John Sullivan - trained with John Warfield?

Hi Dave,
Wondered if you had ever come across a Welsh fighting man called Nigel Sullivan – I just read some of his story in a book called Street Fighters, and he mentions John Warfield. This guy would be about 50 years old now, so wondered if his contact with John was in your time travelling up and down to Wales.

Anyway, this is what he says about John –

I then trained privately under a guy called John Warfield, whose brother used to be the bodyguard for Eartha Kitt and Johnny Mathis. He was something else. When he was 18 he had an operation on his stomach and had a pipe put in, but carried on fighting until he was 70-odd, which goes to show you what type of guy he was. John trained me in the fighting arts but he also trained me to be humble as well. You see at that time in my life I would fight anyone and wouldn’t care who I took on. It was through him that I learned to respect people more and try to walk away from trouble, unless of course things had gone too far. He had the strongest fingers that I had ever come across: once he grabbed you there was no getting away. In jiu-jitsu it is common to have someone knocked out, and when I was training with John I would regularly be choked out.


Does this ring any bells with you mate?


Cheers
Paul

sure does mate ... John S came from a karate background I believe, and did a few other celebs as a bodyguard back then..
To be honest I HEARD a lot about him, but never met him.. but its true he trained with John warfield for quite a whille..

I think he also intended going into pro wrestling at one time with a chap called Adrian Street who was also one of John warfields students and a total nutter

Sorry it was NIGEL Sullivan, not John, but I presume we're talking about the same guy anyway.

Incidentally, another fighter in the same book (Billy Cribb) said this, which I like:

"What makes a great fighter? First of all you mustn't fear pain. If you fear pain then you have lost already. You have to have great belief in yourself, and a sense of pride in what you are going"


Paul

thanks for putting the name right.. I knew the Sullivan bit, but you could have put any first name and I would have thought it was the right one...

dont know teh Billy Cribb name though

nice quote mind