One of Britain’s most charismatic trainers, Darkie Smith, has passed away.

Born in 1942, John Darkie Smith was a former pro and boxed until the age of 30, having had 40 fights as a journeyman, winning nine while fighting notables such as Peter Cragg, Bunny Sterling, and Johnny Pritchett.

Smith learned how to train fighters under the tutelage of the great George Francis.

One of the moments Smith will be most-remembered for is entering the ring when his son, Stephen, fought Ricky Hatton in 2002.

During the second round, and with Stephen bleeding from a cut that seemed to be caused by an elbow, Darkie confronted referee Mickey Vann, put his hands on the official and the fight was waved off.

Darkie, clearly irate, then indicated he felt Hatton had used his head, too, and remonstrated with the officials.

The crowd booed and jeered but Vann stood firm and the fight was over.

The British Boxing Board of Control deducted 10 per cent of Stephen’s £70,000 purse as a fine.

Darkie’s son Stephen, a 140-pound southpaw, had 16 of his first 17 fights in Germany – including a three-round DQ win over Emanuel Augustus (who was thrown out for a low blow) – before returning to fight out of England. 

But, of course, Darkie Smith was much more than that Hatton headline and until then was perhaps best-known for his work with Croatian heavyweight Zeljko Mavrovic.

“We were much smaller at the time in terms of a team,” recalled Kalle Sauerland of his father’s promotional team, Sauerland Event, in the 1990s. “It was still [Henry] Maske and [Axel] Schultz times so they were all based over in Frankfurt Oder in the East with Manfred Wolke, the former Olympic champion, and then it was the time when we just started to use a house-trainer system so we had other boxers from abroad but with Darkie, my dad had Zeljko and he picked them to go together and then Stephen came over and he was a good-looking young man, boxed with flair and style and we rolled with it. We built him up and went back to the UK. At the time, the main [Sauerland] trainer was Ulli Wegner and his team wasn’t that big, maybe six or eight fighters, Sven Ottke, Marcus Beyer… And Darkie also trained Torsten and his younger brother Rudiger May.” 

Sauerland, who called Darkie a “boxing man” and “a boxing legend” added: “It’s a tragic loss. Darkie was very much part of the family growing up. My first memories of him were of him training Mavrovic in the Peacock Gym [in London] and actually he was the first coach to take me on the pads. Unfortunately, he couldn’t put his magic touch onto me, but he did for so many others. And his loyalty with his son was unbelievable. He was there with the boom times of German boxing and it was obviously a very German-dominated scene and Darkie ensured that his son got space on the shows and Stephen built his career there, and I’ve got amazing memories of the travelling Brits coming over to Germany. Those were magical nights.”

Of Smith’s work with Mavrovic, who never boxed again after a 1998 decision defeat to Lennox Lewis for the world heavyweight title, Sauerland added: “To guide him to being European champion [Mavrovic defeated Frenchman Christophe Bizot for the vacant title], all those big nights and then culminating – of course – in the challenge against a prime Lennox Lewis and losing a close fight and it wasn’t to be, but you saw the levels Darkie had taken Zeljko to. There are so many memories professionally and privately. I’m blessed to keep those memories in my heart forever.”