thought out effort on the part of Joint Promotions to introduce fresh colourful blood across the boards of the professional rosters.
This first televised sighting of Kung Fu was rather special at the time and has since gone down in history as being somewhat controversial due to his opponent’s reluctance to sell his unorthodox moves and unusual persona. So it’s a treat to be able to analyse the bout in detail over thirty years later.
It should be stated at the very outset that this bout was extremely enjoyable at many levels: the unusual garb of Kung Fu; the usual but unfailingly entertaining comments from Kent Wallton that the masked man wouldn’t speak to him in the dressing rooms beforehand; a rare trip for Clive Myers up to the land of the Northern Promoters, in this case Relwyskow & Green; and a bout full of the unusual in terms of moves and gesturing.
For the uninitiated, to quote Kent again, let’s just restate the cause of the controversy. Kung Fu had a quite breathtaking and original gimmick, aligned with undoubted skill. On his first televised showing, he required an opponent basically who would settle back, get mugged, appear outwitted and leave audiences gasping for more at their local halls.
The unfortunate choice of opponent was Clive Myers, at the time upwardly mobile in his own particular fast lane having progressed from quiet early seventies undercarder to a dynamically versatile and hard working wrestler.
The drab and dithering emceeing of the bout was in stark contrast to the acrobatics displayed by the wrestlers. A bumbling ageing figure clambered between the ropes to make every announcement with his back to camera, in tones so dreary as to be tiresome and sound uninformed. This was Arthur Green, not merely a co-Promoter but actually the secretary of the Joint Promotions nationwide network. Maybe not God, but the closest we came to a St. Peter.
In spite of this rank, his skills as matchmaker seem to have been equivalent to his artistry with the microphone. Oh, how we needed a Black Jack Mulligan or a Stubby Kaye to test out the new hooded hero with their villainy and ultimately to be outclassed. That was all that was needed. Just consider the début six weeks later at Woking of the masked Exorcist. The opponent here was good old reliable Bob Kirkwood who did the job to perfection and the evil Exorcist was set on his bill-topping way.
This matching of Myers and mystery was an unnecessary and unhelpful excess. The promoter had clearly not identified Myers’ progress and had him still pegged as the quiet 1971 welterweight. Ignorantly he failed to introduce Myers as the welterweight champion of the West Indies from Jamaica, just saying he was from London. This was scarcely towing the nationwide line. Equally, the promoter had not realised that this was top-of-the-bill fare, but had it tagged onto the end of a long televised programme.
Further mismanagement followed with the commentator seemingly repeating weights that, in the end, he himself questioned and which had probably been supplied to him by the incompetent promoter. We were required to believe that Myers was 1½ stones lighter that Kung Fu. Apart from appearing significantly taller, Myers had a chiselled frame that was at least the size of the jacketed Kung Fu. Kung Fu’s best kicks and chops bounced harmlessly off Myers’ chest. We expected that, unjacketed, Kung Fu would have appeared lithe and wiry just like his predecessor Judo Al Marquette, and certainly have weighed a good stone or more less than Myers.
From this negative backcloth we witnessed a bout memorable for surprise, innovation and skill. True, many of Kung Fu’s moves didn’t come off, but many many did. Had the pair had a proper trial run somewhere inconsequential beforehand, they would surely have fired better together here. Myers rather controlled the first two rounds and scored with a folding press in the second. He then became more aware of his role and more of Kung Fu’s tricks started to come off.
Whilst Myers never truly seemed in any danger, Kung Fu’s scores were well executed and seemed suitably inescapable.
Controversy entails doubt. How much animosity between the pair or even promotions actually ensued from this match is by the by and history. It is noteworthy, however, that a shortwhile later Myers appeared dressed not only judo-jacketed but in dark colours and with a dark mask, surely much more than a coincidence………
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