John Richard Owens was born in the UK in the quiet town of Merthyr, Wales where no one ever expected the skinny-armed, shy-eyed little boy to stand out in boxing.
Owen, as he was known within the boxing environment, debuted at the age of 8 in amateur boxing, achieving the number of 126 fights, I will highlight that as a professional Owen made three fights in 1976, the year of his debut; He had seven fights in 1977, in 1978 he made another seven and in 1979 he fought seven more to end in 1980 with four fights only until the day of his death.
Unfortunately, Owen's death was due to a very tough battle against the current Mexican bantamweight champion of that time, the great Lupe Pintor. The bionic cock caught the attention of Pintor for the almost impeccable record that he had until the day of his fight, only once he lost to the Spanish Juan Francisco Rodríguez who snatched the title (EBU) European Bamtam title to recover it later in 1980 before him JFR not before taking the title also of BBB of C of European nations before Jhon Feeney who was undefeated with [18-0-0].
Owen was the fourth of eight children and because of his thin complexion he seemed weak before his rivals who belittled the great talent that hid his diminutive figure, a talent that reflected strength, tenacity, energy, elegance and chivalry. Owen, driven by the community, undertook the odyssey inside the box as a result of the fights in the neighborhood where he always imposed peace.
That fatal encounter that triggered a series of unfortunate events took place in LA California at the Olympic Auditorium, on Sep 19, 1980 before 10,000 souls who were mostly Hispanic where they gathered to see their idol of the moment and big favorite in the 5-1 bets in favor of Lupe Pintor.
The Cock of Merthyr enters a ring packed with reporters not expecting the championship-worthy battle and a crowd of people throwing beer and intimidating insults at the challenging alien.
When the match referee Morty Denky urges them to fight like good sportsmen, makes the start signal and rings the bell, the fighters start a spectacular fight where only one of them would be left standing.
The foreign challenger despised by the crowd and the media, gave an excellent display of claw, passion and physical condition winning episodes to a surprised LP that already had both eyelids cut, but not intimidated, it was until round 9 where the current champion with a The blow began to deplete Owen sending him to the canvas.
This did not affect the morale of the UK native much, he maintained his advance despite receiving enormous direct punishment to the head, it was until round 12 that Painter with a forehand managed to completely knock Owens down to receive the account and never get up.
Owens was taken out of the ring on a stretcher and taken to the California Hospital Medical Center where he fell into a coma to die on Nov. 14, of that year.
It is said that the WBC had insured Owen for $ 100MIL amount that the boxer's family never looked at after his death. Everyone in Wales loved Owens and when the news broke there was a huge sadness that lingers in his memory to this day. Not for nothing did they dedicate a statue to the champion to remember his legacy.