Mark Kaylor
Mark Kaylor was a British professional boxer.
Biography
Kaylor was born in Canning Town, London, but from the age of nine was brought up in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. Kaylor won the British schoolboy title the first year he was eligible to take part and at the age of 16, moved back to Canning Town to live with his grandmother so that he could join a bigger boxing club at West Ham. In 1979, at the age of 17, Kaylor won the National Association of Boys Clubs Championships and the London senior title. In 1980, Kaylor won the British Amateur Boxing Association Championships and went to the European Junior championships in Rimini, Italy. Kaylor represented Great Britain in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, losing on a split decision in the quarter-finals.Perhaps his most famous fight came in 1985, when he defeated Errol Christie in the eighth round of a hard-fought match, marred with controversy due to a pre-fight punch-up between the pair, and by death threats from racist fans against Christie. Despite the controversy, Kaylor and Christie in fact showed great respect for each other after the match. Kaylor later commented, "Back then, I had a quick temper that I’d rather not have had. There was always this spark in my head! Today, I’m embarrassed by it. Errol was a nice guy. There’s no way I could behave like that now."
He appeared in Ron Peck's 1991 film Fighters, which follows a group of young East End boxers as they try to make it to the top in the boxing game. The Daily Telegraph obituary noted that he came across in the film as a softly-spoken and thoughtful individual who said he hated violence.
Kaylor worked with Peck again in 1996, this time in a semi-improvised, fictional film Real Money, about a group of young boxers getting drawn into underworld villainy and crime. Real Money also starred other well known and well respected faces from the boxing world, such as father and son Jimmy Tibbs and Mark Tibbs, Steve Roberts and Jason Rowland, boxer, writer and actor Jimmy Flint who had also starred in many of Ron Peck's films, and later went on to star in many other films such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Revolver and Rise of the Footsoldier.
In 1996, Kaylor moved to California with his family. He was also very close to his nephew Charles Kaylor. He coached boxing and was an aerobics instructor at a gym.
Kaylor died on 15 November 2025, at the age of 64.