The boxing world said goodbye to one of its own yesterday, as it mourned the passing of Willie Limond.

The popular Scot was just 45 when he died two weeks ago having suffered a seizure.

Limond had been preparing to fight again.

Crowds gathered at Daldowie Crematorium in Glasgow, with boxing people from around the U.K. in attendance, paying tribute to the tough former super featherweight and lightweight who won 42 and lost just six of his 48 professional fights. 

“Forty-five is no age, especially for someone as fit as him,” lamented friend, former rival and world champion Anthony Crolla. “It’s just very hard to take. The send-off here, he really was one of the very best people and it was a pleasure to know him. 

“Not just Scottish or British boxing but the world is a worse place without him. I mean that. 

“Life can be so cruel at times but he’s really left an impact on those who knew him, whether it was a laugh, whether it was words of wisdom or just what a great bloke he is.”  

Limond had a stellar career but it might have taken a different path had he sprung the biggest upset of 2007, which he nearly did.

Against a red-hot prospect named Amir Khan at London’s O2 Arena, Limond – a supposed non-puncher – dropped the always exciting Bolton wonderkid heavily, forever leaving an asterisk next to Khan’s ability to take a shot.

In my 2007 ringside report, I wrote how Khan survived a “sixth-round storm” having been nailed by a flush right hand, a burst of follow up blows and then a left that dropped the former Olympian heavily. 

Khan made it back to his feet, but in his corner trainer Oliver Harrison instructed him to take a knee to regain his senses. Limond seemed to be one punch from victory, but Khan fought fire with fire, weathered the storm – as he often did – and floored Limond in the eighth, proceeding to inflict more damage on Limond, whose moment had passed.

By the end, Limond was still defiant but his face was swollen, blood flowed from his nose and mouth and he had a broken jaw. Khan had endured the fight of his life.

It had been a thriller, and there were more good fights against good men, high-profile outings, wins and losses for Limond.

Three years on, and having thirsted for a rematch with Khan, Limond got a surprise shot at Erik Morales in Mexico.

New York boxing man Jack Hirsch covered the show and wrote: “Given virtually no chance of winning in the toughest of environments, the Glaswegian fought beyond expectations in front of a reported 54,000 fans at the Monumental Plaza de Toros bullring.”

Hirsch told how Limond “boxed beautifully”, specifically through the first three rounds, but ultimately Morales had his success, floored Willie three times and that unlikely journey was over.

Limond’s November 2011 defeat to future world champion Anthony Crolla just two fights later ended up with the pair remaining friends for the rest of Willie’s life, and now Crolla trains Willie’s son Jake, who is a young pro.

That’s a proper boxing story.

“My relationship with Willie…” continued a sad Crolla, “in all jobs I think you meet good people and bad people and obviously boxing’s no different, but Willie was one of the very best people I’ve met in life. I mean that. 

“It’s been heart-breaking. I think the turnout said an awful lot about him as a man. The turnout was unbelievable and his two sons and his family have done him so proud. It’s just hard to believe he’s gone. It really is. He was the most thoughtful of men. Even the day before he was taken ill, he had been researching stuff that might help my dad’s illness [Crolla’s father has early signs of dementia], and he was sending it over to me on a voicenote… I didn’t think that would be the last I would hear him.”

Pictures of a grieving Crolla were splashed across Scottish websites yesterday, and while the mood in Glasgow was sombre, the skies typically grey, the feelings of gratitude for having known Willie Limond linked those in attendance like a brotherhood.

When Crolla and Limond boxed all those years ago, it had been more straightforward than many imagined for the Manchester hero but, naturally, wrote Boxing News: “Willie refused to quit,” in their 12-rounder. Typical Limond. All heart. Yesterday, Willie’s two sons Jake and Drew earned the same descriptions from those who listened to them tell stories and say goodbye to their father.

Among the hundreds of devastated boxing men who lined up to pay their respects at the funeral were Alex Arthur, Gary Thornhill, Paul Smith, Billy Nelson, Ricky Burns, Jamie Conlan and Stephen Simmons. 

“I met Willie when I was about 13-years-old, and automatically hit it off with him. We come from pretty similar backgrounds. and we became friends straight away. We boxed for Scotland lots of times together in the Youths, where we developed a really close relationship,” recalled Scotland’s former WBO super featherweight champion Arthur.

“I remember one day when we were amateurs we had a bag of jelly babies, we were boxing in Ireland, and me and Willie were struggling for the weight. I told Willie, ‘Jelly babies don’t put any weight on you, but they give you lots of energy.’

“Little did we know back then, we didn’t have a clue what we were doing… So I was biting the heads off the jelly babies and giving Willie the legs. Later on, Willie was asking why he got the legs when the head was the good part. I said, ‘I’m sharing them with you, they’re my jelly babies.’ He started laughing, tried to grab the bag out of my hand and the bag burst all over the floor and we fell around laughing, and ended up picking them up and eating them all anyway.

“We ended up on a collision course, which was strictly business,” continued Arthur, discussing his eighth-round win over Limond back in 2003. “We decided to put our friendship aside for a few weeks leading up to the fight, and then a week or so after the fight I was in Glasgow having dinner with him and our partners. 

“Our relationship grew stronger as the years went on, right up to the point where he would train my son, Alex, who was boxing for Scotland, and he was in my corner a few weeks ago when [Arthur’s other son] Machlan was fighting in the Nationals as well, so we spoke almost everyday. We almost always spoke on a Friday evening, and I spoke to him the Friday evening the night before he went to hospital and I’m still struggling with it, the fact I’ll not speak to him again is crazy, really. 

“He was probably my best friend in boxing and he’s going to be a huge miss to everyone in Scotland, especially his sons, Jake and Drew, who are fantastic young men, and I’ll be here to help them with whatever I can because he’d do it for my boys, too.”

Together on Monday, the mourners bid farewell to a popular fighter who was fearless, a wonderful technical and smart boxer with a fine boxing brain who’d fought Olympians, legends, journeymen and measuring sticks. Limond had done it with a smile on his face, making friendships and building relationships that stood the test of what time. 

Willie Limond’s had been a full life, even though it had been a life too short.   

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a Board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and The Ring of Brotherhood. He is a former boxing broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular Boxing Life Stories podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and the author of five boxing books, including Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing, Warrior: A Champion’s Search For His Identity and The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxings’ Wastelands.