Bruce Wells

At age of 14 in 1948, Bruce Wells started boxing on doctor’s advice to build up his strength following a serious illness. He was nearly 6 feet (1.93m) tall at the time, but weighed just eight stones (50.8kg)

After winning ABA Youths and Junior titles, Wells stepped up to the seniors in 1952 and reached the ABA light-middleweight final, only to lose to Bernard Foster in the final. Wells went on to win the title, however, in 1953 and 1954. Wells competed in the 1953 European Amateur Championships at Warszawa (Warsaw). He beat local favourite Zbigniew Pietrzykowski in the light-middleweight semi-final before going on to beat West Germany’s Max Resch with a unanimous decision.

Wells was only a reserve in the light-middleweight class at 1952 Olympics. That year, for the first time, the selectors decided that all Olympic categories should be contested by the respective reigning ABA champions, which ruled out Wells after his defeat by Foster.

In 1954, Wells went to the USA as captain of the European team and won both his contests against the Chicago and St. Louis Golden Gloves champions, Art Glass and Leslie Temple respectively. At that year’s British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Wells won a bronze medal, despite beating New Zealander Maurice Tuck in the semi-final. Halfway through the first round of their semi-final bout, both men were sent sprawling to the canvas after a clash of heads. They both got to their feet but Wells had blood pouring from his left eye and the contest was stopped. A doctor was called into the ring and ruled that neither man was fit to continue and under the rules, the fight was awarded to Wells as he was ahead on points. As he was not fit to contest the final, the other two semi-finalists stepped up to fight for the gold medal.

Wells served as a sergeant in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and won both inter-services and RAF titles. He retired from boxing in 1956 after more than 300 wins but remained in the RAF. During his last two years of service, Wells helped with the boxing training of servicemen.

Wells became a professional boxing trainer in 1958 and later worked as a PE teacher at a Hammersmith school. In the 1960s he found a career as an actor in television and the movies. Amongst others, Wells appeared in nine episodes of the cult TV programme Doctor Who, and the 1965 movie Doctor Who and the Daleks. Another of Wells’ claims to fame was that he “knocked out” Muhammad Ali in a charity exhibition bout at South Shields in 1977.