Former world middleweight champion Alan Minterhas  kicked the bucket at aged 69.

The announcement was made by the British boxing chiefs on Thursday.

The late southpaw, Minter won Olympic bronze in Munich in 1972 and claimed the WBC and WBA titles with a win over Vito Antuofermo in March 1980 in Las Vegas. But his reign didn’t exceed a number of months as he was beaten by the great Marvin Hagler at Wembley Arena.

 Minter’s professional career  came to an end the following year after he was being stopped inside three rounds by compatriot Tony Sibson, retiring with a record of 39 wins and nine defeats.

The British Boxing Board of Control, BBBoC, in a brief statement said that the stewards and staff of the BBBoC are very saddened to hear of the passing of former world middleweight champion Alan Minter,” revealing that Minter had been suffering from cancer.

Former British world heavyweight champion, Frank Bruno paid tribute to Minter via his Twitter handle as he wrote: “Alan Minter RIP.

“Alan and I worked together many times a great boxer in his day I would ask people to look at the old footage of him fighting a great boxer a sad day for British Boxing RIP ‘Boom Boom’.”