Alex Daley award

ALEX DALEY WINS REG GUTTERIDGE AWARD

ALEX DALEY WINS REG GUTTERIDGE AWARD

Pitch Publishing author Alex Daley has been honoured with a prestigious boxing writers’ award.

The Reg Gutteridge Award for services to boxing media was presented to Alex by Colin Hart of The Sun, renowned boxing journalist and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, on behalf of the London Ex-Boxers Association at the group’s annual awards dinner.

The event, held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London on 18 February, was attended by numerous former world, European and British champions, along with other boxing luminaries such as Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren.

Alex is the first person under 40 to receive the award. Previous winners have included Colin Hart, Alan Hubbard (former Observer sports editor), Steve Bunce (Box Nation and the Independent), Hugh McIlvaney OBE (former Observer and Sunday Times sports writer) and Jeff Powell of the Daily Mail.

Alex writes the history-themed Yesterday’s Heroes column for the trade magazine Boxing News. He is also the author of Pitch Publishing title Fighting Men of London: Voices from Inside the Ropes.

Alex’s latest book is Born to Box: The Extraordinary Story of Nipper Pat Daly. It chronicles the life and unique career of Alex’s paternal grandfather, a lost legend of boxing who was arguably the sport’s greatest ever prodigy. A pro at age ten, by 14 Nipper Pat Daly was beating grown men in 15-round fights and at 16 ranked in the world’s top ten. Tragically, though, he was overworked and forced to retire at 17.

Read Born to Box and you will discover:

  • How children were allowed to enter the dangerous world of professional boxing in the 1920s and 30s
  • How Nipper Pat Daly (real name Patrick Daley) started fighting pro at the age of ten (he is thought to be the youngest ever professional boxer)
  • What happened when Daly (aged 14) sparred with the reigning world middleweight champion, the legendary ‘Toy Bulldog’ Mickey Walker
  • The stories of Daly’s ring battles with stars of yesteryear such as Seaman Tommy Watson, Dick Corbett, Johnny Cuthbert, Bert Kirby and Kid Pattenden
  • How a British Boxing Board of Control rule barred Daly from fighting for a British title because he was underage, even though he was allowed to fight champions in non-title bouts
  • How at 16 Daly had an astonishing 33 pro fights in 11 months (mostly 15-rounders)
  • How Daly’s manager scuppered his chance of fighting in America and contesting a world title at a record age
  • The truth behind Daly’s sudden exit from the sport he seemed destined to rule – aged just 17
  • What happened to him after he left boxing, including his years as a professional ‘all-in’ wrestler and his time running his own Irish dance hall

Click here for more information or to read a sample from Born to Box.