Johnny Kidd Hard-punching and highly-respected boxer

A 1957 European Amateur Championship win in Prague, Czechoslovakia, that prompted McTaggart to admit, on hearing of Kidd's recent death: "Johnny Kidd was the hardest puncher I ever encountered in over 600 amateur bouts."

Kidd was born in the Aberdeen suburb of Torry, the son of a trawlerman whose maritime vocation precluded him from actively himself pursuing his great passion for boxing inside the ropes.

But Kidd senior ensured that both his sons - Robbie and the younger Johnny - were enrolled in Granite City boxing coaching legend Tommy Begg's Aberdeen Amateur Boxing Club when Johnny was a 12year-old in 1948.

Possessing a natural ring talent with a terrific punch, even in those early amateur days, Kidd won a clutch of junior honours before becoming the first Aberdonian winner of a senior amateur boxing title in 1954 by out pointing Lanarkshire opponent Roy Coote in Edinburgh.

Then, Johnny Kidd notched up another Aberdeen boxing first by winning a British ABA title in London in 1957 when he won the lightweight crown.

However, shortly before that victory - in 1956 - Johnny Kidd had enlisted in the Royal Air Force and boxed and lost to fellow airman McTaggart in a services bout at Stafford, England, on points.

However, by analysing southpaw McTaggart's performance on that occasion, Kidd's elder featherweight brother Robbie, also an RAF boxer at that time, came up with a plan to defeat the southpaw.

Consequently, when Kidd clashed with McTaggart, who had chosen to represent England in the 1957 Prague-based European Championship event while Johnny boxed for Scotland, the Aberdonian used the left hooks advised by Robbie sensationally to stop the Olympic gold medallist inside the first round.

It is further proof of Johnny Kidd's quality as an international amateur boxer that in the Prague semi-final event it took someone of the calibre of Poland's outstanding Kazimir Pasdar, who defeated Olympic star McTaggart several times, to beat Kidd - who nevertheless won bronze in these Prague championships.

On leaving the RAF in 1959, Johnny joined the professional ranks and his big punching and all-round boxing skills, allied to innate toughness, meant he quickly established himself as a top performer in the pro ring.

For example, Edinburgh's Bobby Neill had won the British featherweight title in Nottingham in April 1959 by dropping fellow Scot and Cambuslang native Charlie Hill 10 times to the canvas. But Kidd stopped the same Neill on cuts in a non-title ring joust.

Similarly, Fifer Jimmy Gibson was called the "Boy Wonder" due to his exquisite boxing skills, but he had to play second fiddle to Kidd, who outpointed him.

In the same vein, American Tommy Tibbs from Boston was rated No 3 lightweight in the world in May 1960 when he fought Johnny Kidd at Liverpool stadium - but the American only stopped the Aberdonian on a cut after eight tough rounds.

Indeed, this became a constant theme of Kidd's pro career with only the very best opponents beating him. Opponents such as 1956 Olympic flyweight gold medal from London Terry Spinks, who had to battle every inch of the way to beat the powerful Kidd in a British featherweight title eliminator in 1960.

Ironically, his victory over one Dundee boxer - McTaggart in 1957 - had enhanced Kidd's international reputation and it was to be another Jute City boxer who was instrumental in bringing to an end Granite City ring star Kidd's ring career.

In March 1963, after being stopped by Dundonian David Croll in London, Johnny Kidd retired from boxing and subsequently became a successful businessman, owning a fishmonger and a property portfolio in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, where he recently died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Johnny Kidd is survived by his wife, Anne, and three daughters.

Johnny Kidd, boxer; born May 31, 1936, died March 9, 2006.