| Biography | ROY Francis refereed 384 top class boxing bouts and judged 187 championship bouts during a distinguished 40-year career.
Born in Brixton during the Depression, the young Francis took up amateur boxing in the 1950s while working in the fish trade. Fighting as an 11 stone light-middleweight, he powered his way to the 1953 British ABA light-middleweight title finals in London where he gave fellow Englishman Bruce Wells a tough scrap before losing on points.
Tough and a noted puncher in his amateur days, Francis proved his class as a crowd pleasing boxer by subsequently stopping his American opponent Frank Lavis, inside a round during the 1955 England V USA international at London's Wembley arena.
Not surprisingly, top London boxing promoter Jack Solomons showed a keen interest in Francis and signed him to make his pro debut on October 2 1956 at London's Harringay Arena, although he lost the fight by knockout at the hands of Welsh opponent Freddie Cross and quit the professional ring after just three bouts. However, his natural love of boxing saw him gravitate to becoming a referee and ringside judge.
He never shrank from doing what he believed to be honest and right and when he allegedly received death threats after officiating and scoring a Commonwealth lightweight title clash between Ireland's Eammon Magge and Shea Neary in Belfast he dismissed the threats as being a joke.
Equally, Francis never allowed himself to be awed by a boxer's reputation. Witness his vigorous ticking off of Naseem Hamed when the latter disrespected his rival in what Francis regarded as gratuitously over the top behaviour.
Roy Francis's most trying experience as a referee came in September 1991 in London's White Hart Lane soccer stadium when he handled the world title joust between defending champion Chris Eubank and challenger Michael Watson.
Going into the penultimate 11th round while trailing on the scorecards, Eubank unleashed a terrific uppercut that resulted in Watson suffering near catastrophic brain injuries from which he never totally recovered.
Some tried to criticise Francis's handling of the bout but in fact, he strongly rejected pleas from one of Watson's team to let the bout continue.
Subsequent events vindicated Francis's actions in stopping the contest. Similarly, the international boxing community, while deploring the effects of the Eubank bout on Michael Watson, continued to reaffirm their confidence in Francis's refereeing and judging credentials by continuing to appoint him to many subsequent world title bouts as both referee and judge.
He went on to officiate at world and British title fights in Scotland involving Strawweight champion Paul Weir and British flyweight kingpin Keith Knox.
Other British world champions Francis supervised were Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Robin Reid and Scotland's WBO world superfeatherweight champion from Edinburgh, Alex Arthur.
Francis spent his latter years living in Kent with his wife and extended family while working in security for diamond merchants.
One perennial admirer of Roy Francis both as a man and a ring official, was boxing promoter Frank Warren who presented Francis with an award to mark his manifold contributions to boxing over the years. |