Chris Bacon grew up in Tasmania and became one of the most complete fighters ever to come out of his adopted city of Manchester: an Olympic judo player, a title-winning professional boxer, an MMA fighter and an unbeaten champion of the unlicensed ring.
The doors
In the early 1990s his older brother Tim built a hospitality business in Manchester, starting with Johnson's Bar and growing into the Living Room chain, which reached 34 venues. He needed a security team that could keep the city's gangsters and hard men out, and he asked his younger brother, fresh from competing in judo for Australia at the 1992 Olympics.
"Chris is a good bloke, treated us fairly, but isn't someone you'd want to fall out with," one of his old doormen said. "There were plenty of hard fighting men in Manchester, but none who could have taken Chris in my opinion. He's like the Tasmanian devil when pushed."
The ring
He turned professional in 1997 under the trainer Bob Shannon, won 10 of his 12 fights and took the WBF cruiserweight title. His only defeats were a close points decision in Dublin and a cut in the last round against Gary Delaney. In 2001 he fought Lee Murray in MMA, and it was called a draw. Later he won the BBBofC Central Area cruiserweight title before retiring from the pro game.
In 2007 he moved to unlicensed boxing, won every fight by stoppage and took the heavyweight title, with Tyson Fury and Ricky Hatton among the crowd. He retired unbeaten in 2011. In 2008 he set up Britain's Hardest Doorman, a knockout tournament for 16 of the country's toughest doormen with a £10,000 winner-takes-all prize, at Liverpool Olympia.
Loss
In 2016 Tim died after a long battle with cancer. A week later Chris's son, who had also been fighting cancer, died too. "To watch your own son take his last breath, you can't get over that," he told the Manchester Evening News. "You wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy."