Biographical note:

WAYNE BARKER was expelled from school at the age of 12 and sent by his father to local gypsies to be reared as one of their own. This experience set him on the road to the dark and dangerous world of bare-knuckle fighting, professional boxing and eventually prison. Barker emerged from his extraordinary adventures intact but died in 2012.

Country of final manufacture:

GB

Main description:

The extraordinary memoirs of a bare-knuckle boxer, recounting his numerous brushes with the law.
     From Salford to St Louis, Missouri, former professional boxer Wayne Barker fought every man who ever challenged him. In this brutally honest account of his eventful life, Wayne recounts how his parents left him in the care of the travelling community, where he learned to fight and travelled throughout Britain and Ireland to take on opponents for cash.

     Later, after being charged with attempting to murder a child killer, Wayne fled to America, where he found work in the gymnasiums of New York sparring with the likes of world champion Wilfred Benítez. By night, he took part in bloody bare-knuckle bouts on the East Side. His ability in the ring was noticed by promoter Bobby Gleason, whose gym had been graced by legendary boxers such as Jake LaMotta, Roberto Durán and Mike Tyson, and Gleason set up a fight between Wayne and former super middleweight world champion Fulgencio Obelmejias ('Fully Obel').

     Wayne's criminal past eventually caught up with him and he was deported to Britain, where he served two years for his attack on the child killer. In his final years, he returned to the streets to earn a living from bare-knuckle fighting, until cancer claimed his life in 2012.