In my last column, I looked back at the unforgettable victory of the British team of ABA over a group of America’s elite amateurs in a special show at the Yankee stadium in 1935. The British were praised for their triumph over “Golden Glovers”, especially two massive, Pat Floyd and Tony Stuart. With a clear win they made the necessary progress in the erosion of the “horizontal British heavyweight” marker, which harassed our great people.

I wrote about the four -time heavyweight limit, ABA Pat Floyd, but spatial restrictions prevented me from more about my great rival and friend, fighting Guard Tony Stuart. Like Floyd, Stuart won the Crown of massive weight four times, and between them they dominated the division in a decade before World War II. It is intriguing to think about how these two would do as professionals, but they both rejected all offers to make him.

However, they shared in the gym with leading professionals. Like the outstanding British sport, Gazon, he wrote about Stuart in 1937 (the year of the fourth title of Abba Tony): “He is probably the most -traveling amateur and the richest boxing knowledge. Whenever it requires trying a possible master, Stuart is a man who would say the best or the worst.”

Max Baer and Tommy Farr used Tony to prepare for significant fights, just like “The Blonde Tiger” Walter NeusselGerman title and top -class on the European heavyweight scene. Neusel defeated world -class men, such as Larry Gains, King Levinsky and former world champion and world heavyweight title Tommy Loughran.

In November 1936, Walter was in Great Britain for his widespread first fight with Ben Foord, a hazardous South African, who, like German, was a great draw on our banks. Walter crashed the camp at The Star & Parter in Windsor, a pub topped with a boxing gym, which was the preferred training base for many masters. Astutle, Neusel brought Stuart as a sparring partner, but he got more than for them.

As the writer of the fight Charles Darby remembered Boxing news: “Neusel came in with the obvious intention of showing who was the boss. Two massive strokes hugged Stuart’s head, and the upper right Uppercut took a affable smile from Stuart’s face. But it was as far as Neusel could show who he was a professional and who was an” ordinary amateur “.

“The real English left hand was thrown into the face of Germany like Ramrod once for time … Neusel came out to drop a London firefighter, but was fascinated by Lewaki and the rights … Stuart broke home the right to the jaw, which sent a German blonde in a tiny space to collide with a bundle of excited viewers who stayed with oil for an costly life … Although Neusl A week. “

Two months later, Tony returned to Star & Goder to facilitate Neusel prepare for the third fight in his trilogy with British Jacek Petersen. Petersen lost for the third time, but in his wars in the gym with Neusel once again Stuart was shining. This time Tony was on the headlines, when he raised Neusel with his left hook in front of the sports press. “It was the first time I saw Neusel knocked down in England,” noted known Daily Mirror Columnist Peter Wilson.

At the peak of his success, Stuart was reportedly offered 1000 pounds – a gigantic sum in the 1930s – to change a professional, but would not be swayed. He said boxing was a sport for him. He would stay with fire as a profession.

A lot was written about Freddie Mills, such a hero in the years after the Second World War. I contributed to the documentary about him, regularly appearing at BBC Four, in which I described him as a man who was at that time a man who bet on the British ghost bulldog. Many nonsense was also written about this man and I don’t have any time for the absurd theory that he was somehow involved in the murder of “Jack The Stripper” – he was not.

Today he is particularly well remembered in the tragic way of his death. He certainly fought in later years after his business ventures began not to go. When he withdrew from the ring in 1950, he initially did very well and soon became so known as “Celebrity”, regularly appearing on television on all programs, from quiz games to musical functions. He also forged a compact acting career. Less known in it is his tiny time as the best boxing promoter, the side line he liked, in which he managed to succeed.
In 1951, Freddie managed several useful warriors, including good boys from Bristol. In January 1951 he took out a promoter license and tried to set regular shows at Bristol City football, Ashton Gate, where he planned to take part in his two juvenile stars, Gordon Hazella and Terry Ratcliffe. His first show took place on May 28, 1951, and both Hazell and Ratcliffe won the complex foreign opposition. That night eight thousand went through the gates, and Freddie began to try. He was promoted here, every great success.

In August 1952, a terrible tragedy met with the seaside town of Lynmouth North Devon, when a fierce storm caused earnest plaintiffs, and 34 people lost their lives. The local boxing community gathered quickly, and Freddie was at the forefront. Within a month, he organized a charity show in nearby Barnstaple to lend a hand the Danger Fund, and one of the most outstanding local civic dignitaries, as well as the former weight champion in world weight, Terry Allen from Islington, who presented the exhibition, free of charge.

Freddie was used to larger stages because he honored them all as a boxer, and hired an Empress Hall, Earls Court, in which boxing was staged for many years, in March 1952 he took over the place from David Braitman and Ronnie Ezra, who promoted several years. His first program was attended by a local hero, Joe Lucy, Yolande Pompey and Freddie King from Wandsworth, another warrior in which Mills was interested.

In his program, Mills said, with typical playness, that “I try to provide the best possible talent at popular prices, and all dissatisfied customers can meet me in the ring.” He did not have to worry that customers would not be satisfied, because Freddie issued many programs there in the next four years, and most of his best competitions are perlera. His first British title took place in 1953, when one of his favorites, Joe Lucy, raised a free featherlight belt from another London, Tommy McGovern.

Freddie was undoubtedly the most popular British boxer when he was lively and no one else reached his appreciation until Henry Cooper appeared in the 1960s. That is why it is satisfying to notice that the juvenile Cooper Boxed for Mills at the Earls Court show in 1955, stopping Joe Crickmar from Stepney to win his eighth professional competition.

Our photo this week shows that Frank Williams from Birkenhead hugged his hands with his opponent Gaetano Annaloro from Tunisia, while weighing before the 10-Runder second promotion of Freddie in the Earls Court in April 1952.

When Freddie stopped promoting, in 1956 he moved to other business and media projects and, as we know, he was dead at the age of 46.

Sergey Kovalev shook. Right hand with Andre Ward He blew him up his chin and left him fears of the Russian legs of “Krushera”. He was seriously hurt.

Ward did not see it at the beginning. He became, leaving Kovalev on his feet. But then he stood up over him, hammering the Russian into the ring, feeding the arrows. Kovalev was eating in the ropes, fading him, folding on the hook.

Kovalev was trapped in ropes, pressed between the bands. He looked miserably at the judge, complaining about the low blow, but Tony Weeks stated it as a sign of anxiety. He fell to wave him there, and then, at 2-29 eighth round. Lithe championships in the world were resolved. Andre Ward has preserved the titles of IBF, WBA and WBO.

The Russian seemed spent at the moment, but soon explained his indignation. “He didn’t hurt me. I got tired, but I could still fight,” said Sergey. “He hit me [with] Low strokes several times during the fight. I don’t have a metal ass. “

He came to the fight, complaining about the decision of points in the first fight in November last year, about a department evading promotional duties and allegations that a team of Americans tried to prick their coach, and Kovalev left even more, fighting on a weekly intervention. “Who knows who would have victory if he did not stop fighting. I did not agree,” he added.

But Ward was in the process of expelling him from the competition. He had Kovaleva in a perilous place, and for me it was more a matter of the schedule of detention by a judge when the American finished him, and not the result was somehow illegal.

In the sharper evaluation department and his team they thought that Kovalev was looking for a way out. “He abandoned. I know what I have and I was lucky to show a high level of skill against the best in the world,” said Andre. “I think there should be a discussion if there is a deliberate foul, over and over, if I try to get out of trouble and hit him low because I am wounded. But when he bends, sometimes you hit a guy on the waist line …

Coach Ward Virgil Hunter can take some debt collection. Before the fight, he said that he trained his man for a victory in a knockout, at that time he was an unlikely perspective. But Ward proved that he could hurt “Krusher”.

The Russian decided that Mauling Clinches Warda was frustrating, but the American was also more effective in the middle, working in a close sucking in difficult hooks and upper. It has not been denyed now that Kovalev felt bodies. As the first half of the competition progressed, his hands were drifting lower, baseing gloves on the hips when he sucking in the air.

He revived too much, leaning after a low blow, as if he wanted to make a judge to intervene. He also left himself earlier in the eighth round, leaning at the waist, trying to emphasize another low blow, but the judge said nothing. Ward could then bring him a leisurely blow, but he refused.

“I was confused,” said Ward. “When I hit him with a shot, he tried to behave as if it was a low blow. It was border. I looked at weeks like” Can I go? I can’t go? “I didn’t want to score a point, I didn’t want something crazy to happen.”

It was far from the threat with which Kovalev began the fight. He caught a higher than Ward, looking like a stronger man. He moved and launched the lead right next to his body. Andre came down the law and tapped on a stab. These shots were not discouraged by Kovaleva, and his march lasted the attacker.

But most importantly, Ward began to choose the land in which the battle fought. Kovalev wanted him at the end of straightforward blows. But Ward either maneuver clearly, circled around him, or flowed forward, binding Sergey more and more moved in clinchs, but, most importantly, they also work on the inside.

He captured Kovaleva under many shoots and made the Russian miss many of his blows. He worries him during the opening of the exchange, especially when Sergey brought his bulky stab, Ward began to include these numerous threats. They were neck and neck after the first half of the fight (on two cards of judges and in my opinion).

But Ward’s strength attacks on the body affected. Kovalev was breathing heavily. Nevertheless, he stabbed firmly. Sergey threw himself right at the end of the seventh round, but only after surviving a wide left hook did he get into the head.

“I think he was almost the same as for the first time, so I knew what he liked to do and what he didn’t like to do. A high -quality warrior, but I was able to do several different things tonight,” Ward said.

“I am not fighting a C -class warrior. I fight the world champion, so he doesn’t separate you much in this kind of fights.”

But he added: “I am used to the vigilance of the uncomfortable. I train this way. I knew that he was approaching the round. I could say.”

When Ward began to wear in the competition, the decisive right cross began.

The blow drilled Kovalev’s jaw, wounded him like never before. It was a moment of truth.

From there, Sergey solved, rolled up by the ring, when Andre was tearing from the front. Kovalev shot, imprisoned on the ropes. Even with the last blow, he was in a bad position, there is nowhere to go. It is straightforward to understand why the judge who had to give his judgment at this wild moment spared him a further punishment.

“He was on his feet. I showed that I could hurt a larger man,” said Ward. “I did what I had to … Ref may allow it a little longer. But it’s not my fault. This is not my problem. I did my job.”

Sometimes even a knockout can be questioned. But Ward is undoubtedly the best weight for airy in the world. It dominates in its second weight class. After shocking Mikkel Kessler, controlling Carl Froch and taking Chad Dawson, this win is another key moment in search of size.

“It seems that they are constantly knocking the giants one by one,” says Ward. “Can I now get to the pound list for a pound? Is it possible?”

I suspect yes.