William Wells (boxer)

William Wells (7 September 1936 – 2008) known as Billy Wells was a British boxer. He was an Olympian and double ABA champion.[1]

For the British Heavyweight boxing champion 1911 to 1919, see Bombardier Billy Wells.

Billy Wells
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born(1936-09-07)7 September 1936
London, England
Died2008 (aged 71–72)
Sport
SportBoxing

Boxing career

In 1965, Wells boxing out of the Wandsworth ABC won the ABA heavyweight title. Despite this success he was surprisingly left out of the England team for the 1965 European Championships.[2] Three years later in 1968 he won his second A.B.A Championship.[3] Wells was now boxing for the Lynn Athletic Club and defeated Coventry's Frank Carpenter in the final at Wembley.[4]

Despite being the oldest boxer (at 32 years of age), at the time of his second title win, he was selected for Great Britain to compete in the men's heavyweight event at the 1968 Summer Olympics,[5] where he lost to eventual silver medalist Jonas Čepulis of the Soviet Union.[3]

Family

His son Bobby Wells competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the Super heavyweight division.[5]

References
  1. "William Wells". Olympedia. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  2. "Three A.B.A Champions left out". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 3 May 1965. Retrieved 26 September 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. Kempson, Chris (29 May 2020). "Boxing: GB wait for Olympic heavyweight gold goes on". Barking & Dagenham Post. Retrieved 23 September 2021. in 1968, former ABA champion Billy Wells (Lynn) was halted in the second round of his contest with Russia's Jonas Cepulis, who lost the final to America's George Foreman
  4. "Imrie breaks jaw, Blake wins title". Daily Mirror. 11 May 1968. Retrieved 26 September 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "William Wells Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
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