On November 7, 1975, boxing published an article about Ray Fallone in Battersea under the header: “Ray intends to get out with the win.” Three days later, Ray entered the ring for the eight -sided Hampston from Lewisham at the Greyhound Hotel, Croydon, on his hundredth professional trip. Despite the teenage Mick’s dish, many to think about, Ray was overtaken. BN informed that “Ray was never injured and, truthfully, for most of the competition with a wide smile on his face. He finished the fight unmarked.”

In the end, Ray Sportings clapped the opponent before he was awarded the heated tribute to the secretary of the board Ray Clarke. At that time, it was widely recognized that Ray would be the last of the 100-professionals, that was the state of the game. There were a few excellent fighters around, but there were simply enough programs to have so many duels, especially since the boxers were shorter and more hard.

Quickly to 2019, when in annual British rankings BN mentioned the names of eight boxers, then busy who joined the “100 club”, and two of them had 200 fights or more. In the period from 1975 to now, but especially from the mid -1990s, many warriors have become Centurions, and Peter Buckley and Kristian Laight had 300 competitions or more. This group of boxers was managed by Seamus Casey and Dean Bramhald.

Nobody in 1975 would predict that this could happen. The reason he did is the appearance of the “journeyman”-the rheion’s veteran, often boxing a week by week, and there to test the potential of a “home” warrior. I saw most of these boys myself, usually from the ring, and I can testify to their ring. Most of them are much better than their record suggests, and readers of Peter Buckley’s last book, King of the Welfmen, will appreciate how much is needed to be able to play this role.

In football, joining the “100 club” is usually reserved for the best – for example, 100 Premier League goals or 100 hats in England. In the cricket, getting the first century is a sign of a very good trker, and only 25 players in the history of the game have won 100 centuries. In boxing, the opposite is true, because it seems that only journeymen, many years of losers, manage to have 100 competitions. The most successful boxers rarely approach this number, but it was not always the case.

The first over 100 professionals began to appear in the first few years of the 20th century, and most of them had long careers in compact rooms in London. I have records of over 1000 British and Irish fighters who managed to join this club, and they won much more fights from them than lost. Their real splendor took place in the 1930s, when 740 boxers who fought during this decade had 100 matches or more, and 546 of them have records. Many of them have become British, European and even the world. The most famed of them is probably Len Wickwar, for which I traced 471 competitions.

I choose only one of those boxing centurions to demonstrate the type of boxer that we had at that time. Arthur “Boy” Edge from Smethwick, Fly Wagi and Bantam’s weight, operated only seven years in 1928–1935, losing only 37 out of 150 competitions. He fought with two British titles eliminators, organized both a fly weight in the southern area and Bantamieght, and defeated the masters, and then retired in the mid -1920s, along with the cauliflower ear.

Each member of this honorary club deserves great recognition – Buckley, Edge, Fallone and all the rest, i.e. the masters, the journeymen, the winner or losers, because they are the spine of sport.

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.