Son of boxing legend Ken Buchanan in Hall of Fame ring feud agony
Raymond Buchanan, 59, wants to know why the ring was never passed on to him, claiming it was his late dad’s stated wish.
Boxing legend Ken Buchanan’s eldest son has spoken of his heartbreak amid a family feud over the champion’s valuable Boxing Hall of Fame gold ring.
Raymond Buchanan, 59, wants to know why the ring was never passed on to him, claiming it was his late dad’s stated wish.
Raymond said last night: “If my dad had made other plans for that ring, I would have been disappointed but would have respected his wishes.
“My dad wanted me to have the ring because he knew I would treasure it more than anyone else.
“I boxed as well and I know how hard my dad had to work to become an undisputed world champion and I think that’s why he wanted to gift it to me. I’m told the ring is still in a lawyer’s office, so it’s not as if it is being appreciated.
“I don’t care what it’s worth, I would never sell it. It’s priceless to me. But if money is an issue, I would buy it from my father’s estate.”
Raymond was born to Ken’s early partner Maria. Ken later married Carol, and the couple had a son, Mark, and daughter, Karen.
Raymond only found out Ken was his dad as a teenager. But they later became close and Ken said he wanted Raymond to have the ring after he died. Raymond has a video and a voice note of conversations with his father stipulating that.
Ken – the undisputed world lightweight champion in the 70s – died at 77 in an Edinburgh nursing home in April 2023.
Raymond said his dad tried to include him in the family but he had always been treated differently. This was underlined at Ken’s memorial service at Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral in 2023. Raymond, his partner Allana and daughters Charli and Skyla were invited but not given front row seats.
Days later, Raymond was heartbroken to learn from half-brother Mark that he had not been invited to Ken’s private burial at the city’s Piershill Cemetery.
He was especially hurt as he had gone out of his way to tell Mark he loved him after the service when they shared a few pints to toast Ken.
Since then, when trying to make arrangements to receive the ring, Raymond says he has been ignored.Legal representatives of Ken’s estate have told him the video evidence gifting the ring to him is not binding.
Raymond recently learned Ken left no will, a fact confirmed by Graeme Duncan, of Beveridge and Kellas, which acts for Mark and was the executor of Ken’s estate.
Last month, Duncan wrote to Raymond saying he had reviewed the video evidence and messages sent to him about his father’s wish that he be gifted the ring.
He wrote: “My advice to the executor requires to remain that there was no perfected gift of this item to you. This is because for a gift during the lifetime of an individual to be effective, the item in question requires to be delivered to the person claiming it was a gift. As you are aware no such delivery took place.”
Contacted for comment, the lawyer sent a copy of the letter he had sent Raymond.
Asked for further clarification, he added: “The letter to Raymond sets out the legal basis as I understand it the consequence of which is that the ring remains in the estate of the late Kenneth Buchanan.”
Mark said the settling of the estate was a private matter, not to be discussed in the Press.