It really doesn't seem that long ago and I didn't realise he was still just a kid and only 23 at the time but today marks the 30th Anniversary of Johnny Owen getting knocked out and sent into a coma against Pintor in L.A. and subsequently losing his life a few weeks later.
An amazing man, quietly spoken and puny looking, yet he was a boxing great and a warrior in the ring.
My one abiding memory of Johnny was outside the ring as he used to holiday every summer with his family at Fontygary caravan site in Rhoose. My parents had a caravan there too as I used to stay there every weekend and through the summer.
Johnny, even though on holidays, would go on punishing runs and training regimes daily, sometimes morning and evening, and a few of us used to watch him and try to keep up with him. We had no chance.
His training at Fonty often ended at the "99 steps", a winding and different height set of steps from the cliff to the beach near Aberthaw power station. At my fittest - and I was once upon a time - my mates and myself used to times how quickly we could get up them. It was lung bursting stuff and we'd be knackered and lying on the grass at the top after 1 attempt ... Johnny Owen would run up and down them 10 times barely breaking sweat!
RIP Johnny, never forgotten you, never will.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/9005070.stm
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