Max Baer was one of the most colorful heavyweight masters. He was a destructive blow, and his escalate in the title in 1930–1934 showed him at its best. In 1935 he lost to Jimmy Braddock in great nervousness in the title defense, before three months later he was destroyed by Joe Louis.

In 1936 he was almost published, but still a gigantic enough name to earn decent money, so in 1937 he ventured to Great Britain to face Tommy Farrem in the Fararra competition before his title challenge with Louis. Farr defeated the American over 15 on the Harringay Arena, thus adding another nails to Baer’s coffin. Then he knocked out Walter Neusel in three to set up a title with Louis.

Among the Baer resignation from sparring partners in this competition was his younger brother Buddha, who at the age of 21 was six years younger than his brother. Buddy changed the professional in 1934 and before he came to Great Britain in April 1937, he had 48 professional competitions with only three losses. Forty -one of them ended with KO, so Buddy was a blow.

After his brother lost to Farr, Buddy remained in Great Britain throughout May and took part in two competitions against the developing British heavyweight prospects, and this very excited our press. As is well known, Baer finally challenged Louis in 1941 and managed to lose her grand master on the canvas in the first round. Finally, Baer ran out of couple and was disqualified after he was raised three times in the sixth. In the rematch the next year he survived only one round and never fought again.

His two British competitions took place in 18 days in May 1937. The first was against Jim Wilde of Swansea and took place at the Harringay Arena, and the fight was a common affair with Petey Sarron against Dave Crowley. Many people confuse Swansea warrior with the World Flyight Flyight Jimmy Wilde from Tylorstown. Despite the same name, two men could not be more different. Jim would greatly surpass Jimmy, even if there were two versions of Jimmy standing on the same scales.

Bn He informed that “if Buddy Baer can definitely overcome Wilde, he would achieve what was out of the power of most British heavyweight, and will take a decisive step towards the competition with the best men available in England. The bulky weight of very shy enter as a sparring of Buddha’s partners, whose reputation of a struck criminal was obviously spread. “

In this event, Baer wore a Welsh and finally stopped him in the fourth round after he implemented him twice. It was the beginning he needed in British rings, and soon he was matched with Jacek London of West Hartlepool in a duel, which took place on the pitch, the home of the Swansea football club. It seems strange that he fought London in this place, not Wilde from the city.

The turnout was huge, even though there was no Welsh at the top of the bill and once again Baer began clearly, dropping London with a bulky right hand almost as soon as the first round. The breaking up, upper right miner soon led him to the floor and seemed unlikely to survive the round. However, Jack was made of raw things and, despite the re -floor in the second, survived the full 10 rounds and was transported to his wardrobe by the appreciated crowd. Buddy learned that Great Britain has good, challenging bulky scales, and then returned to the States to resume her career.

In the 1980s, there was a very popular advertisement on British television for yellow BT pages, in which the elderly gentleman finally follows his beloved book “Fly Fishing by Jr Hartley”. Well, boxing has its own bibliophile named Hartley and was a special man.

I communicated sporadically with Ra Hartley many years ago, because he bought and sold books and magazines, but he is best known for his work, The Life’s Work, The the History and bibliography of boxing books. Bob tried to write a full compendium of every boxing book ever published, both in Great Britain and abroad, and he managed to find and detail, over 2,100 of them. For anyone who is seriously interested in building a collection of boxing books, and there are many of you, Bob’s book is an indispensable source of reference.

Bob has always turned out to be quite a scholar and scientific gentleman, and many were a complete surprise to say that he had a broad career as a professional boxer in the 1930s. I did it something like a personal mission to follow as many Bob duels as possible, and with it in boxing in one of the boxing backwaters at that time, Lincolnshire and East England, it did not turn out to be an straightforward task. A glance at his record shows how extensive professional it was at the moment, with many diminutive towns and villages that had not had a PRO program for over 80 years.

Bob was born in Billingborough in the southern Lincolnshire and was the best of a diminutive group of about eight other boxers who came from the village, and even today his population is only about 1000. He defeated as an average weight and could hit. His plate is decorated with pure knockout against a lot of men who, like him, boxed above all to put food on the family table.

With attendance in some rooms, in which he regularly entertained, carrying only two or three hundred, no one will ever get luxurious in boxing. The first competition, which I can trace for Bob, took place in Forester’s Hall in his own village, six -handed against a boy from nearby Bourne, on the bill promoted by the Boston boxing syndicat, and Bob threw his man in two rounds. Then a week later with a boy from Kirton from one round in Grantham.

Most of Bob’s early duels took place in Boston, Grantham, Spalding and Billingborough, where he was a naturally great favorite, and won his first 14 in a row. His first defeat occurred in March 1934, when he was knocked out from the ring in Grantham in the fight against Arthur “Knocker” Freestone. Despite the brave test, Bob could not return to the ring on time. After this Bob continued to connect mainly eight and 10-rounds throughout Lincs and East England, boxing in Holbeach, Bourne, Skegness, Lincoln, Melton Mowbray and Woodhall SPA.

In 1936 he conducted a campaign in Suffolk and Essex, and then, in October 1937, he showed in the Empress cinema, Chatteris in the act crowned by the local hero Eric Boon, whose meteor’s career was just beginning to achieve. This brought Bob the first and only competition in London. He pulled over eight rounds with George Thurcel in Canning Town Marina, and the BN report for the fight tells us about the style of Bob’s fight “Real Sizzler and Slam finger to the fingers with Hartley fighting.”

In his last competition, Bob kept the great Dick Turpin at the next draw of eight rounds in rugby. After a 56 career, with only 11 losses, Bob left the ring for the convenience of his research to create a final boxing bibliography. What a man.

On October 14, 1980, it will be remembered as a black day in a British professional boxing, and a particularly low point between the editor and the employee Boxing news and leading British promoters at that time, Mickey Duff and Mike Barrett.

This sport has already turned out to be a complex situation of Johnny Owen, who lay in a coma after his competition with a Lupe pin (and who was to die just a few weeks later), the terrifying spectacle of the last Muhammad Ali competition Ali against Larry Holmes and the shameful scenes that occurred after the defeat of Alan Minter with Marvin Hagler. Then we had a show at Royal Albert Hall in the above -mentioned dates.

. Bn The headline said everything: “Oh, what a garbage load”, and the editor Harry Mullan added further criticism with the initial words of his column: “There is no excuse, no justification for this pair of the tournament.”

Four Mexican imports fell into leading British fighters in just seven rounds, and during a program consisting of seven competitions, this meant that fans saw little actual boxing and virtually no quality. On Undercard, the upcoming Mark Kaylor stuck a one-time pretender into a welterweight, Peter Morris from Bridgnorth in five unilateral rounds, Joe Jackson from Coventry upset Davey Armstrong in “Undlid-Bout, who drew Boos and a tardy slap of the crowd,” and Gary Nickels paid Billy Straub in the Eight luminaires, at least, as at least as a competition.

Then a defeat appeared. Jimmy Flint, a gigantic blow to Wapping, detained Cordobes Lopez in two rounds, and BN comments that “Bob Galloway’s intervention would be justified far earlier.” Then Cornelius Boza-Edwards stopped Roberto Torres on the cut eyebrow in the second round of the fight, which “from the first minute of the opening round, it turned out that the fight had no chance of distance”, this was the difference in the class between them.

Dave Boy Green returned from his last defeat from Sugar Ray Leonard, and therefore it could be justified the fact that he was released, but his opponent, Mario Mendez, assured “little to defeat. He produced a strange flash of a talented, clever warrior who could have been years ago, but his determination against Green was not made of iron. “

Finally, we came to the Headliner between Charlie Magri and Enrique Castro. This lasted only one round and “there was not a boxing match between two evenly matched players as one -sided beating.” Castro was brave, but completely outclassed.

Duff and Barrett claimed that their American match, Don Chagrin, provided them with details suggesting that all four Mexicans were worthy opponents of British boys. For example, Castro reportedly took part in the eight previous competitions this year, and they all won. With a benefit in retrospect, especially boxing, we can now see the truth; Castro fought only once this year, victory over Raul Bacheco for the Flyight weight title in Baja California and suffered two knockout losses in 1979. In 1979 in just three rounds. He apparently did not fit Magri.

Similarly, Mendez lost all his previous five duels at a distance and did not fight for two years, Lopez lost four out of the previous six, and Torres won only one of the last seven. Of course, Duff and Barret were flowed down the river by American advisers and had to criticize the chin, just like the board that approved opponents.

Fortunately, during the next concert in this iconic place, Duff and Barrett pulled out all the stops, the victory of Tony Sibson over Matteo Salvemini for the European average title, which is Humdinger, and Charlie Magri overtook Santosa Laciar in a much harder competition against the world Argentine.