THE Don Spaghetti & Ravioli my old man came from old street and told me loads of stories about Lenny yes he did have plenty of fights on the cobbles my uncle lost £100 to him decent money back then
He's right though. In the moment you can't hold back or hesitate but once it's done it's done. He only means hate for the brief window of time to fight and for a genuine purpose. Protection of family, etc
@@georgetubb9124learning to have absolute control of your emotions during a fight is (imo) more important than keeping in shape. Being scared leads to hesitation, being taken with anger leads to tunnel vision, feeling pity leads to holding back. He was a large and FAST man. More so than anyone else. He used anger to help him stay that way even while taking hits. For him in a boxing ring, having tunnel vision was great. He only had one goal, go %100 for as long as he can. He knew no one coupd beat his %100. Seems like he was right
Knowing what he went through as a child, yeah I absolutely get what he’s saying. He was a good dude at heart that was plagued by his horrendous childhood. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to fight, it was more like he had to fight someone to let it all out. I hope he has found peace in the afterlife.
@@wadeeubanks8435 i understand where your coming from, but fighting was a choice. He was good at it so he did it for money. Life spat in his face, why shouldnt he use the one advantage he had to get what he was owed? I dont think he had a pacifist heart when he was older, but he definatly wanted to fight. His childhood pushed him there, yes, but he could have walked away years earlier. Plenty with his same upbringing have.
whatever mann Hard men don't suddenly get to 25 and decide they are too grown up for fighting. They are fighters and always will be. They are what they are. Yeah he lacked bottle Lenny. I mean he daren't fight a pro with gloves on with all the rules and regulations. Instead he just had gloveless all in anything goes fights against people willing to bite his ear off and kick him in the head. Apparently he even went to the US and fought the mafias top guy. He was a street fighter. He never professed to be Rocky Marciano.
My dad met him in the late seventies! My dad was a doorman on scotswood road in Newcastle and said he was the only man that ever intimidated him without even trying to. Rip len.
He gets his comeuppance at the end of this documentary, not from McLean and he doesn’t like it, I recorded it when it came on TV Iib the early nineties. It was called The ring from what I remember. The guy was a Guinness book of records member, amount of push-ups I think and had an an award for bravery as a martial artist , he saved a girl from either a beating or a sexual assault, He had an obsess with becoming famous. I’d love to see it again.
He's ex gangster, from Hackney London, he was also in the film LOCK STOCK, TWO SMOKIN BARRELS his street name was The govnor he taxed and beat up drug dealers aswel as being hired for protection by the Kray brothers and other celebrities Mike tyson and him be a great match to of seen
Here's a true story about lenny he took on the previous hardest gangster in London and claimed his title that he hold today the govnor someone previously had that title until lenny came about and challenged him to a fight 2x they had a fight and both lenny smashed him for that title called THE GOVNOR and that's where his journey began
Reading his book, the beatings he took from his cowardly step dad turned him into the angry brawler. All in the up bringing. He could quite easily have been a teacher or an accountant. He had a tough upbringing either way he was an honest decent fella. Definitely gone too young. Rest in peace big guy.
He was also a violent bully who nearly killed his own friend .the book is his Take on himself ..others know him for being a bully .they were scared of him in his local pub for a reason. Violent men aren't something to look up to
Lenny died aged 48 .. what a tragedy .. he had so much to offer the world .. his career was just about to take off properly on the screen .. a master of many talents
The opening of this clip is great. Lenny massaging his calcified, war-torn weaponry. "Show me your hands. Not bad. Not as bad as mine, though." Mr. Mclean has a massive, calcified lump of a hand with chunky, arthritic fingers. The mark of a true fighter. Along with the cauliflower ear of grapplers. These are the marks of a tradesman. They are to be respected and exalted.
Did you see that hand speed? -incredible. The raw agression and ability to use flash lighting quick violence made him a very tough man-and what a character-a very sharp , witty man.
3:10 "Son, there's me 'and. You've just bought a lovely motor" Errrm, no I, I, we didnt, I mean I'm not.... "Enjoy the motor son, how you gonna pay...??"
Simply awesome, love lenny, got all his books. Even here years after giving the fighting up, you can still see why nobody came close to him on the streets, he didn't just have the strength and power, he had the speed as well. RIP Len, and if you see my dear mother up there tell her i love her and i'll see her soon.
This dude would have become a famous film star in all films that needed a BA British hard man. Still can't believe he passed before his first gig in which he did great as the Baptist.
The first time I saw Lenny was on ‘Lock Stock.....’. He looked like a lunatic, an absolute beast of a man. Imagine getting in to a fight with him. Fuck that.
Today Little shits wouldn't know a real fight if they fell into one there all just horrible little cunts that can't n won't fight one on one coz they haven't got the balls heart or ability to.
I've had the privilege of reading Lenny McLeans Books many times over and over and Lennys well deserved title of THE GUV'NOR wasn't only because he was a true fighting machine. I never had the honour of meeting Lenny, but i do know that he was THE GUV'NOR for multiple reasons. Respected all over the world and respected for good reason. A true man, A true Warrior and A true Legend.
The guy interviewing Lenny looked so on edge. When Kenny started throwing pretend punches he looked quite worried. Credit to him though, I would've shat myself. It must've felt like standing in front of a fast moving articulated lorry. Lenny was one of a kind, a hard man amongst hard men, there'll never be another like him. The environments that bred these London hard men have gone and we're left with children carrying knives. People like Lenny would've eaten them for breakfast.
This clip came from a peculiar documentary, circa 1995. The little bald guy was, as you can tell, trying to make it as a bare-knuckle fighter. He had already had an article about him in The Guardian, including photos taken at a fight, and the documentary featured a video of another of his fights that lasted all of 5 seconds. The climax was to be a fight with a particularly dangerous opponent in a barn in Ireland. But at the last minute the opponent cancelled. Little Bald Guy ended up fighting, and beating, a bloke who had come along to watch and offered to step in so his fellow audience members wouldn't be disappointed. This wasn't the end of the programme though, because the filmmakers noticed that someone pictured watching the fight featured in The Guardian article looked a heck of a lot like the 'dangerous' bloke who Little Bald Guy had intended to fight in the Irish barn. Little Bald Guy admitted that the whole thing was fake. The fight in The Guardian, the video of his five second fight, the scheduled fight in the barn - all had been set up by him to, well, get some fame I suppose (he had also been the world push-ups champion at one time). The one and only real fight he'd ever had was with the audience member who had nobly offered to step in at the last moment! I don't know how complicit the filmmakers were in the whole thing. Certainly the Guardian had been completely taken in by him and had assumed the fight they had attended and photographed was real.
Yes you're right! Very strange documentary remember it well. It was called Arena: The Ring, A South London Tale on BBC 2. Wanted to watch it again, but couldn't find it anywhere...
Lee Taylor frank warren the boxing promoter was related to lenny and one of the many people who described him as “a bully who could not stand up to people as tough or tougher than him”
i remember this documentry, the irish fella was ment to be starting out in the bear knuckle fighting, got mugged of at the end. great bit of footage of lenny,good quality vid, thanks for posting,
He smoked hand rolled cigs, no filter, throughout his life I believe. Died just a few years after this video from lung cancer. Cigarettes will age you hard and fast. Oh and not to mention being in something like 2000 bare knuckle fights.
these days it's 10 lads tooled up against 1 the old school hard man days are over well in villages and towns hard men are still respected but were Lenny come from east end London it's all gangs 10 against one its a dirty world naw
Except McLean took out 9 guys outside a door he was running, using a leather billy-jack, then chucked it on a roof opposite before the police arrived to sweep them up, swearing to them that he had done them bare handed. From this he got the reputation as 'a ten man job', ie, if you wanted to stand a chance against him, you best turn up with no less than 9 friends to stand a chance.
My friends dad is pretty handy. Old school. A respectful man. He confronted a group of lads selling drugs outside a building he owned. He asked nicely them to leave. One of them took his shirt off. Asked him to fight. So of course. My mates dad knocked him and his mates about a bit. Next thing a kid comes round the corner on a bike shot him.
I've just read his book. With out doubt one of the best, if not the best first hand life stories I've ever read. I've never felt so many emotions in a single book. The anger I felt when Jim Irwin used to beat Lenny and his younger brother. The joy when Lenny won his first fight. The satisfaction when he threw the scare into Jim Irwin. The sadness when Lenny lost his mother. The happiness and love when Lenny spoke about his beloved wife Val and their children. And the loss and devastation when he lost his life to cancer. If you haven't read it. I urge you all to go read it now. Its an absolute masterpiece.
***** sais' a silly cow whos never probably seen a fight let alone been in one ..have u read his book?. he was a gentleman and a family man and put others before himself
***** you look like youve been in a morgue for twenty years with that face lol ...o and by the way for your information he died a while back all i was doing was paying my respect cuz deep down he was a good man so fuck you
What a beast of a man not only was he a great fighter but he was also a loving family man with respect haha he also seemed to be a funny chap I,d say if you stayed on the right side of him you probably would of seen dat in him lets not forget this man had a tough upbringing an he rose above it good on you len. RIP.
“I want some cream, I’m in entitled to that don’t you.”Lenny no one will stop you if you want that cream, it’s yours, in fact let me pop out and buy you another tub 😁
Richard rowley sure he was a decent bloke later on in life but when he was younger he used to drink with my grandad and he weren't nothing but a bully. used his size to get his own way. was normal one minute next minute he'd tell someone they were driving him home because he'd had a drink and if you said no he'd smash you up.
