John ‘Singo’ Singleton’s scuffle with mate Jack Cowin after long lunch nothing but a storm in a wineglass

A YEAR to the week since Sydney heavyweight James Packer went toe to toe with Dave Gyngell, super middleweight John Singleton is a potential challenger for the Sydney Media Streetfight title.

A YEAR to the week since Sydney heavyweight scrapper James “Whacker” Packer went toe to hairy toe with Dave “Shoeless” Gyngell on the concrete at Bondi, super middleweight John Singleton has, it seems, thrown his hat into the ring as a potential challenger for the Sydney Media Streetfight title.

Weighing in around the 75kg mark, 73-year-old Singleton might ­appear at a ­disadvantage to the younger Packer and ­Gyngell, both 25 years his junior, but insiders maintain there are few who can beat Singleton when it comes to ­tenacity, nerve and hard-­headedness.

During a career spanning 55 years, Singleton has learnt how to survive a belting. He is a ­master of the fightback.

John Singleton fronts the media outside his Strawberry Hills Stud today following his altercation with Hungry Jack's founder Jack Cowin. Picture: Peter Clark

The main problem facing prospective promoters of a future 2015 Sydney Media Streetfight is there was no ­winner of the Packer-Gyngell match.

Both men were declared losers. Similarly, no man who picks up a ­broken glass and threatens a best mate, even in jest, can be dubbed a champion.

With a broken glass in one hand and a look of menace on his face, it is easy to see how ­bystanders at Woolloomooloo Wharf on Monday might have, for a heartbeat, thought ­Singleton was out for blood when he stood over his friend of 40 years, businessmen Jack Cowin, the owner of Hungry Jack’s, at a table outside Kingsley’s Steakhouse.

But, unlike the Packer/­Gyngell clash, which was ­motivated by genuine ­rancour and flaring tempers outside Packer’s home, Singleton has no beef with Cowin. Singleton says he admires Cowin greatly.

In fact, he loves Cowin.

He is as dear to him as his own blood.

John Singleton shapes up during the “fight” at the Finger Wharf. Picture: DIIMEX

But sadly, somewhere between his 19th and 20th beers ­(writer admits taking license), ­Singleton, who is on a personal high having masterminded an AM radio merger with rival Fairfax Radio, which has seen his ­Macquarie Radio virtually consume Fairfax Radio, and who last year bought the Moore Park Entertainment Quarter precinct with his good mates Gerry Harvey and Mark Carnegie for $80 million, lost perspective, as a man on top of the world might.

When a glass was broken, Singleton, as a showman, ­decided to play mug lair to a captive audience, which ­included his son Jack, rock singer Jon Stevens, ­former NFL player Colin Scotts, 72-year-old Cowin and the only winner on the day — a paparazzi ­photographer lurking in plain view at Sydney’s most photographed location who surely couldn’t believe his luck.

Singleton would later ­slurringly joke the “fight”, which had Cowin ­smiling, was over beverages (beer or rosé) before also later joking it was “over a woman”.

Yesterday, as a man with an ­elephantine hangover might be, ­Singleton was full of remorse while Cowin ­dismissed it as a “storm in a wine glass”.

Until next time, when Singo is on a high.