Pride and Prejudice

You can be sure he’d no longer make light-middleweight.

His white t-shirt is sullied from a day’s work. The stubble on his face is congregating like the bristles of a yard brush. But behind it all he’s the same Francis Barrett as, fresh from a day’s work, he pulls off that smile that’s somehow a cocktail of innocence and devilment all at once. It’s a throwback to the young fighter we all loved because he made us think this country might be growing up and made us realise it was better to look up to someone, not down at them.

These days, at 35, Barrett is driving lorries in north London for a living and everywhere he goes in this city there are the reminders as Olympic rings adorn each side of every street.