Former Undisputed World Lightweight Champion Boxer Ken Buchanan MBE was presented this evening with the prestigious Edinburgh Award 2016.
At The City Chambers there was a very nice touch as The Lord Provost and all the City Officers wore ties in the Buchanan tartan, and Ken himself wore his trademark Buchanan waistcoat.
The Edinburgh Makar Christine de Luca had written a special poem for him which she recited and Bill Lothian, the former sports reporter with the Edinburgh Evening News, told his life story for the assembled crowd. The room was awash with former boxers and those associated with boxing for charitable purposes, as well as previous Edinburgh Award recipients, George Kerr and Tom Gilzean (looking very sprightly after his recent hospital stay).
Owen Smith a lifelong friend of Buchanan’s told us that he has already raised £11,000 out of a targeted £50,000 to raise a statue of the boxer and hopes that it might be put up at Meadowbank Stadium.
Ken Buchanan MBE Undisputed World Lightweight Champion pic.twitter.com/PjyVZqlVs1
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) March 3, 2017
Once voted ‘Britain’s Greatest Ever Boxer’ by the Boxing News, Leith-born Ken Buchanan is the only living British fighter in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
He famously fought on the same bill as Muhammad Ali in Madison Square Garden twice.
Ken’s famous fighting hands have been immortalised on a flagstone outside the City Chambers.
They will sit next to the handprints of previous Edinburgh Award recipients including fellow sporting legends Sir Chris Hoy MBE (cycling) George Kerr CBE (Judo).
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
