End Of An Era for Fauldhouse Boxer

HE IS a six-time Scottish Amateur boxing champion.

He has sparred with Alex Arthur and Scott Harrison and had former World Champion Barry McGuigan as his corner man.

He has boxed on the international stage of two Commonwealth Games and World Championships, met the Queen and he has also appeared with the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard on ITV’s the Contender.

But now Fauldhouse scrapper Colin ‘Peely’ McNeil has hung up his gloves after admitting the final bell has rung on his 17-year ring career.

The 35-year-old has revealed that he stepped between the ropes for the final time last month when he was felled by Tyan Booth in Aberdeen. 

Peely was floored inside two minutes of the first round by the Sheffield fighter while boxing on the undercard of the WBU light-welterweight title clash between defending champion Lee McAllister and Mihaita Mutu.

And McNeil reveals it wasn’t just the defeat that prompted his decision to hang up his gloves.

He revealed: “When the fight started I felt instantly something was wrong. I didn’t have the same hunger and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.

“I suffered a cut eye as usual and that normally fires me up but this time it didn’t and I simply didn’t have the fire in my belly.

“I think the year out I had after breaking my leg didn’t do much for me.


“I have also been feeling the effects of training recently and every training camp that I go on, I suffer from problems to my shoulder or my back or something else.

“It was taking the fun out of all my training and I would be sitting at home in pain, which meant I couldn’t train as hard as I wanted to.

“I am not offering any excuses, though, as I fought an awkward opponent but I knew, for whatever reason, as soon as I got into the ring that it wasn’t the same.

“I was knocked down but I beat the count and was ready to take him on again, but my trainer, Pat Toner, looked at me and said ‘that’ll do’.


“All I could do was agree with him.


“I think I got out at the right time. I was offered another fight recently so I could finish on a win — but if I did get the victory, then would I be thinking of carrying on because I’d won?


“The time is right to quit.


“But I’d like to be remembered as a good fighter and that only good fighters ever beat me.”


Scottish boxing is a poorer place without the talent and character of the West Lothian scrapper but he reckons he will continue to be a winner as he finally has the chance to devote himself to certain other matters.


“My priority is to spend some time with own family now, as the boxing has taken me away so much from them over the past 17 years.


“It is time to live a little and let my hair down and maybe even eat what I like and get fat.”


Ironically, McNeil also plans to swap inflicting pain for easing pain as he eyes up a new line of work at the treatment table.


“I have also recently qualified as a sports masseur and have some work lined up at Hampden Park. It is only two days but it is hopefully a foot in the door.


“If I put the same effort into that as my boxing, then I’ll be fine.”


In almost two decades in the ring, as an amateur initially and then as a professional, McNeil has collected a mantelpiece full of awards and titles and a head full of happy memories.

The notches on Peely’s belt include six Scottish amateur titles and five gold medals, plus a 1998 Commonwealth Games Bronze in Kuala Lumpur.

And Fauldhouse’s finest admits his days in the ring were the best of his life.

“Winning my very first Scottish Amateur Title ranks as one of my highlights,” he said.


“I was only 21 and I had brought a busload of people from Fauldhouse to the fight, and it meant a lot to me.


“Another highlight was boxing at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. That was amazing, but so has everything I have done through boxing.


“Boxing also brought me to Buckingham Palace where I met the Queen.


“From walking the streets of Fauldhouse to meeting the Queen — it was hard to believe. I was invited down before the Commonwealth Games. Although it was really busy, she came over to speak to me.


“I think it must have been because I was wearing a kilt as she asked me how long it had taken to get down from Scotland.


“I also remember fighting for Scotland against England and helping us to our first win for 30 years over them.


“Jimmy Hill was sitting in the front row and I remember thinking to myself that I’d love to knock my opponent down right in front of him… and I did.


“It has also been great to have the chance to spar with boxers like Alex Arthur, Barry Morrison, Kevin Anderson and Scott Harrison.”

In July 2005, McNeil clinched the Celtic Light-Middleweight championship with a hammering of Welsh scrapper Taz Jones.

In what was only his seventh professional bout, he secured title gold to wrap around his waist with the boxing community waxing lyrical about Scottish boxing’s latest sensation.

“The Celtic Light-Middleweight title was the best thing I won as a professional,” agreed McNeil.

“But I think the fight where I won the Scottish Light Middleweight Professional title was a better fight.

“This was because I was cut in the fourth round and told by the referee that I had one more round and then he would stop the fight.

“But I came out and stopped the guy in the next round.”

One of the biggest acknowledgments of McNeil’s outstanding ring credentials came last year when he was hand-picked by former World Champion Barry McGuigan to represent Britain in a version of the successful American boxing television show, The Contender.


The Fauldhouse welterweight was part of a UK team that fought it out against a US team at the Newcastle Metroradio Arena.

Team captain McGuigan called Peely into the UK camp after being impressed by his emphatic wins over Ossie Duran and Gary Young.

McNeil was paired up against Detroit’s Cornelius ‘K9’ Bunderage at light-middleweight level, and he revealed the American proved to be his toughest-ever opponent.


“He punished me and genuinely beat me up,” admitted Peely.

“He was a great boxer and a very big hitter.

“I never got the chance to fight on a really big show so that’s why I was so keen to do The Contender, even though I knew my opponent would be very strong.


“It really was amazing to spend a day walking around with Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson’s trainer. It was incredible, and I was sparring with Barry McGuigan all the time.


“It was a great show to be on but maybe came a wee bit late in my career, but I was just trying to get the most out of my time in the ring.”


His emphatic beating of much vaunted Edinburgh prospect Gary Young is still one of Scottish boxing’s most talked-about bouts.


Young had an intimidating record of 14-0 but the wily West Lothian fighter has fond memories of his visit to Meadowbank Stadium.


“He was a young prospect who had boasted he would retire me in the ring, insisting I was finished,” said McNeil.


“I had previously beaten him in the final of the Scottish Amateurs and he was saying that was when we were boys, but he was a man now, and that kind of thing.


“The fight had a great build-up and I took a big squad from Fauldhouse to the capital and it was good to shut them up.”


Suffering at the hands of bullies as a youngster had inspired Peely to take to the ring although he admits he started late at 18.


He continued: “I was never a fighter at all but I was bullied a bit at school.


“And, when I left school, I wasn’t doing much except hanging about on the streets.


“But a guy I knew called George Russell was into the boxing so I thought, if he can do it, then I can do it.


“I came along and took to it from the start where, after my first night, they wanted me to take a fight the following week.


“I loved it and there was definitely something about it.


“And it was a bonus that I would never get bullied again.”


It was the young McNeil’s dream to box at the Olympics but, unfortunately, that was one dream that eluded him.


“To be honest, I was going to retire before turning professional as I had always wanted to go to the Olympics but cuts stopped me going there.


“Cuts also seemed to follow me in my professional career, too.


“I lost a fight before the Olympics that, if I had won, I would have been as good as there, but I ended up with 12 stitches in my nose.


“However, my professional career was more than I ever expected.


“I was very lucky as it wasn’t planned and I managed to get 16 fights out of it, 13 wins and 3 losses, even though it was only supposed to be one fight.”


Although McNeil has hung up his gloves, there are a trio of young pretenders at Fauldhouse Boxing Club keen to take over his mantle as top gun.


And he admits that he is delighted at the progress of the three youngsters who are showing tremendous promise.


“I should also say that I am sorry to the boys at Fauldhouse Boxing Club, like Robbie McKee, Mike McGregor and Sean Watson.


“They’ve all been dying to put me down and beat me up,” laughed McNeil.


“They have been telling me they are going to batter me and Michael even said he would pack it in if I retired because it would be no fun anymore.


“But the last time I sparred with him I bashed him up for one last time.


“But, seriously, I think any one of those three lads, if they keep training, can do anything they want, either professionally or on an amateur level.”


It has been an epic 17-year journey for the Fauldhouse star but he insists it would not have been possible without the support of his family, sponsors and friends.


“I would really like to thank Gerry Gallacher, at Monumental Services, and John Walker for their fantastic support.


“Without their help, I wouldn’t have been able to continue as a professional.


“I would also like to thank Pat Toner for training me and giving me the best years of my life and, of course, my girlfriend Jayne Gibbons for standing by me all these years.


“Thanks also to everyone who came to watch me fight or who has helped me throughout my career. It has all been greatly appreciated.”


And there may be another ring star in the McNeil household in seven-year-old Andrew — although it is not his father’s gloves that he is interested in pulling on.


Instead, the St John the Baptist pupil has his eye on the glitz and glamour of the American Wrestling ring and he will have to look no further than next to him on the couch for a trainer in his fight-veteran Dad.