Lenny McLean

Leonard John McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998) was an English unlicensed boxer, bouncer, bodyguard, businessman and actor.

He was known as "The Guv'nor", "the King of the Cobbles" and "the hardest man in Britain".

McLean's pugilist reputation began in the East End of London in the late 1960s and was sustained through to the late 1980s.

He stated in his autobiography that he had been involved in between 2,000 and 3,000 unlicensed fights.

In his prime, the 6 ft tall McLean weighed over 20 st and was considered the "unofficial heavyweight champion of Great Britain".

Along with being an unlicensed boxer, McLean was an enforcer in London's criminal underworld.

As a respected and feared figure, he often associated with infamous criminals such as the Kray twins, Ronnie Biggs and Charles Bronson.

When Frank Warren formed the National Boxing Council in the 1970s, it allowed the toughest underground fighters in Britain to compete legally.

McLean, unable to become a licensed boxer due to his violent reputation and lengthy criminal record, entered the world of unlicensed boxing, which, although legal, was not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control.

He quickly became one of its brightest stars and had a fearsome reputation.

McLean had a famous trilogy of unlicensed matches with arch-rival Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw.

McLean lost to Shaw once via verbal submission, which McLean justified by claiming his gloves had been tampered with, reducing their maneuverability.

McLean beat Shaw in a rematch with a dramatic first-round knockout, in which Shaw was physically knocked out of the ring.

In their final bout, McLean ended the feud with a brutal first-round knockout at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London in September 1978.

McLean, who in his prime was 6 ft tall and weighed over 20 st, boasted that he could beat anybody, in either a legitimate match or in an unlicensed match with or without gloves.

He reputedly sent out challenges to many of the famous boxers of the day, including Muhammad Ali and Mr. T, though neither contest materialised.

He was also known in the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often managed security, including 1980s celebrity hangouts, such as Garth Crooks Team of the Week Club, in Hounslow.

In his later life, McLean became an actor, and received praise for playing Barry the Baptist in Guy Ritchie's 1998 gangster comedy film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

He died in July 1998, shortly before the film's release.

Lenny McLean was born into a large, working-class Irish family in Hoxton in the East End of London.

His father, Leonard John McLean Sr., had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease which he contracted in India, he became a petty criminal and swindler.

He died when Lenny was four years old.

Lenny's mother, Rose, married again to Jim Irwin, who was also a career petty criminal.

Irwin was a violent alcoholic, who physically abused Lenny and his brothers for many years.

By the age of ten, McLean had suffered many broken bones.

However, when Lenny's infant brother Raymond was beaten brutally with a belt, McLean's great-uncle Jimmy Spinks, a local gangster, attacked Irwin, nearly killing him, and threatened to cut his throat should he ever need to return to protect the children.

McLean admired his great-uncle thereafter and when he became a street fighter, he said that he considered every victory to be won on behalf of his vulnerable younger self.

He expressed the rage resulting from his abusive childhood with such abandon that it often took several men to separate him from his defeated opponent, gaining him the nickname "Ten Men Len" because of how many men were needed to restrain him.

McLean's son Jamie later said, "My dad wasn't a born fighter. He was uneducated and a product of his upbringing, traumatised by what he’d been through, and probably had mental health problems as a result of all that. Fighting was all he knew."

During his teenage years, McLean mixed with various local criminals.

He was arrested for petty crimes and served 18 months in prison.

After he was fired from his first legitimate job for beating up his foreman, he worked odd jobs.

By the age of fifteen, McLean realised he could earn a living from fighting and pursued it as his main means of income.

McLean's first unlicensed boxing match came about as a result of a chance meeting while in his late teens.

When his car broke down in the Blackwall Tunnel, he abandoned it and went to buy a replacement from an associate named Kenny Mac, a gypsy used-car salesman in Kingsland Road, Hackney, only to find the replacement quickly failed too.

McLean returned later to demand his money back.

Instead of refunding McLean, Mac offered to give McLean a new car in exchange for him fighting in one of Mac's unlicensed boxing bouts later that night in Mac's yard.

McLean's opponent lasted less than a minute against him, earning McLean £500, a considerable prize at the time.

Mac and McLean became friends and on numerous later bouts Mac acted as McLean's boxing manager.

McLean became the best-known bare-knuckle street fighter in Britain.