FORMER British and Commonwealth champion Mark Rowe passed away on December 27, 2021, at the age of 74. He was suffering from dementia.
His father, Bill Rowe, was a wildly successful pig farmer, a trade that Mark inherited, but boxing was his real passion. Rowe honed his skills at Fitzroy Lodge ABC and in 1965, after beating Jimmy Tibbs in the semis, he was pipped in the light-middleweight London divisional final by Ronnie Smith. A year later, again at the Royal Albert Hall in the same weight class, he would gain revenge over Smith to be crowned the champion of London. Rowe went on to reach the final of the light-middleweight ABAs the same year, being stopped in the third round by Scotland’s Tom Imrie.