1. Neville Meade rose to prominence when he won the gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.
40 Facts About Neville Meade
1. 2.
Neville Meade turned professional in 1974 and won the Welsh Heavyweight title in 1976 and then followed this with the British title in 1981.
3.
Neville Meade retired in 1983 after a failed defence of his British title.
4.
Neville Meade took on a new trainer, Jimmy Bromfield, in 1979 and this saw a change in his fortune which led to Meade taking the British Heavyweight title.
5.
Neville Meade boxed for the RAF representing the airforce in inter-service competitions and in amateur tournaments.
6.
The next year, still representing the RAF, Neville Meade again reached the heavyweight final, and on this occasion won, taking the English amateur title.
7.
Neville Meade was given a bye through the preliminaries, and then beat Canada's Carroll Morgan on points in the Quarter finals.
8.
In September 1974, a little over seven months after taking the Commonwealth gold, Neville Meade boxed in his first professional bout.
9.
Neville Meade's opponent was Tony Mikulski, who came to the fight with a run of seven professional wins.
10.
Neville Meade stopped Barlow via technical knockout in the third giving him his first professional win.
11.
Neville Meade faced three opponents that night, beating Harold James by points followed by a first-round knockout of Les McGowan before achieving a first-round technical knockout over Geoff Hepplestone in the final.
12.
Neville Meade ended 1974 with a win over Eddie Fenton at the National Sporting Club in London.
13.
On 17 February 1975, Neville Meade faced Richard Dunn in London and lost via a technical knockout, the first time Neville Meade had been stopped within the distance of a bout at professional level.
14.
Neville Meade completed 1975 with five wins, a points win in his third match with Moore and four technical knockouts over Lloyd Walford, Derek Simpkin, John Depledge and Lucien Rodriguez.
15.
Neville Meade started 1976 with a defeat, losing to Spanish-based boxer Alfredo Evangelista in Madrid on 12 March.
16.
Two weeks later Neville Meade challenged for his first notable professional title when a match was arranged between him and Tony Blackburn for the Welsh Heavyweight belt.
17.
On 11 August 1976 Neville Meade was offered a step towards a British belt with a first round eliminator for the British Heavyweight title.
18.
Neville Meade followed the Ruddock fight this with another loss, suffering a technical knockout in the sixth in an encounter with future European champion John Lewis Gardner.
19.
Neville Meade managed to defeat Bjorn Rudi in Oslo, but then lost in Brussels to Jean-Pierre Coopman on the Belgian's way to taking the European Heavyweight title, then Neville Meade was knocked-out for the first time in his professional career, by South African Kallie Knoetze in Johannesburg.
20.
Since winning the Welsh belt, Neville Meade had fought ten times, losing seven and six of them were stoppages within the distance.
21.
Neville Meade spent a year away from professional fighting, making his comeback for a defence of his Welsh title against David Pearce in early 1980.
22.
The ten round fight, held at Caerphilly, lasted until the second, with Neville Meade winning via a controversial stoppage.
23.
Neville Meade followed this with an identical second round stoppage in another Welsh title defence, this time over Cardiff fighter Winston Allen.
24.
Neville Meade's turn in form was rewarded with a first round eliminator to choose the next challenger for the British Heavyweight title.
25.
Neville Meade's opponent was Stan Dermott, a London-based fighter, and their encounter was held at the Royal Albert Hall in the capital on 8 December 1980.
26.
The final eliminator was held in Wales, at Ebbw Vale, and Neville Meade, facing Terry Mintus from Leeds, recorded his fourth straight knockout this time in the third round.
27.
Neville Meade's hook landed on the left side of Ferris' jaw and Ferris dropped to the canvas.
28.
Neville Meade followed up his title victory with an encounter with American Leroy Boone, less than a month later.
29.
Neville Meade's final fight was his first defence of his British title, fought at St David's Hall in Cardiff on 22 September 1983.
30.
Neville Meade's opponent was David Pearce, who Meade had beaten at the start of his comeback in 1980.
31.
The contest ended in the ninth, when Neville Meade was stopped by a technical knockout.
32.
Neville Meade was a big-hitting heavyweight which is attested by his knockout ratio of 18 in 20 wins, with only two contests going the full distance, and one of those being a four-round contest.
33.
Neville Meade's problem was seen as a lack of finesse, as in the words of one commentator, he was a "hit or get hit" type of boxer.
34.
Neville Meade disliked training and this showed as he got older, often coming in at over 17 stone.
35.
Neville Meade had three long-term partners, with whom he had five children.
36.
Neville Meade then returned to Cardiff where she trained to be an accountant.
37.
Neville Meade is currently still living in Cardiff with her husband and two young sons.
38.
James is the youngest of Neville Meade's five children, born in 1988.
39.
Neville Meade is the great uncle of Jernade Neville Meade, Premier League Footballer, formally of Arsenal FC and Swansea City AFC.
40.
Neville Meade's life improved after that and he spent time as a youth worker, but late in 2009 he was diagnosed with cancer and he died at Ty Olwen Hospice at Morriston Hospital in Swansea on 13 March 2010.