Roy Shaw - Roy Shaw Unleashed

ROY SHAW. Harder than life, meaner than death. A vicious fighter with a vicious temper.

Watch out when he gets riled, his eyes narrow, his fists clench and he tears in. Youll hear bones crack, smell blood and see guts gush out and spill across the floor. Roy has been described as Britains most violent man. Its an understatement. But theres a man behind the legend, the gangster who has lived an incredible life from bare-knuckle fighting to major crime, extreme violence and championship title fights. I wanted to find out more about him, about the aggression how did Roy Shaw come about? Was he a kid from the back streets who was dealt a rough hand? Or did Roy discover something about himself and learn how to use it?

Did his natural talent for fighting become an addiction worse than any drug, a crazy fix of pain, power and aggression.

They say that talk is cheap, but the stories Id heard about Roy Shaw were unlike anything Id come across before they ranged from the truly horrific to the grisly, the gruesome and the bizarre. But, although Roy doesnt let on, I thought there had to be a gentler side to him and I was determined to find it. I meant to peel off the layers of savagery and violence and see what was underneath!

I met Roys friends and realised that they all have a different tale to tell. I talked to the boxing fraternity first. More than anyone, they should know if hed got what it takes. What sort of a fighter was he? Did he have what it takes? Very few boxers make champion could Roy Shaw have made it to the top? Maybe if a little bit of armed robbery, murder and gratuitous violence beyond your most hellish nightmares hadnt got in the way!

London is his territory and Roy became one of the coolest, quietest and most dangerous of the East End villains. Physically powerful and with biceps like marble pillars, when anyone crossed him the rage built up, exploded and then whack!

Roy was unable to control his murderous rage, bouncing around the mean streets and rubbing shoulders with the bad guys like a powder keg waiting to go off. Everybody knew Roy Shaw and feared him but with the fear came absolute respect.

Roy grew up fast; he wanted money and nothing was going to stop him getting it. He was strong, super fit, fearless and impervious to pain. A diabolical mix of ruthlessness and terror. In his world, the rules didnt apply to him, anyway. He wanted money he took it. He wanted women he had them. Everything was within reach of those steely nerves and iron fists.

Until a raid on a bank van went wrong, his luck ran out and his life went into free fall. Within a few short weeks, he was swapping the soft leather seats in his new Mercedes for the bare walls of a prison cell.

His life was tumbling into free fall, one bad luck domino knocking another down in a chain to hell. Nothing could stop it.

When he was sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 years, he had nothing to lose and punched and kicked and fought his way through his sentence. Something inside him wouldnt give up or give in.

I dont know whether its good or bad but I dont think well ever see men like Roy Shaw again. Men who are forged in a cold steel mould, tempered with determination and polished with fury. But now the gladiators are gone and we live in more civilised times.

Roy is still a legend, our last out-of-time fighter a hero or a villain? Who knows. He is a man who doesnt know how to give in or give up he settles his scores the only way he knows with his fists.

As I talked to him and listened to what other people had to say, I realised that he is still the same today. If you need someone on your side, he is the best. But have it the other way and you will encounter an adversary from hell. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord and Roy Shaw. He never forgives, he never forgets. Roy lives without rules and he will tell you, without holding anything back, that there is blood on his hands.

He acts first and doesnt think about it later. Even in his no-holds-barred world, hes a ruthless bastard who doesnt hesitate to wade in and who can fight his way out of anything.

Its been a raging roller-coaster life, high living then off the rails into black tunnels of despair from maximum-security lock-ups, torture and insanity, this has been a career like no other, a life steam-rollering without regret through paths of pain and retribution. If Roy looks your way, cross yourself and step back into the shadows. Make no mistake, he is a bringer of fear and death. Consequence and regret are words that mean nothing to him.

But lets take another look at Roy Shaw now. Theres a mansion in millionaires row, a shiny red Bentley parked up in the drive and enough money in the bank to enable him to buy anything he wants.

Has he left his past behind? How come hes made it swapped clanging cell doors and cold bare walls for winters in the sun, top-marque motors, expensive real estate, fine wines and beautiful women.

Hes a wealthy businessman, a connoisseur, a property entrepreneur.

After ten years inside the toughest prisons in the country, Roy has reinvented himself, changed from hardened con into the man with the Midas touch. A change of life so dramatic that it brings more questions than answers.

How could a man so violent, so ingrained in crime become this geezer parking his Bentley outside a posh restaurant and dining out with Miss Supermodel draped all over his arm like a cashmere overcoat?

Rich, civilised, successful? How come?

Roy started out as one of the most promising professional boxers of his day, an iron-fisted opponent who slugged it out to win fight after fight. They couldnt put him down. The glittering prizes of a fabulous boxing career were on the horizon he was set for the big time except for one or two little problems. Roy can sort out most things but he couldnt change his past. Roy had been living in a hard knocks world where crime was the name of the game and villainy was a way of life. Boxing was the escape ticket, and Roy was becoming well known, well paid and seriously ambitious until his little bouts of naughtiness caught up with him, and his periods of board and lodging in Wormwood Scrubs and a few others of Her Majestys prisons came to the knowledge of the British Boxing Board of Control.

Fate can be a ruthless bastard, too, and suddenly intervened and kicked him back to where hed come from Roy was devastated when he was refused a licence to box, when his brilliant career bounced off the ropes eight, nine, ten you cant box again youre out it was a knockout blow even he couldnt get up from.

It took a long time to get over this devastating decision.

A tiny kernel of pain is still there. What if ?

Roy might have been down but he wasnt out and if he couldnt fight within the rules, hed fight outside them like a volcano about to spew molten lava all the pent-up aggression had to go somewhere and the brutal unlicensed fight game became his new explosive territory. Roy became one of the most feared fist-fighters ever. His raw punch-ups culminated in the famous match between him and Lenny McLean a fight that is still talked about today as one of the bloodiest ever. No one could go the distance with Lenny, who was a giant of a man and as tough as they come. Roy did. No one could put Lenny down. Roy did. Lenny couldnt be beaten. But Roy beat him and smashed him to a pulp until the ring was slippery with blood and Roy was the undisputed British Unlicensed Boxing Champion. No matter what their reputation the reality is that he chews them up and spits them out.