Former Pro boxer Jimi Reynolds
Jimi Reynolds is now 46, but back in the 80’s he was one of the best amateurs to come out of Birmingham. The Handworth lad 5 foot 8 known as Jimboy was a light welterweight who had 97 amateur fights winning 88 of them. He won the National ABC title in 1986, held the Birmingham, WestMidlands and Midlands titles from 1981 to 1987 he also represented England against Italy in Rome in1987. As an amateur had several clubs starting at Birmingham Irish from 1977 to 1978, Droitwhich abc from 1979 to 1980, Redditch abc from 1980 to 1981, Aston Villa abc 1981 to 1986 and finally Dudley abc from 1986 to 1990. Jimi had several amateur trainers but mentioned his dad and Holte gym (Aston Villa ABC) trainer Paddy Martin.
When Jimi turned pro he had 14 fights winning 12, 7 by the way of knock out.
His trainers as a professional were Ronnie Brown when he was in the uk and Johnny Lewis when he moved to Australia.
His favourite boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and the best fight he has saw was Gatti v Ward.
I asked Jimi what inspired him to take up boxing? He informed me “I wasn't inspired I had no choice, the old man made me do it”.
We then got onto Jimi's hardest fight, he told me “it was against Dindo Canoy it was a 10 round fight where I broke my right hand in the first round I was decked in the fifth, cut bad in the eight but won on points”.
Dexter’s Thoughts
Jimi had a great amateur and pro career and was an inspiration to be around with his energy and will to win. He is still talked about at Paddy’s Gym by my trainers Dean and Paddy Martin as an example of how a boxer should train and carry themselves.
While in Australia at the age of 36 Jimi was going to make a return to the pro ring, and a Australia film company came to Paddy’s gym to do a documentary on Jimi called “The Real Cinderella Man” starting with where Jimi came from. Take a look at the pilot episode below, it's in 3 parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3