Boxing legend Ken Buchanan has been gearing up to receive the prestigious Edinburgh Award 2016.Impressions of the retired boxer’s famous fighting hands have been cast in clay by Leigh Bradley of the Colin Braid Stone Workshop, ready to be carved into stone. The handprints will be gilded and laid outside the City Chambers next to the prints of previous Edinburgh Award recipients including Sir Tom Farmer, Sir Chris Hoy, J.K Rowling and Elizabeth Blackadder.
Once voted ‘Britain’s Greatest Ever Boxer’ by the Boxing News, Leith-born Ken Buchanan joined the Sparta club aged eight and turned professional in 1965. He famously fought on the same bill as Muhammad Ali in Madison Square Garden twice.
Ken’s name will be inscribed on to an Edinburgh Award plaque and he will be presented with an engraved Loving Cup by the Lord Provost at a ceremony on 3 March.
Lord Provost Donald Wilson said: “In many ways, a lasting tribute for Ken Buchanan in his home city is long overdue. It seems right to me that those famous fighting hands will be immortalised in stone and given pride of place along our very own Edinburgh Award ‘walk of fame’.”
Ken Buchanan said: “I am absolutely overwhelmed that this prestigious honour will be presented to me. The fact that I’ll have everlasting handprints cast in stone at the Royal mile is just amazing and I would like to thank everyone who voted for me.”
Ken Buchanan is the only living British fighter in the International Boxing Hall of Fame which he was inducted into in 2000 as a Boxing Undisputed World Lightweight Champion.
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