00:00And it's 35 years since Bomber Graham, who's now 65, lost the WBC fight with Julian Jackson, KO'ing four rounds in Spain.
00:11What are your memories of that time in the very early 1990s?
00:15I've only got good memories of Errol Graham, because what you've got to try and remember is before Errol Graham came to Sheffield,
00:20there wasn't much boxing in Sheffield, and then you've got Bomber comes along and he's boxing at Sheffield City,
00:25all topping the bills, boxing for British, European, Commonwealth titles, and Brammer Lane, open air stadium against Lynda Lohmes,
00:34who did go on to become world champion himself.
00:37And then Bomber Graham is one of these fighters who, for me personally, is one of these fighters that is the greatest British fighter to never win a world title.
00:47He's so close on three occasions.
00:50I'm happy to say that I was on the shirt tails of Bomber all his career.
00:55On many occasions I boxed on his undercard at the City Hall.
01:00It was a bad loss for him, that, though, wasn't it? He had to rebuild, didn't he, after that?
01:04All these losses for world titles have been unbelievable.
01:07You know, he lost to Mike McCallum, who recently just passed away.
01:11And, you know, he got a point taken off him, and he lost on a split.
01:15Then he lost to Julian Jackson, one of the worst knockouts you could ever see.
01:20And they'd told Julian Jackson before, this is your last round.
01:24And he went out and caught Bomber, and then his last world title fight when we were in Atlantic City against Charles Brewer.
01:29Very unlucky.
01:31It just seems it was never written in the stars for Bomber to be world champion.
01:35But he was up there with the best of them.
01:38McCallum, did he mention that? Because you spoke to Harold, didn't he, the other day?
01:41Yeah, on finding out that Mike McCallum had sadly died, you know, 68 years old, regarded as one of the all-time greats.
01:49And then, you know, Harold Boxing at the Albert Hall.
01:52And I remember on the night watching it, thinking that Harold had won.
01:55And then looking at it again, you know, later on on the TV and thinking,
01:59if Harold had not lost a point, he'd have been world champion.
02:02But again, it just wasn't meant to be for Harold Graham.
02:05Did he mention that when you spoke to him this week?
02:08Yeah, mentioned it, and obviously everybody's sad.
02:10There's been a lot of tragedies for Harold this week.
02:15James Cook, who Bomber beat for the British title at Sheffield City Hall.
02:21James Cook sadly died, 65 years old.
02:23Mike McCallum, 68.
02:26Another boxer from Sheffield, Winston Richards, it's his funeral.
02:30So it's been a sad week for Sheffield Boxing, really.
02:35Like I said, Winston Richards was one of the first kids to turn pro with Brendan back in the day.
02:39And then Mike McCallum and James Cook.
02:43So it's very, very sad.
02:44How did Bomber cope with that?
02:45Because he's had his health issues, hasn't he?
02:48Yeah, like anybody, you know, he just said, you know, it's very, very sad.
02:52And, you know, what can you say to things like that?
02:54You know, somebody, you pick up the phone to somebody to tell them that somebody like Mike McCallum's died.
02:59And then James Cook, who Bomber boxed as well.
03:02So, you know, you're ringing up to tell him that two of the people that he boxed have died.
03:07He didn't know, then?
03:09No, he didn't seem to know.
03:11Right.
03:12How is he?
03:13He seemed all right.
03:14You know, when I spoke to him, it's like everybody, he has good days, bad days.
03:18Like when I last spoke to him, he was having a good day.
03:20He seemed chatty and he seemed good.
03:23Like all of us, we're getting old.
03:25And it's sad when you're about people passing.
03:27But I wouldn't say 65 is what you call old, old.
03:32You know, if you find out somebody's died and they're 18, 19 year old, well, you know, you can't accept that.
03:36But when somebody, a former professional boxer, like I say, Winston Richard and James Cook, Mike McCallum,
03:43they're all relatively, not young men, but they're not, I wouldn't say they're old either.
03:47Just briefly, he didn't win a world title.
03:50Naz did, Kelbrook did, Johnny Nelson, Clinton Woods did.
03:54Does that mean he'll never really get the credit he deserves to being in that category, in that class?
04:00Yeah, Errol never gets the credit, only from, you know, boxing people.
04:04He doesn't get much credit for being as good as he was.
