In the autumn of 1909, boxing in Great Britain changed for the better. Two unique institutions, both today, were first familiarized with the sports audience.

The photo shows Freddie Welsh from Boxing Pontipridd against Johnny Summers Canning Town for the British featherweight championship at the National Sporting Club at Covent Garden. The fight took place on November 8 this year and it was the first British title competition for which the Lonsdale belt was awarded. Later the same year, Tom Thomas defended his medium weight title in the Belt Competition, and at the beginning of 1910 Jim Driscoll did the same in a fertile weight. That is why the first three fighters who received the Lonsdale belt were therefore all Welsh.

In Ringside, in a press box that can be clearly seen, was John Murray, the first editor Bn. At that time, the publication was in circulation for several months, and the report from this competition can be read in its 15th edition. Excluding World War II, when Bn He appeared every two weeks and strange gaps appeared, especially when his offices were bombed during Blitz and various occasional printers in the 1950s and 1970s Bn Since then, he appeared every week.

The Welsh V Summers competition was perfect, and Murray noticed that “it was a great fight, a wonderful fight. From some points of view, this is not a particularly nice fight to watch, but from others it was incredibly pretty. This last point of view is the one that should be taken by the one that appreciated all the stout games. To speak with no quantity, there was no quantity, but there was no game, there was no quantity, but there was no expenses.

In addition to the fact that it was the first competition in the history of the belt, it was also the first British title competition submitted by [i]Bn[i]And it is captivating to see how journalistic methods have changed compared to today.

Summers won the title almost exactly a year earlier when he defeated Jacek Goldswain. All British title competitions took place within the sanctified borders of the National Sports Club, when these two met, until one of two exceptions did not change until the sport became more commercialized in the 1920s, when the club said that he could not compete with bags offered by more entrepreneurs.

A few days before the fight, Welsh, who trained in his hometown, pontypridd, took the car to Gilfach Goch and had to jump out of the vehicle when he slipped on a greasy road, destroying his leg. There were some fears that this could affect his ability during the competition, but these fears were unfounded, he burst out majestically.

A few years earlier, Welsh moved to America and in this country he learned his trade. His style was very different from Summers, who also experienced American rings during the route in 1907 and 1908, and his style and methods were novel to the British audience. Tom Scott, Tom Scott, can be seen on your chair directly between the boxers. At that time, a judge in all national competitions of the Sports Club of officials from outside the ring and his decisions, voting casting, was only issued if both judges disagree.

Elsewhere in the UK, the judge was the only arbiter and it was his choice whether to get to the ring or not. So much has changed in 113 years, but many are still the same.

In every episode of imagination, Packey Mahoney from Cork was a terrifying hefty weight. In an era in which most of the heavyweight looked, as if someone who could be avoided at all costs. Jim Jeffries is another good example. The Irish always had a reputation of the fight, and this was mainly because so many of them had to leave their country during the great hunger in the 1840s and ended in Great Britain, doing all the demanding work. Without them, for example, most of the railways could not be built.

According to Matt Donnellon in his book Irish heavyweight book 1The Packey family emigrated to Wales, where Packey was born in Cardiff in 1883. Soon they returned to Cork, and there a newborn boy learned to fight. Matt describes Mahoney as “one of the most crucial fighters who have ever left Ireland, and a retrospective look at his career shows that he was the highest class of heavyweight.” He served in the British army during the Burska war and I am sure that he would be presented to noble art.

In 1910, at the age of 26, he had his first professional competition, beating Sid Barber in the planned 15-government advertisement as Munster championships in hefty weight, with victory in the eighth round. The following year, Packey raised the championship in the heavyweight of his family Cork, beating Bombardier Coates in a 20-round competition at the Cork Opera House, a place where Packey became a great favorite. According to Bn“The crooked, which greeted the victory of a local man, were deafening.” Packey Polokski of his man.

Then he went to the invincible run of 12 competitions. In 1912 he attracted the Irish heavyweight title against a private Delaney from Leinster Regiment, again at the Opera, and then won two competitions in England, including one against the American, newborn Johnson, and the other by knockout in Paris. In October 1912 he was re -broadcast with Johnson, this time at the House Opera in Cork. Johnson was nearby, he fought with this great American, Joe Jeannette, in Glasgow only five months earlier. In the uninteresting fight, Mahoney won again.

His reward was the 15th-Runder against the future British heavyweight champion, Joe Beckett, at the National Sporting Club, and Packey won this chance with both hands. According to Bn“Mahoney was always at the top, until, seeing that he had his man on his mercy, Packey entered and, without even worrying to break the right to the jaw, and Beckett dropped like logs that could be counted.”

After two defense of the Irish heavyweight title in 1913, winning excellent victories over private Dan Voyles and Seaman Brown, he was adapted to the leading British man of weight, Bombardier Billy Wells, in the British title. It inevitably took place, as it had to, at the National Sporting Club. Wells lost the last two matches, both through a knockout for the world opposition at Gunboat Smith and Georges Carpentier, and could not afford to lose it. In our preview, Bn He described the style of Mahoney as “a warrior, immaculate and elementary, whose one idea is to move to his opponent, sticking close to him and piercing him.”

Unfortunately, the peculiar lack of boxing skills of Packey led to his fall against Wells. Several times in the first two rounds he caught the master, but into the third “he was stuck in every variety of strokes. Hooks, stabs, right crosses, peaks found his face, nose and mouth,” and Mahoney was finally displaced with a net of hooks. This was his first and only failure.

Packey has never been blooming again. He retired to Cork, where he became a worshiped and beloved figure. He died at the age of 85 in 1968.

In 1935, the colored bar was heavily rooted in British boxing and was rigorously enforced, both by the board and by some fighters.

British heavyweight champion (1931/32) Reggie Meen, for example, when he is under the contract to gain Canadian Larry profits at the Liverpool stadium in 1929, withdrew from the attacks, stating that “I draw a color line”. In any case, I doubt he had his chances against Larry. This unfortunate situation, then common in sport and generally in British society, meant that Larry, despite the great career in which he defeated two world heavyweight masters, never had the opportunity that they gave men like Jack Petersen, Jack Doyle, and even Reggie Meen.

As a result, someone came up with the idea of ​​the world championships in heavyweight, which was open especially for the black fighters themselves, and in 1935 Larry was tailored to the American, both Walker to fight for this title. No man was mentioned in the top ten in the world according to RingDespite decent entries. Instead, worse white fighters, such as Hank Hankinson, Buck Everett and Ford Smith found themselves in the rankings.

The match took place at Welford Road, the official House of the Leicester Tigers Rugby football club. Larry was a great favorite in Leicester, where he relied throughout the thirties of the 20th century, and earlier he was successful in the competition at the stadium in 1931 against Phil Scott. This competition is currently available on YouTube, with sound, and it is quite an unusual boxing heritage. Both Walker was not the best black warrior from the States in 1935 that Mantle of course went to the great Joe Louis, who quickly climbed to the top. Nevertheless, he was a decent warrior with victories over Tony Galento, George Godfrey and Otto von Porrat. He came to Great Britain at the beginning of this year and already won the Australian veteran George Cook, who went through and went through the fight, to both frustration.

Only 12,000 appeared to watch the fight for the title, about half of the number in which she saw the Blains-Scott competition four years earlier, and this was not doubt about the rain that was constantly falling all day.

He was in good shape with Blains, winning three quick wins since his defeat, a year earlier, against Jacek Petersene in the challenge of British Empire Title Challenge. His problem was one of the size because he was much smaller than Walker and from the very beginning he was looking for America, after the Cook approach. This meant that the competition lacked emotion and quickly settled in a pedantic and uninteresting spectacle.

In the second round, the crowd began to purr with dissatisfaction, and until the eighth they openly asked that the two warriors kissed and not try to hurt themselves. Some weights shouted “what you think you are here” and he rejected both of them into action. He found himself in profits with a series of hooks, but despite the injury of his man, he soon caught up. When the Gains arm was raised at the end of 15, the crowd booed. Whether these Boos reflected their dissatisfaction with the sentence or in the competition itself cannot be known today, but they were not content.

On the basis of adolescent Tommy, Farr made a close decision about policeman Nottingham, George Brennan, in ten round. Four years later, Tommy stopped aging profits before 40,000 in Ninian Park, Cardiff.

Both Walker stayed in Great Britain for a moment when he defeated Don McCorkindale, Norman Baines and Maurice Strickland in competitions that went at a distance. His last fight with the future British heavyweight champion Jack London took place in the Tigers in Leicester, but this time only 3000 appeared to see him again. Then he returned to America and ambiguities.