 ken buchanan (born 28 june 1945) is a scottish boxer and the former boxing undisputed world lightweight champion. == boxing career == === early career === before turning pro, buchanan was the 1965 aba featherweight champion. he started boxing professionally on 20 september 1965, beating brian tonks by a knockout in the second round in london. he spent much of the early parts of his career fighting undistinguished opponents in england. his scottish debut came in his 17th fight, when he outpointed john mcmillan over 10 rounds on 23 january 1967. prior to that, he had also beaten ivan whiter by a decision in 8 rounds. === lightweight challenger === buchanan ran his winning streak to 23 consecutive bouts before challenging maurice cullen on 19 february 1968 for the british lightweight title in london. he knocked cullen out in the 11th round and became a world classified lightweight challenger. he continued his way up the world lightweight rankings by defeating leonard tavarez, angel robinson garcia and whiter (in a rematch) among others, but on 29 january 1970, he found his first stone on the boxing road when he challenged future world jr. welterweight champion miguel velazquez in madrid, for the european lightweight title. buchanan lost a 15 round decision to velazquez, but nevertheless, he continued his ascent towards the number one spot in the rankings by beating tavarez in a rematch, chris fernandez and brian hudson, the latter of whom was beaten by a knockout in five in a defence of the british lightweight title. === world champion === on september of that year, buchanan travelled to puerto rico, where he would meet ismael laguna, the world lightweight champion from panama, on 26 september. many experts thought that san juan's warm weather would affect buchanan, but he upset those who thought that way and beat laguna by a 15 round decision to become world's 
1945_births International_Boxing_Hall_of_Fame_inductees Lightweight_boxers Living_people People_educated_at_Portobello_High_School Scottish_Sports_Hall_of_Fame_inductees Scottish_boxers Sportspeople_from_Edinburgh World_Boxing_Association_champions World_Boxing_Council_champions