Thirty years ago, the boy from the Gellideg estate challenged Mexican Lupe Pintor for his WBC Bantamweight belt.

BBC: Johnny Owen's fatal final fight

Taking no heed of the ridiculing of his skeletal frame from the US media, Owen stunned the home crowd with a thrilling start, and bewildered Pintor with his tireless, peppering punching.

BBC: Matchstick Man's legend lives on

By 1980 Merthyr-legend Owen had won the British, Commonwealth and European bantamweight titles, before the painfully shy, hugely popular 24-year-old headed to Los Angeles' 10, 000-seat Olympic Auditorium to face the formidable WBC world champion Pintor.

BBC: Matchstick Man's legend lives on