That said, I’m sure it still goes on, and it’s accompanied by white-collar boxing, which is organised but unlicensed fighting for keen amateurs. He served tea in delicate china cups and told me the story of his life, which was fascinating and sad. Jonathan, you’re right, it was Ron Stander, a high-class American heavyweight at one time, although not by the time he fought Roy.

THIS IS THE CLASSIC BOOK THAT STARTED AN ENTIRE GENRE – THE STORY OF THE MOST ICONIC HARDMAN OF THEM ALL. It moves along at a good rate, you are told a few good stories along the way and it is most definitely interesting. Lenny Mclean was a hard bastard, he had a hard if not brutal upbringing in Hoxton - East End of London and emerged as the leading bare knuckle fighter of his time.Although money was scarce and fighting was commonplace, a camaraderie and deep sense of honour and respect remained.

THIS IS THE CLASSIC BOOK THAT STARTED AN ENTIRE GENRE - THE STORY OF THE MOST ICONIC HARDMAN OF THEM ALL.He has been shot twice and stabbed once, which almost cost him his leg, but he’s never been put down and he always made it to hospital on his own two feet. Watching the YouTube clips gives one a sense of the great strength and brutishness of McLean, and you do wonder what impact he would have had if he’d been allowed to fight in licensed boxing.

Valerie McLean and myself would like to thank all those readers who helped to make Lenny's story the number one biography of 1998. Leonard John McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998) was an English unlicensed boxer, bouncer, bodyguard, businessman and actor. I run the official D2MDTG site ( lenny McLean) along with lennys one and only daughter kelly Mclean and Tony Turner. He was uneducated and a product of his upbringing, traumatised by what he’d been through, and probably had mental health problems as a result of all that. Lenny weighed twenty one stone at his strongest: he was a big man from a family of successful bare-knuckle fighters.He evokes a compelling picture of times past, of a tough childhood growing up in the impoverished East End under the auspices of a brutally violent and unforgiving stepfather.

Fighter, gangster, businessman or ordinary man in the street - do right by the Guv'nor and you'd have a friend for life; betray him at your peril. It isn’t a misery memoir, and there are lots of funny stories as well as the darker ones, because the Guv’nor had a sense of humour and liked practical jokes. I never knew the man, only what I've read and seen from archive footage - I certainly wouldnt have wanted to cross him thats for sure, but on the other hand, would loved to have met him in other circumstances and had a pint (not that Lenny touched booze) with him and just chatted with the fella, as he did have a story to tell thats for sure. A victim of violent abuse at the hands of his stepfather, Lenny spent much of his teenage life in borstal as he began to follow a life of crime. McLean, who in his prime was six feet three inches (191 cm) tall and weighed over 20 stone (280 lb; 130 kg), boasted that he could beat anybody, in either a legitimate match or in an unlicensed match with or without gloves.By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Roy Shaw even appeared on the front of Time Out, under the coverline ‘Still The Hardest Man In London’. If Lenny's life journey doesn't have you captivated from the first few pages then you're a beige bastard with no sense of excitement. I remember Roy saying that they’d been out to a club a few nights before the fight and got absolutely hammered.