Oh, it worked for me today and I grabbed the text to share with Members here.
The Telegraph has lifted chunks of text from Wrestling Heritage - shall we sue?
Enjoy too the laughable mangling of the facts, as they mis-attribute a statistic created at Wrestling Heritage: "Maxine had 141 matches in total."
Brian “Goldbelt” Maxine, who has died aged 86, was a wrestler, cabaret artist and expert self-promoter who became the first postwar grappler to hold championship titles in two weight categories simultaneously.
Maxine’s rugged, take-no-prisoners approach saw him defeat Alan Sargeant for the welterweight championship in 1969. Two years later he added the British middleweight title by beating Clayton Thomson.
Thomson was unimpressed, complaining that “Maxine’s technical ability is nil”. But Maxine had no doubt as to his own capabilities and knew how to whip a crowd into a frenzy. Before each bout he would throw photographs into the audience emblazoned “Brian Maxine, Champion”. He wore a crown into the ring and was never without his championship gold belt (on the occasion when he forgot to pack it, he refused to compete and went home).
Maxine was also remarkable for his professional longevity. He made his final televised appearance on ITV in 1988, just a few months before the sport was taken off air, and remained active until 2008, when he had his final LDN Wrestling bout. He held on to his precious middleweight championship title (which was inactive) until 2000, when it was claimed by James Mason.
Born in Liverpool on August 13 1938, Brian Maxine moved with his parents and three siblings to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire when he was little more than a toddler. Initially his main sporting interest lay in boxing and he won the county schools title. He continued to box while doing National Service in the Army and won one of the Eastern service championships in Singapore.
Upon his return to England he worked as a builder before turning his attention to boxing full-time. Initially he concentrated his efforts in the North and did a stint in a fairground boxing and wrestling booth, where he spent his spare time assisting the lion tamer.
From 1962 he focused wholly on wrestling. Though he suffered an early setback when he broke his leg during his first year, he soon worked his way through the ranks and was signed up by Joint Promotions. His big break came in 1965, when he was a last-minute substitute for the Greek wrestler Vassilios Mantopoulos in a contest at the Royal Albert Hall. However, Dale Martin Promotions did him no favours by matching him against Mick McManus, leading inevitably to defeat.
He fared better against Ted Heath and Ron Oakley, and his 1966 bout with Alan Sargeant ended in a draw, but until his second encounter with Sargeant, in 1969, he had done little to excite the fans. It took eight rounds for Maxine to take the title from Sargeant.
Maxine had 141 matches in total, winning 73. A regular on World of Sport, he featured on other popular programmes such as The Kenny Everett Video Show. He also had a minor role in the 1986 Roman Polanski film Pirates.
Outside the ring he recorded several country and western albums, backed by Fairport Convention. Later he graduated to cabaret, playing in nightclubs from London to Portsmouth.
In 1983 he coached the London cast for the play Trafford Tanzi, about a woman who rejects traditionally feminine roles to become a champion professional wrestler, which was staged in the round, in a wrestling ring. Under Maxime’s tutelage injuries were kept to a minimum, although various members of the cast sustained cracked ribs and required stitches. Drinks had to be sold in plastic glasses as the audience took to throwing them into the ring.
The director Chris Jones imported Maxine for the Broadway version, renamed Teaneck Tanzi, which starred Debbie Harry. It ran for a single day, April 20 1983.
He was inducted into the British Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018. His entry in Wrestling Who’s Who listed his chief business interest as wrestling, his sports activities as wrestling and his hobbies as wrestling.
Brian Maxine is survived by his wife Julia.
Brian Maxine, born August 13 1938, died November 13 2024
