Nobody expected Welshman Tommy Farr to extend Joe Louis the full 15-round distance in the champion’s first defence of the world heavyweight title. But by the end, most of the 36,903 crowd at New York’s Yankee Stadium were booing the unanimous decision for Louis in what was the first of a record 25 defences. Farr, a Welsh miner, earned his best ever pay day ($60,000) for a gallant effort and was one of only two men to go the 15-round distance with Louis. After a four-day delay to the fight being staged, due to poor ticket sales and the weather, two million people in Britain tuned in to the radio during the early hours of the morning. Farr kept bouncing back from Louis’s beautifully delivered combinations and, with cuts under his eyes, won some of the later rounds. When news of the fight reached Farr’s home village of Tonypandy at 4am, people in the streets began singing ‘Land of our Fathers’. Farr said years later: “Every time I hear the name Joe Louis my nose starts to bleed.”
Welshman Jimmy Wilde, regarded by historians as the best flyweight ever, received a purse of diamonds for his 12th round stoppage of English rival Joe Conn at Stamford Bridge. Since he was a company sergeant major based at Aldershot in the final months of the First World War, Wilde could not receive any money for the bout. So, instead, he received diamonds worth £2,000. After the American Peter Herman, who he would meet in 1921, Wilde considered Conn his best opponent, but Wilde put him down 13 times before the referee stopped it. “I had a bit of a tussle for the first three or four rounds but in the last four rounds there was only one in it,” said Wilde. Wilde looked like one of the figures in a Lowry painting with his matchstick limbs, but he is arguably the greatest British boxer of all time. Known as The Mighty Atom, 5ft 2in Wilde was unorthodox, powerful and had impeccable timing. He was born in Merthyr Tydfil and began work as a pit boy aged 12. By 16 he had forged a reputation for himself in the boxing booths and claimed to have had 864 bouts, knocking out 675 opponents.
Kiko Bejines left the ring unconscious on a stretcher after being knocked out by a huge right hand from Alberto Davila in the last round of their vacant WBC world bantamweight title fight. Mexican Bejines, ahead on points, faded badly in the last round and three days later, following surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain, died in hospital. Bejines, 20, never regained consciousness and his wife was pregnant with their first child at the time of his death. His death led to more calls for boxing to be banned after the death the previous year of South Korea’s Deuk-Koo Kim and of Welshman Johnny Owen in 1980.
After failed world title attempts against Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno fought off fatigue in the final round to beat American Oliver McCall on points for the WBA world heavyweight title at Wembley. Bruno made a fast start but slowed dramatically in the later rounds. McCall, who had pulled off a shock a year earlier by stopping Lewis, went for it in the last round but Bruno, roared on by 30,000 fans, held on for a unanimous decision. Bruno said: “That last round was very tough and he came at me like a madman. All I could do was try to survive and I did survive. I look like ET but I’m a winner, a champion.” Promoter Frank Warren promised Bruno a Bentley as a winning bonus. “The first thing he said after winning the fight was, where’s my Bentley?” said Warren.
Joe Gans entered the ring so dangerously weight-drained for his world lightweight title fight with Battling Nelson that afterwards he came down with tuberculosis. Nelson’s manager Billy Nolan insisted that Gans could not replenish his body properly after the weigh-in and the American was further hampered when he broke his hand in the 33rd round. But the speed and skill of Gans, an early pioneer for black boxers, saw him frustrate the Danish boxer until Nelson was penalised for yet another low blow and disqualified in the 42nd round in Goldfield, Nevada.
After Kirkland Laing pulled off the biggest global upset of the year with a split decision over Roberto Duran in Detroit, the former British welterweight champion vanished. After months partying, Laing resurfaced a year later but by then the momentum was lost. Laing never fulfilled his potential due to his indulgence in alcohol and drugs. “I had too much early and wasn’t man enough or mature enough to handle it,” said Laing. In the next two years after losing to Laing, Duran would earn millions in world title fights against Davey Moore, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns. Laing never earned much nor fought for a world title.
The 16,000 in attendance at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome did not know it at the time, but they were witnessing the birth of sport’s biggest ever star when an unknown American 18-year-old called Cassius Clay won Olympic light-heavyweight gold. The Louisville boxer beat Zbigniew Pietrzykowski but Clay, who later renamed himself Muhammad Ali, nearly did not travel to Italy because of a fear of flying. He even brought his own parachute for the flight over. Clay battered the Pole in the last round to earn the points decision.
Northern Ireland’s biggest ever boxing crowd – 16,000 – turned out at a purpose built stadium on the slipway where the Titanic was built just over 100 years earlier to see local hero Carl Frampton win the IBF super-bantamweight title. Frampton had already beaten Kiko Martinez 18 months previously, but it was the Spaniard who went on to win a version of the world title. When they met again on a chilly night, unbeaten Frampton did not freeze on the biggest night of his life and decked Martinez in round five en route to a unanimous decision. Victory also confirmed Frampton’s status as Northern Ireland’s most popular boxer since Barry McGuigan reigned as world featherweight champion (1985-86). McGuigan was promoter of the show and said: “I’ve been telling everyone for years he would be world champion. This kid could end up being the best Irish fighter who ever lived.”
Boxing’s modern era was ushered in with the first world heavyweight title bout under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules – three-minute rounds, ten-second count for a knockout and the use of boxing gloves – which saw bareknuckle champion John L Sullivan outboxed by James J Corbett, who won by KO in the 21st round at the Olympic Club in New Orleans. Sullivan, slower and fatter after enjoying his fame as world champion, was cut to shreds by the younger and more mobile challenger. Ex-bank clerk Corbett, from California, would reign for five years. World featherweight champion George Dixon and world lightweight champion Jack McAuliffe defended their belts on the same bumper bill called ‘Carnival of Champions’.
Willie Pep was a masterful boxer and known as Will o’ the Wisp because he was so elusive. However, Sandy Saddler was one opponent who got the better of him. Pep was controlling the fight, despite being knocked down for a count of nine in the third round, until he dislocated his shoulder in the seventh round and did not emerge for the eighth. Pep claimed he dislocated his left shoulder in a clinch because of Saddler’s wrestling. Pep had regained the world featherweight title in February 1949 from Saddler, who had knocked him out four months previously. Pep and Saddler met for the fourth and final time on 26 September, 1951 in a foul-filled contest that Pep – ahead on the scorecards – quit after nine rounds with blood running into his eyes. Saddler won their series 3-1.
Alexis Arguello was foiled in his bid to become the first boxer to win a world title in a fourth weight division when he was knocked out for the second time in a year by WBA light-welterweight champion Aaron Pryor. Nicaraguan Arguello was down in the first, fourth and tenth rounds and was counted out sitting on the canvas in Las Vegas.
Chris Eubank failed in his attempt to win back the WBO world super-middleweight title from Irishman Steve Collins, who once again won on points in front of his home fans. Eubank announced his retirement after the bout – but returned for five more fights.
Tony Canzoneri knocked down Jack ‘Kid’ Berg twice as he defended his world lightweight and light-welterweight titles by unanimous decision, but the Briton was left feeling aggrieved about a low blow that went unpunished. The Italian-American legitimately floored Berg in the opening round at the Polo Grounds in New York and it looked like it would be another early night for him. Canzoneri had beaten Berg for both lightweight and light-welterweight titles in three rounds five months previously, but the Londoner rose at the count of nine. Berg hit the canvas again in the eighth round from a low left hook, but under the local rules a fighter could not win or lose on a foul so Berg had no choice but to get up at nine to continue.
World light-heavyweight champion Paul Berlenbach knocked out Jimmy Slattery in the 11th round at the Yankee Stadium. Ex-wrestler Berlenback, who had only been a professional boxer two years, forced three knockdowns in the 11th. New Yorker Berlenbach got $32,000 for his second of three defences after winning the belt off Mike McTigue earlier in 1925. Slattery, from Buffalo, went on to hold the world title briefly in 1927 and 1930 while Berlenbach made one more defence.
Just 64 days after the jubilant scenes at Earls Court following his triumph over Sugar Ray Robinson, Randolph Turpin’s reign as world middleweight champion was ended by a punishing stoppage in the tenth round in front of 61,370 at the Polo Grounds in New York. The rematch was delicately poised when Turpin split Robinson’s left eyebrow in the tenth and blood gushed from the wound like a spring. Fearing the referee was about to intervene, Robinson produced a blistering attack and dropped Turpin. The Briton got to his feet but was then pinned against the ropes and Robinson unloaded a frenzied assault, with some of the punches illegal. Robinson swarmed all over Turpin until a right, flush on the chin, prompted referee Ruby Goldstein to stop it with eight seconds of the tenth round left. The fight was even when it was stopped. Goldstein scored it four rounds apiece, with one even, up to the tenth round.
Fans of the film series Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone have Ken Buchanan to thank for one of its most memorable – and gory – moments. Stallone re-enacted a scene from Buchanan’s WBA world lightweight title defence against Ismael Laguna in Rocky (1976). When Buchanan sat on his stool at the end of the third round with his left eye closed, his canny cornerman Eddie Thomas performed emergency surgery. Thomas quickly ran a razor blade over the swelling, producing a gush of blood and deflating the ‘mouse’. Buchanan, who would later need ten stitches, could once again partially see out of his left eye and jabbed his way to a points win at Madison Square Garden.
It lasted just three minutes and 57 seconds, but there was more entertainment in that time than the entire careers of some recent world heavyweight champions. Jack Dempsey floored Luis Angel Firpo nine times and was knocked out of the ring himself before stopping the challenger in the second round of his last successful world heavyweight title defence, in front of a crowd of 85,800 at the Polo Grounds. Argentine Firpo had been down seven times before the Wild Bull of the Pampas charged at Dempsey, who was sent through the ropes on to a press table by a right to the temple. Dempsey, who landed on a typewriter, was then helped by Firpo’s reticence to attack before delivering a right cross that left Firpo flat on his back and counted out.
Muhammad Ali was a shell of his former self but at 36 he still had enough ambition to jab and grab his way to a unanimous decision over Leon Spinks. The American won back the world heavyweight crown for an unprecedented third time and a year later announced he had retired; but there were still two more damaging fights left for Ali. Over 63,000 saw Ali’s rematch with Spinks, 25, at the Superdome in New Orleans, after Spinks had won a points decision earlier in the year. Ali economically outboxed Spinks and repeatedly smothered him in bear hugs to secure victory. Spinks’s life had spun out of control since beating Ali; he drank excessively and was arrested four times for driving offences and drug possession.
Sugar Ray Leonard was trailing on all three scorecards and needed a knockout when fading Thomas Hearns was stopped in the 14th round of their $35million world welterweight title unification fight. Hearns was winning in front of a global TV audience of 300 million and at the end of the 12th round when Leonard sat on his stool, his trainer Angelo Dundee said: “You’re blowing it, son.” It inspired a big round for Leonard, who floored Hearns in the final moments of the 13th. Hearns, who was ahead on points (125-122, 125-121, 124-122), was then sent through the ropes by a barrage of blows in the 14th to prompt the stoppage. “Tommy seemed like an indestructible machine, so to beat him was my defining moment,” said Leonard.
Knockouts are scarce on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s record late in his career and one of the rare such occasions when the American finished business early was when he sucker-punched Victor Ortiz in the fourth round. Ortiz forgot to adhere to the referee’s pre-bout instructions: Protect yourself at all times. In the fourth round, Ortiz was deducted a point by referee Joe Cortez for a head butt. When the fight continued, Ortiz kept his hands at his side looking at Cortez after trying to hug Mayweather, who clocked him with a short left hook followed by a right.
Bernard Hopkins became the first boxer to knock out Oscar De La Hoya with a paralysing left hook to his liver in the ninth round. Hopkins, 39, called the shot “chopped liver with Hopkins sauce” that inflicted De La Hoya’s first stoppage loss after 12 years as a professional. All four world middleweight title belts were on the line at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with the bigger and stronger Hopkins ahead on two of the three scorecards at the time of the stoppage. De La Hoya had two other big fights in Vegas on this date: forcing Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez to retire after eight rounds in 1998 and a year later losing on points to Puerto Rican Felix Trinidad after he eased off in the latter rounds believing he had won the world welterweight title unification fight.
Welshman Johnny Owen never regained consciousness after being knocked out by WBC bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor in Los Angeles. Owen, who was known as the Merthyr Matchstick due to his lanky frame, was too brave for his own good and refused to succumb until he was sickeningly separated from his senses in the 12th round. Owen bored in during the early rounds but by the fifth round the heavier-hitting Mexican had taken control. Owen was floored in the ninth and 12th rounds before being finally flattened by a ferocious right that left him unconscious before he hit the floor. After brain surgery to remove a blood clot, Owen could not be saved and died in November.
Floyd Patterson endured a painful night the last time he was seen in a boxing ring, when Muhammad Ali stopped him in seven rounds at Madison Square Garden. But it was not as bad as the previous time former world heavyweight champion Patterson had lost to Ali in a cruel 12-round beating in 1965. This time, 37-year-old Patterson was mercifully stopped after his left eye was swollen shut from Ali’s stinging blows.
A 62-year-old mother took matters into her own hands when her son was taking a beating in a British light-heavyweight title eliminator. During the third round, Minna Wilson climbed into the ring to land the winning blow herself. Her son Tony was on the ropes when Mrs Wilson clobbered her son’s opponent Steve McCarthy on the head with her high-heeled shoe. The fight was stopped and, incredibly, awarded to Wilson because McCarthy refused to carry on.
It had been a thrilling, epic encounter but all that was forgotten when Michael Watson collapsed in the ring following his final round defeat to Chris Eubank for the WBO world super-middleweight title at White Hart Lane. After being caught by a vicious right uppercut at the end of the 11th round, Watson’s head whiplashed off the bottom rope on the way to the canvas. Watson got up and when he came out for the 12th round, he was met by 26 unanswered punches before the fight was stopped. Watson was left with brain damage but his fighting spirit saw him complete the London marathon in 2003.
World heavyweight champion Gene Tunney was gifted vital seconds in ‘The Battle of the Long Count’ to get off the canvas and beat Jack Dempsey for a second time on points at Soldier’s Field in Chicago. Referee Dave Barry delayed issuing a count that allowed Tunney longer refuge for his head to clear before getting up and regaining control of the ten-round bout. Tunney, who had won the title from Dempsey a year previously, was dropped in the seventh round and when Barry ordered Dempsey to retreat to a neutral corner, he delayed. Barry only started the count once Dempsey was in a neutral corner and Tunney sensibly got up at the count of nine – after 14 seconds had elapsed. Tunney then back-pedalled and got his jab working again in the eighth before he dropped Dempsey with a right to the jaw. After ten rounds the decision was Tunney’s and a $1million cheque. Mobster Al Capone lost $45,000 betting on Dempsey after hearing that Tunney had been reading Shakespeare. More importantly, Capone was also banking on there being a different referee to Barry, who was appointed on the afternoon of the fight. The 104,943 crowd generated an income of $2,658,660.
Rocky Marciano was sent to the canvas for the first time in his career by Jersey Joe Walcott – but got up to knock out his fellow American and win the world heavyweight title. A left hook early in the first round floored Marciano, but he was up at the count of four. Marciano was trailing on all three scorecards when he stopped Walcott with a short right hand in the 13th round. In a rematch the following year, Walcott was ironed out on the canvas in the first round.
On-off crack addict Oliver McCall walked to the ring crying as if on the verge of breakdown before facing Lennox Lewis. But it was the unstable American who left Wembley Arena with the WBC heavyweight title after capitalising on a lazy jab from Lewis with a right hook. Lewis collapsed to the canvas and when he got to his feet the referee waved the fight off 31 seconds into round two. Lewis would then hire McCall’s trainer Emanuel Steward to begin his rehabilitation.
Floyd Patterson felt so ashamed of being obliterated in a round by Sonny Liston that the former world heavyweight champion sneaked out of Comiskey Park in Chicago in disguise, with a fake moustache and glasses, and drove through the night back to New York. The fact that Patterson travelled to the venue with a disguise told a lot about his belief in beating Liston. Patterson’s speed and skills were no match for Liston’s brute strength and he was stopped in 126 seconds.
Ken Buchanan suffered sunburn as he pulled off one of the best ever victories by a British boxer overseas with a split points win over Ismael Laguna to lift the WBA world lightweight title in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was over 100 degrees at the outdoor baseball stadium by the time of the fight at 2pm and Laguna forfeited his right to walk to the ring second as champion, so he could claim the corner that was in the shade. Jack Solomons, Buchanan’s promoter, borrowed a parasol from a woman in the crowd to shade Buchanan in between rounds. “If I had to pick out one highlight it would be Laguna,” said Buchanan. “British fighters didn’t do those things at the time.”
On one of the most shameful nights in British boxing history, ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler was presented with the WBC world middleweight belt in a dressing room at Wembley Arena shortly after being escorted there by police due to crowd trouble. After stopping Alan Minter for the title, Hagler faced the most danger he had all night when some of the 12,000 crowd threw bottles into the ring and racially abused the American. In the weeks leading up to the fight, Minter was reported as saying: “I am not letting any black man take the title from me.” Hagler made Minter pay. Minter waged a toe-to-toe war from the first bell, but was met with punishingly accurate blows as he tried to move in and it was not long before his face was covered in blood. After 45 seconds of the third round, with cuts around both eyes, the referee stopped it and missiles began landing in the ring.
Ken Norton was sure he had beaten Muhammad Ali again in their third meeting at the Yankee Stadium in New York. But it was Ali who got the narrow and disputed unanimous points verdict to retain his WBC-WBA world heavyweight titles. Ali dominated the last round behind his jab after Norton’s corner told him to avoid any danger in the final round. Norton was left to regret his reticence when the scores of 8-7, 8-7 and 8-6 were announced. “I think even Ali knows I won it,” said Norton. “I was robbed, what else can I say.” Former US Marine Norton had broken Ali’s jaw three years earlier in a points win, before losing on points six months later. Norton shared 39 rounds in total with Ali, with very little separating them. “I honestly thought he beat me in Yankee Stadium, but the judges gave it to me, and I’m grateful to them,” Ali later said.
Earnie Shavers was a major player in the golden era of the heavyweight division and Muhammad Ali complimented him after their WBC-WBA world title fight by saying: “Earnie hit me so hard, he shook my kinfolk back in Africa.” But Ali still did enough in a tenth defence to win a unanimous decision. It was Ali’s ability to take a punch that earned him victory in a close fight with Shavers.
Lloyd Honeyghan, the Jamaica-born Londoner known as ‘The Ragamuffin Man’, stopped Donald Curry to become undisputed world welterweight champion in a massive shock in Atlantic City. Texan Curry, the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter at the time, was stopped with a cut eye before the start of the seventh round after he failed to restrain the challenger’s incessant attack. Honeyghan, flamboyant and never lacking in self-confidence, topped up his £110,000 purse with the £20,000 winnings from a 5-1 bet on himself. It was one of the biggest upsets by a British boxer overseas.
Felix Savon won a historic third Olympic heavyweight gold medal when he beat Russian Sultan Ibzagimov 21-13 on points in Sydney. The Cuban, who suffered a cut late in the bout, equalled the Olympic record of Hungarian Laszlo Papp and countryman Teofilo Stevenson with three boxing gold medals each.
