February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Profiled by the Echo last January, Gavin, the son of a County Wicklow plumber, was regarded as the best at tending to the cuts that boxers suffer in the ring.
A big affable man who stood 6-foot-5 inches, he was only one of two members of Lennox Lewis’s team to work with the retired world heavyweight king from the start of the Englishman’s pro career in 1989 until his last fight — a sixth-round TKO win over Vitali Klitschko in June last year.
Ironically, Klitschko, who was stopped by Lewis after suffering horrendous cuts around his left eye, later hired Gavin as cutman.
Gavin was in the Ukrainian-born giant’s corner when Klitschko won the WBC crown vacated by Lewis by stopping South African Corrie Sanders last April.
Gavin also worked with bantamweight Junior Jones, featherweight Kevin Kelly, heavyweight Bruce Seldon and super bantamweight Tracy Harris Patterson, among others, during their world championship reigns.
Micky Ward, Martin O’Malley and light middleweight John Duddy are some of the Irish fighters he’s been associated with.
Gavin was named co-recipient of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s 1999 James J. Walker Award for “Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing.”