Neville Meade boxer

Neville Meade (12 September 1948 – 13 March 2010) was a British boxer from Swansea. Born in Montserrat, he moved to Wales at the age of nine. He rose to prominence when he won the gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. He turned professional in 1974 and won the Welsh Heavyweight title in 1976 and then followed this with the British title in 1981. He retired in 1983 after a failed defence of his British title.Meade was known for his big-hitting style of fighting with very few of his bouts going the distance. Of his 20 professional wins, 18 came via knockout. Despite this ability, Meade lacked motivation in training and during the middle of his career, with his weight reaching above 17 stone, he suffered a lack of form that saw him lose seven out of nine fights. He 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.Born and initially raised in Montserrat, Meade moved to the United Kingdom at the age of nine and grew up in Swansea, Wales. After leaving education he served in the Royal Air Force Regiment in Catterick. Meade boxed for the RAF representing the airforce in inter-service competitions and in amateur tournaments. In 1973 he reached the final of the heavyweight division of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) National Championship held at Wembley Arena in London, but lost to Garfield McEwan. The next year, still representing the RAF, Meade again reached the heavyweight final, and on this occasion won, taking the English amateur title. By winning the England amateur title, Meade was afforded the opportunity of representing England in the 1974 Commonwealth games, held in Christchurch, New Zealand. Meade was given a bye through the preliminaries, and then beat Canada's Carroll Morgan on points in the Quarter finals. After beating Samoa's Vai Samu on points in the semi-final, Meade faced Nigerian Fatai Ayinla in the final. Despite Ayinla's greater experience as an amateur, having won the Commonwealth light-heavyweight silver in 1966 and the gold in 1970, Meade took the bout after the referee stopped the contest in Meade's favour, giving him the Commonwealth heavyweight gold medal.In September 1974, a little over seven months after taking the Commonwealth gold, Meade boxed in his first professional bout. His opponent was Tony Mikulski, who came to the fight with a run of seven professional wins. The contest, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, went the full six rounds, with the referee giving the result to Mikulski. A month later, on 14 October, Meade faced Roger Barlow in an eight-round bout in Swansea. Meade stopped Barlow via technical knockout in the third giving him his first professional win. A week later Meade entered a £2000 knock-out competition held at the Grosvenor. 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. Meade ended 1974 with a win over Eddie Fenton at the National Sporting Club in London.