24 Facts About Chris Finnegan

Chris Finnegan MBE was a British professional boxer of Irish descent born in Iver, Buckinghamshire, England.

Chris Finnegan always wore a Union Flag and a Shamrock on his boxing trunks to signify his joint heritage.

Chris Finnegan was introduced to boxing at a young age by his elder brother Terence.

Chris Finnegan competed at the 1967 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Rome, where he lost on points to Jan Hejduk of Czechoslovakia.

Chris Finnegan almost missed out on making the 1968 Summer Olympics team after sustaining an eye injury which prevented him taking the ABA championships.

Chris Finnegan was the last British boxer to win an Olympic gold medal until Audley Harrison in 2000.

Chris Finnegan wrote an autobiography entitled Chris Finnegan: Self-Portrait of a Fighting Man about his boxing career, including his gold medal win at Mexico City which he referred to as a "golden rivet".

Chris Finnegan won an Olympic gold medal while representing Great Britain as a middleweight boxer in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Chris Finnegan had considered turning professional even before the Olympics, but his money troubles meant that he was "more or less forced to".

Chris Finnegan won 13 of his first 14 fights, his sole loss a cut-eye stoppage against Danny Ashie.

Chris Finnegan dropped a close 15-round decision, in which the referee and sole judge Herbert Tomser scored four rounds to Bogs and eleven even.

Five months later, in January 1971, Chris Finnegan stopped Eddie Avoth in the 15th round to win the British and British Commonwealth light-heavyweight titles.

In May 1971, Chris Finnegan travelled to Berlin to challenge for the European light-heavyweight title, held by Conny Velensek of Germany.

Chris Finnegan won a unanimous 15-round decision to take the title.

Chris Finnegan was named Ring Magazine's progress of the year for 1971 and was now being touted as a challenger to reigning world light-heavyweight champion Bob Foster; he was at ringside for Foster's fight with Vicente Rondon and introduced to the crowd after the fight.

Chris Finnegan was considered a heavy underdog against Foster, whose previous two opponents, contenders Rondon and Mike Quarry, had lasted a combined total of six rounds before being knocked out by him.

However, Chris Finnegan proved more competitive than expected, finally being stopped by Foster in the 14th round of a gruelling contest.

Six weeks after the Foster fight, Chris Finnegan faced Rudiger Schmidtke at Wembley, having been ordered by the European Boxing Union to defend his European title against him or risk being stripped of it.

Chris Finnegan lost by a 12th-round TKO after sustaining a bad cut on his nose.

Chris Finnegan remained inactive for four months, before successfully defending his British and Commonwealth titles against Roy John, winning a 15-round decision at Wembley.

Chris Finnegan then won a ten-round decision over Mike Quarry, before facing Conteh again.

Chris Finnegan then dropped a decision against Johnny Frankham for the British light-heavyweight title, before avenging that loss to win the Lonsdale Belt outright.

That proved to be his final fight, as Chris Finnegan retired from boxing in 1975 after undergoing surgery to repair a detached retina.

Chris Finnegan died at the age of 64 after several weeks in Hillingdon Hospital suffering from pneumonia.