I was very lucky to have conducted an in depth interview with Micky May in August last year, for Jimmy Tibbs autobiography. The thing that always struck me about Micky was his instant warmth and how that warmth wasn’t any different to Joe Bloggs off the street, or a world champion. He treated everybody as equals, but he also had an uncanny knack of making people feel they could achieve anything, no matter what.
It’s almost poetic that Micky’s funeral was in May. Could have been any one of the 12 months in a year, but it happened to fall on that one. What wasn’t a coincidence was the number of champions he trained – over 100 in fact. People walked into West Ham Boxing Club with boxing goals at a number of levels and he helped ensure they would reach their maximum capability, and some. But he was so much more than a boxing coach. The life skills he would instil in people through sport, not only created champions, but very decent people.
I arrived about an hour early and was concerned that I might be the only person amongst a handful to be there at that point. I couldn’t have been more wrong. There was already about 300 people, made up from people that Micky had trained at present, and over a long past. As I started conversations with a number of people, each one had their own little tale of how incredible a trainer he was, but more importantly, the man behind that guise was something of a legend. A man of great morals and integrity with his family and close friends always put before himself.
As the funeral hearse and a convoy of cars carrying a sea of flowers in Micky’s memory pulled up outside West Ham ABC at precisely 2pm, they stopped traffic – literally. With about 500 people in attendance, there was a round of nonstop applause for about two minutes as everybody focused on the cars, each one carrying a message, such as ‘grandad’, and one of them had a boxing ring on top of the car made from flowers, with a pair of gloves placed inside. It was Micky’s last visit to West Ham ABC before he was moved on to St Anthony’s church, where a lovely service was awaiting.
The hearse pulled up and the coffin was taken in by some of Micky’s most decorated champions such as Kevin Mitchell, Billy Morgan and Mo Hussein. St Anthony’s is a huge church and there were very few seats available by the time everybody had taken their place. His granddaughter read out a beautiful eulogy and his lifelong friend Kevin Hussey also read a touching and uplifting summary of his best mate. Both received a long and well deserved round of applause. The underlying theme from both speeches was that Micky had lived and loved his life and had accepted death with great serenity. He had no regrets, a great family and was happy that he’d been able to be a positive influence to so many through the medium of boxing.
It will be a long time before another Micky May comes to the East End of London. Rest in peace.