Terry Marsh, known as the Fighting Fireman, seemed on the brink of big things after a successful first defence of his IBF world light-welterweight title against Japan’s Akio Kameda at the Royal Albert Hall in London. But a couple of months after his seventh round win over Kameda, unbeaten Marsh announced he was surprisingly retiring aged 29. Marsh, from Essex, revealed he was suffering from epilepsy and could not box on.
Jack Dempsey, a former homeless hobo who travelled under freight trains at night, was a huge star in the 1920s and his fourth round world heavyweight title win over Frenchman Georges Carpentier was the first million dollar gate in boxing history. Promoter Tex Rickard had a purpose-built stadium – Boyle’s Thirty Acres – put up in nine weeks in Jersey City where an official crowd of 80,183 generated $1,789,238 in gate receipts. It was also the first fight to be broadcast live on radio. Carpentier was a popular First World War hero but Dempsey received some bad press in the build-up for avoiding the draft. Angered by the crowd cheering the Frenchman, Dempsey twice floored Carpentier before knocking him out in the fourth round. Carpentier, who broke his thumb in the second round, returned to light-heavyweight to continue as world champion. Dempsey, who took the name Jack after the middleweight boxer Jack ‘Nonpareil’ Dempsey, learned to box in saloons for food and when he arrived in New York in 1916, his entire life belongings were in a paper bag. Five years later, Dempsey got $300,000 for fighting Carpentier (who got $200,000) and his fistic fame made him as big a star as the baseball player Babe Ruth. Dempsey later served in the Coast Guards during the Second World War.
Panama Al Brown successfully defended his world bantamweight title with a 15 round points decision over local hero Johnny King in Manchester. Brown, who was nearly six feet, was tall for a bantamweight and travelled the world as champion. Brown, whose real name was Alfonso Teofilo Brown, fought 15 times in Britain, losing only once by disqualification to Johnny Cuthbert.
Jack Dempsey burst on to the scene with an astonishing annihilation of giant Jess Willard, who was five inches taller and 58 pounds heavier. Despite his physical advantages, Willard surrendered on his stool at the end of three rounds. Dempsey, 24, was a figure of frenzied, perpetual motion, making it impossible for Willard, 37, to catch him with his long jab. The Manassa Mauler broke Willard’s jaw with a left hook in the first round, during which the champion was floored seven times. Dempsey thought the fight had finished and had to scramble back into the ring for the second round.
American Ad Wolgast and Mexican Joe Rivers contrived to produce a rare occurrence when they both landed simultaneous blows to knock each other out in the 13th round. Weary Wolgast landed a haymaker to the chin, while Rivers delivered a body shot. Referee Jack Welch counted to ten, with neither rising but awarded the fight to Wolgast, who had landed on top of Rivers, as he claimed Wolgast had started to rise as he finished his count and had fallen last. But contemporary newspaper reports state that Welch, who had been selected by Wolgast, helped the champion to his feet.
America was recovering from the repercussions of the first ‘Fight of the Century’ between Jack Johnson and James J Jeffries the previous day. Johnson’s victory over Jeffries precipitated race riots across the country on the night of 4th July and continued throughout the next day. “At least 11 and perhaps as many as 26 people would die before it was over,” Geoffrey C. Ward wrote in Unforgivable Blackness. It had not merely been a world heavyweight title fight; for some it was a battle between black and white. In a racially-tense atmosphere, Johnson – the first black heavyweight champion – dominated and knocked out the former undefeated champion, who had ended a five-year retirement, in the 15th round in Reno, Nevada.
World super-featherweight champion Johnny Dundee earned a 15-round unanimous decision over Jackie Sharkey in Ebbet’s Field, Brooklyn. Dundee, who was born in Sicily but raised in the Hell’s Kitchen ghetto of New York, won every round and dropped Sharkey in rounds four and five of his first title defence. Later, he would win the world featherweight title.
Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko gained revenge over Lamon Brewster when the American’s corner pulled him out of the world heavyweight title fight before the seventh round in Cologne, Germany. Brewster had not fought for 15 months and in that time had eye surgery for a detached retina. When this book was published, 39-year-old Klitschko was still world heavyweight No 1 and Brewster was still the last person to have beaten him by fifth round stoppage for the WBO version of the world title in 2004. “I have waited for this fight for three years,” Klitschko said, after the third defence of his IBF belt. “He took quite a beating.” After losing to Brewster, Klitschko adopted a safety-first approach, utilising his height and reach behind single, long jabs. It was efficient rather than entertaining and was not to everyone’s taste, but Klitschko would argue his fans in Germany – where he was based – and Ukraine did not complain.
Ugandan-born London-based John Mugabi was crowned WBC light-middleweight champion after Frenchman Rene Jacquot twisted an ankle in the opening two minutes. Jacquot was knocked to the canvas by a glancing right and en route to the floor injured his left ankle. When he got to his feet, Jacquot could not put any weight on his left foot and was swiftly returned to the canvas before the referee stopped the fight. Jacquot, who had been France’s first world champion in 30 years, cried on his stool after the frustrating end to his brief reign. Mugabi had won an Olympic silver medal at the 1980 Moscow Games before manager Mickey Duff convinced him to base himself in London for his professional career.
Popular knockout specialist and former world bantamweight king Ruben Olivarez left Japan’s Zensuke Utagawa unconscious for three minutes with a left uppercut and right hand in the seventh round. The Mexican, who had floored Utagawa twice before the stoppage in an utterly dominant display, walked away with the WBC world featherweight title.
Randolph Turpin pulled off the best ever win by a British boxer when he captured the world middleweight crown off Sugar Ray Robinson in front of 18,000 at Earls Court. Robinson met the unheralded Turpin, from Leamington Spa, at the end of an exhausting European tour and over a third of Britain tuned in to listen to the fight live on radio. Robinson was boxing’s biggest star and few outside of Turpin’s team believed he could pull off the upset. But the fight did not go as expected as Turpin tied up the champion and made Robinson miss. Robinson was bullied at close quarters by the stronger challenger and never found his rhythm. Turpin, meanwhile, was dominating with his unorthodox style of lunging in with his punches. Robinson looked resigned to defeat when Turpin, who travelled to the west London venue unnoticed by tube, was awarded a well-earned 15-round decision to leave the crowd singing ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’. “I found Robinson relatively easy to hit and there was nothing like the power in the punches that I expected,” said Turpin, who earned £12,000 for humbling the best boxer in history in a huge upset. It remains the most glorious night in British boxing but Turpin did not have long to enjoy his success before preparing for a rematch across the Atlantic just 64 days later.
Terry Downes was crowned world middleweight champion with a puzzling win over American Paul Pender at Wembley. Pender, cut above both eyes, surprisingly surrendered exhausted on his stool after nine rounds with his corner complaining he had been feeling ill. Downes became the first Briton to hold the world middleweight title since Randy Turpin after beating Pender, who he had lost to six months earlier and would lose to again in 1962.
In one of the last great 15-round fights, Evander Holyfield captured his first world title with a split decision over Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Holyfield, Olympic bronze medallist two years earlier, earned the WBA cruiserweight belt after dominating the last five rounds. “Maybe I’m getting too old for this and will look for something else to do,” Qawi said after. There was a rematch a year later and 12 more years of fighting for Qawi.
Matthew Saad Muhammad lived up to his ring moniker of ‘Miracle’ by surviving a torrid eighth round to stop Alvaro Lopez in the 14th round. The American, who had beaten Lopez in 11 rounds two years previously, was rocking in the eighth round after being subjected to a pummelling of more than 20 unanswered punches. But Saad Muhammad, who was called ‘Miracle’ after being abandoned on the steps of a convent in Philadelphia as a young boy, repeatedly survived beatings to prevail through his career, as was the case in the rematch with Mexican Lopez. The eighth round assault had left Lopez empty and he never won another round as Saad Muhammad took control and forced the stoppage in the 14th after four knockdowns. A year later, after eight defences of the WBC world light-heavyweight title, Saad Muhammad’s reign was over. Lopez had five world title challenges in total, none successful.
The British Boxing Board of Control tried to ban it, so instead the Luxembourg Boxing Federation sanctioned David Haye-Dereck Chisora at Upton Park in east London. The British boxing authority banned both London heavyweights for their brawl at a post-fight press conference in Munich earlier in the year. But that did not prevent promoter Frank Warren staging the event via the authority of a foreign governing body. Within 48 hours of tickets going on sale, 20,000 had been snapped up. Amid the rain in front of 31,000 and with neither boxer holding a British boxing licence, Haye settled his festering feud with Chisora by twice leaving his rival slumped on the canvas from left hooks in a fifth round demolition. After the brawl, the ban, the distasteful trash-talk and the bout Haye and Chisora embraced in the ring. “After sharing the ring with Dereck I have a new-found respect for him. I didn’t think he was that good,” said Haye.
Classy Cuban Kid Chocolate was at the peak of his powers when he stopped Benny Bass for the world super-featherweight title. Chocolate subdued the Kiev-born American slugger with his slick moves to force a seventh round stoppage. Chocolate, whose real name was Eligio Sardinias, arrived in America in 1928 and this win was the start of a series of big fights for him.
Rocky Graziano gained revenge over Tony Zale with a sickening sixth round stoppage in the second of their three exciting encounters. It was Graziano’s only win in their thrilling trilogy, one of the most famous in boxing history. Zale’s head was hanging out of the ropes with Graziano pummelling it when the referee stopped the savage slugfest. Every time these two American immigrants met they produced a ferocious fight. After winning back the world middleweight title, Graziano took the ring microphone and said: “Hey mum, your bad boy done good. Somebody up there likes me.” Graziano liked a wild lifestyle, drinking with the likes of Jake LaMotta, and was given a dishonorable discharge from the US Army for going absent without leave.
Jack Johnson did not waste time in disposing of former world heavyweight champion Bob Fitzsimmons with a second round knockout win. At 44, Fitzsimmons had seen better days and was not helped by torn ligaments in his right elbow. However, Fitzsimmons had still only lost the world light-heavyweight title 19 months before the Cornishman took on Johnson in a non-title bout. It was an easy win and a good name on the record for Johnson, 29, who was over a year away from fighting for the world heavyweight title.
Jack ‘Kid’ Berg – known as The Whitechapel Whirlwind – was one of Britain’s most successful boxers in America and his last big fight there ended on a happy note when he got a split decision over Kid Chocolate at Madison Square Garden Bowl in New York. The former world light-welterweight champion, who fought an incredible 74 times in the States, came on strong in the latter stages of the 15-round non-title bout. Londoner Berg, who had inflicted Chocolate’s first ever defeat in 1930, never fought for a world title again but a month after their rematch Chocolate was world super-featherweight champion.
After a promising start, Frank Bruno disintegrated from the sixth round of his first world title attempt against ‘Terrible’ Tim Witherspoon, from Philadelphia. Making the most of a five-inch reach advantage in the WBA heavyweight title fight, the Londoner employed his jab to good use in the first five rounds but his stamina let him down and Witherspoon capitalised on the openings. A crowd of 40,000 at Wembley fell silent as Bruno, 24, was left stunned, still and slumped on the ropes under Witherspoon’s attack of right-handers in the 11th round which prompted Terry Lawless to throw in the towel.
Sugar Shane Mosley could never figure out fellow American Vernon Forrest, who beat him for a third time unanimously on points in defence of his WBC welterweight title in Indianapolis. Forrest had beaten Mosley six months earlier and also when they were amateurs in the 1992 Olympic trials and this disappointing encounter – dubbed ‘Rematch of the Century’ – never lived up to the hype with more clinching than punching. Forrest earned $3.42million in the best year of his career.
Jack Dempsey took advantage of Jack Sharkey’s decision to stop and talk to the referee in the seventh round by knocking out his unsuspecting opponent. “What was I supposed to do, write him a letter?” said Dempsey, who finished the fight early in the seventh round in front of 82,000 at Yankee Stadium. Sharkey had been fancied to win the fight for the right to fight Gene Tunney for the world heavyweight title. Sharkey was winning the eliminator when early in the seventh Dempsey landed a flurry of low blows. When Sharkey turned to the referee to complain, Dempsey clocked him with a left hook.
Mexican great Salvador Sanchez was last seen in a boxing ring turning on the style in the second half of the fight before stopping Azumah Nelson in the 15th and final round. It was the ninth defence of his WBC featherweight title. Twenty-two days later, 23-year-old Sanchez was killed in a motorbike accident.
Just ten months after he had lost his world heavyweight title in 126 seconds, Floyd Patterson dared to face scowling Sonny Liston again. This time around in Las Vegas, Patterson lasted four seconds longer in another massacre. Patterson hid his face behind his peek-a-boo cupping arms, but it was no good and the fight was stopped after a left uppercut put him down for a third time. “I feel disgraced and ashamed,” said Patterson. He added: “I felt good – until I got hit.” Patterson’s trainer Cus D’Amato said: “It was the same as last time, he didn’t move around. We would have said something in the corner in between rounds but the guy knocked him out before we had a chance.” In the ring afterwards, contender Cassius Clay challenged Liston to a fight, yelling: “Liston’s not great, he’ll fall in eight.” Asked how long it will take him to beat Clay, Liston said: “One and a half rounds to catch him, and half a round to knock him out.”
Tony Lopez recovered from an eighth round knockdown to pull off a shock unanimous points win over Rocky Lockridge for the IBF world super-featherweight title. Lopez was left flat on his back by a right in the eighth but then won the last four rounds, having particular success with left uppercuts, to take the title in a bloody battle that left Lockridge needing more than 40 stitches. Lopez won a rematch, also on points, a year later and then a world title at lightweight but two-time champion Lockridge was finished at the top after their encounters and later in life was homeless.
Arturo Gatti stopped Leonard Dorin with a left hook to the body in the second round of a first defence of the WBC light-welterweight title in Atlantic City. “It feels good that I didn’t have to go to the hospital after the fight for a change,” said crowd-pleaser Gatti, the Italian-born Canadian who was involved in exciting encounters with Micky Ward, Ivan Robinson, Wilson Rodriguez, Angel Manfredy and Oscar De La Hoya. Romania-born Canada-based Dorin, a two-time Olympic bronze medallist, never fought again after suffering his first professional defeat.
Freddie Mills, Britain’s biggest boxing star during the Second World War and just after it, was found with a hole in his head and a gun nearby in his car at the back of his nightclub in Charing Cross Road. The former world light-heavyweight champion was 46 at the time and the inquest declared it was suicide. However, some have tried to connect his death to the Krays, Reggie and Ronnie, the gangster twins who controlled the underworld in London at the time. Other rumours and theories claim Mills was bisexual and killed himself as he feared the truth about his sexuality was about to be revealed.
There were no doubts surrounding the circumstances of Vernon Forrest’s death. The former world welterweight champion was victim of a drive-by shooting after he pulled up at a gas station in Atlanta. Three men tried to rob Forrest, who gave chase before walking back to his car and being shot several times.
Mexican Lupe Pintor was growing in confidence when he controversially stopped Jovito Rengifo in the eighth round. The Venezuelan challenger complained the stoppage was premature after being felled by a left jab. Two judges had Rengifo leading against WBC bantamweight champion Pintor, who was making a sixth defence of his title.
Gennady Golovkin took three rounds to demolish Australia’s former world champion Daniel Geale amid a blur of punches at Madison Square Garden. Geale became the Kazakh’s 27th KO from 30 fights in his 11th WBA world middleweight title defence in what was supposed to be the toughest fight of his career. Golovkin was born in Karaganda, then part of the old Soviet Union and now in Kazakhstan, to a Russian father, who was a coal miner, and a Korean mother. Two of his elder brothers were killed while serving in the Russian Army during his childhood and after beginning his career in Germany, he based himself in America.
Two years before he would fight for the world title, Jack Dempsey hinted at his potential by chopping down 6ft 6in giant Fred Fulton in 18 seconds. Fulton had been due to challenge Jess Willard for the world heavyweight title earlier in the month but the fight was scrapped because the public opposed it happening during the First World War.
He may have been closer to 40 rather than the 36 years of age in reports at the time but Dennis Andries overwhelmed the champion Jeff Harding – at least 11 years younger – to regain the WBC light-heavyweight title in Melbourne, Australia. Harding had stopped Andries in the 12th round a year previous to their rematch and was ahead on the scorecards at the halfway point with the British boxer looking spent. But the Londoner launched a furious assault in the seventh and Harding could not beat the count. Andries did a celebratory cartwheel but after two defences lost the title back to Harding on points, this time on the other side of the world in London.
Kostya Tszyu comfortably dealt with an ageing Julio Cesar Chavez, the former three-weight world champion who lasted six rounds with the in-form Australia-based Russian in Arizona. “It looks like it’s time for me to retire,” said 38-year-old Chavez after being stopped by the WBC light-welterweight champion. Mexican Chavez was dropped for only the second time in his career by a right hand and when he got off his hands and knees he took more punishment until the referee stopped it. Despite his vow to retire, Chavez fought five more times in as many years.
