John Conteh was born in Kirkby in 1951. He started boxing at the Kirkby club at the age of 10. Aged just 19 he won the middleweight gold medal at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, adding the European light-heavyweight title three years later by beating the German Rudiger Schmidtke. In May 1973 he fought fellow Britain, Chris Finnegan to become the British Champion, beating Finnegan again in the return match to much acclaim.