Posts about middleweight and lower weight division prizefighting and professional boxing.
Bob “Rudy Robert” Fitzsimmons was an English boxer, who won the undisputed middleweight, heavyweight and light heavyweight world championships, at the turn of the 20th Century. Often mistaken for an Australian because he started his boxing career there, Fitzsimmons traveled to the United States in 1890 to campaign for the middleweight championship. Fitzsimmons stood just under 6 feet tall but […]
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Johnny Reagan was an important fighter in the St. Louis boxing scene during the first decade of the 20th Century. Originally from Brooklyn, Reagan moved to St. Louis to train under Jack McKenna. McKenna based his operation out of St. Louis, where his fighter primarily fought at St. Louis’ West End Club. Reagan was a rising bantamweight at the time […]
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St. Louis, at the beginning of the 20th Century, had a prominent professional boxing scene. Abe Attell, although born in San Francisco, was based in St. Louis. On February 1, 1904, Attell defended his World Featherweight Boxing Championship against frequent rival Harry Forbes. Forbes was also a regular on the St. Louis boxing scene. Forbes defeated Danny Dougherty for the […]
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Sam Langford is considered one of the greatest pound for pound fighters of all time. Born on March 4, 1883 in Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, he is considered the greatest Canadian boxer of all time. His fighting career stretched from 1900 to 1926. Langford only stood 5 feet six and half inches tall and weighed 185 pounds at his heaviest. He […]
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“Terrible” Terry McGovern earned a reputation as one of the most powerful punchers in the history of the lighter divisions of professional boxing. McGovern weighed between 112 and 126 pounds. Unlike his fellow smaller fighters, who overwhelmed their opponents with punching volume, McGovern possessed exceptional knockout power. McGovern proved his power on Tuesday, September 12, 1899, when he fought British […]
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No one took advantage of the No Decision era of professional boxing like Battling Levinsky. Levinsky was a skilled defensive boxer, who took little damage during his fights. When Ring Magazine asked him why he was so active, sometimes taking 3 fights in a day around New York, Levinsky said, “I like money and I never get hurt.” Levinsky was […]
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As I have written in several posts, the best heavyweight boxers between 1900 and 1919 were the African-American boxers forced to fight each other for the “Colored Championship”. Even after the great Jack Johnson finally broke the color line and won the World Heavyweight Championship, he would only defend the title against white contenders. As a result, the toughest challengers […]
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On Friday, June 10, 1910, World Middleweight Boxing Champion Stanley Ketchel fought his last fight against unheralded Jim Smith. Ketchel has cleared out the middleweight division, so boxing promoters struggled to find suitable competition for Ketchel. At only 24 years old, Ketchel lived hard and fought constantly causing an early breakdown of his body. After fighting Smith, Ketchel intended to […]
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On July 5, 1909, Stanley Ketchel defended his World Middleweight Boxing Championship against Billy Papke in their fourth and final meeting. Ketchel won a decision in the first fight. In the second fight, Billy Papke scored the only knockout on Stanley Ketchel in Ketchel’s career during the twelfth round. Papke won the World Middleweight Boxing Championship. In the third […]
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In 2010, St. Louis was the 58th largest city in the United States and the 19th largest metropolitan area. Around the turn of the century, it was the fifth or sixth largest city in the United States and the largest west of the Mississippi River. St. Louis had one of the largest clothing, shoe and beer manufacturing industries in […]
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