A WORLD champion in his own right, bare-knuckle boxer Paddy Monaghan had to keep his success a secret unlike his good friend Muhammad Ali.

Fighting opponents behind closed doors and keeping his winning belts under the bed in his Saxton Road council house in Abingdon, ‘The Rough Diamond’ had a friendship with The Greatest like no one else.

And as fans of boxing across the world pay tribute to the 73-year-old who died in hospital on Sunday, his son, Tyrone, said he was ‘overwhelmed’ by the kind messages passed on to his family.

He told the Oxford Mail: “The support, and kind words that people are saying is unbelievable.

“It’s really lovely.”

Managed by BKB promoter Tommy Heard, Mr Monaghan, born in Ederney, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, but raised as young man in Abingdon, fought at the venue known as ‘The notorious barn’. He went on to become an undefeated champion in 114 fights, winning the world middleweight title in 1974.

But for him there were no headlines, no hysteria and no screaming crowds.

Tyrone said: “It was totally illegal back then. Anyone who wanted to see the fights was vetted. He tried a bit of boxing and he was an ordinary fighter. When he took the gloves off he was a totally different fighter.

“To me it was normal. We were told to keep quiet.

“He beat Jean Paul Durrell from Canada for the world title and I wanted to go to school and tell everyone but I couldn’t. He just pushed the belt underneath the bed, that is just how it was.”

In the days when heads of state and film stars waited in line to shake the hand of Ali, The Champ always found time to visit the Monaghan family at their Abingdon home.

Chauffeur-driven cars were hardly a common sight in Saxton Road, but residents in the council estate knew well enough why the superstar’s Rolls-Royce would be parked outside number 111. On some 14 occasions, the most famous person on the planet crossed the Atlantic to see Mr Monaghan, a father-of-five, who he came to regard as one of his closest friends.

It was a bond that remained unbroken for more than 40 years was one of the most unlikely friendships in sport.

Mr Monaghan first came across Ali, then called Cassius Clay, through boxing magazines when learning to read as a young person with bad dyslexia.

Tyrone said reading about the American boxer was his father’s ‘college of knowledge’ and said he lost it when Ali refused to be drafted into the American forces at the time of the Vietnam war.

It was then Mr Monaghan led a single-man campaign for the return of Ali’s boxing licence in 1967.

Father-of-three Tyrone said his father met with Ali who thanked him for the support in the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

He added: “Muhammad never forgot what my dad did for him. They kept in touch and their friendship blossomed from there.”

Mr Monaghan was in the Ali corner during the bout with Al “Blue” Lewis in Dublin in 1972 and for Ali’s second titanic battle with Frazier at Madison Square Garden in 1974.

The pair kept in touch until Ali’s death in June last year.

Mr Monaghan passed away holding wife Sandra’s, 68, hand and surrounded by son Tyrone, daughters Clare, 50, Saydee, 45, Belinda, 44 and Sarah, 41, and other family and friends at 9.44pm on Sunday. Tyrone added: “ My mother said ‘it’s time for you to go, go and rest.’”