1940's & 50's boxers

[Tiger Fan]

I have been spending a little time going through the late 1940's in boxrec in hopes of adding a bunch more lower level fighters to my allsports replay. Rather than spread them out through different threads I figured I would post them in this one.

Feel free to add completed files for any other fighters from this era.

First two are San Francisco LHW Roy Voris who was 8-24-10 in his career and Memphis middleweight Charley Jerome who was 2-12-1 with losses to Ezzard Charles and Tommy Yarosz.

[CONN CHRIS]

Good idea TF, when I get to the 50s local boys I will post them on your thread rather than clog up the HW thread.

Keep the Canadians comming

[CONN CHRIS]

Here is a batch of local boys. One of them fought a few up your way Tiger Fan. (Canada wasn't any kinder to him than we were down here)

TOMMY BLACK
Hometown - Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
1(1)-10-0
Black fought in Connecticut, Mass., and New York with a few fights in Ontario. The results were not good with nine stoppages over an eleven fight career that saw him fight no one more talented than James J Parker.

STEVE BUDKO
Hometown - Essex, Connecticut, USA
1(1)-0-0
Budko fought once, knocking out Bobby Grant in round one at the Armory in Hartford.

WALKER COOMBS
Hometown - Suffield, Connecticut, USA
2(1)-1-0
Coombs won two bouts at the Valley Arena in Holyoke, MA and was stopped by Claude Rolfe in his only bout in his home state.

ABE DAVIS
Hometown - Hartford, Connecticut, USA
5(2)-27-1
Davis mainly fought local stiffs and prospects in Conn and Mass, losing to most. He battled to a six round decision with in-state favorite Billy Tisdale. In 1965, he dropped a pair of first round knockouts to Joe Frazier and Amos Lincoln. Abe was rather familiar with the canvas as he was stopped 13 times over 33 career bouts.

Billy King
Hometown - Waterbury, Connecticut, USA
0-2-0
Billy fought to a pair of decision losses with in-state heavyweight Ollie Wilson in 1953 and 1955.

[Tiger Fan]

LHW Al Fraser from New Brunswick. 1 career bout, a loss in 1947.

[CONN CHRIS]

RICHIE NORDEN

Hometown - Stamford, Connecticut, USA

1(1)-12-0
Norden was stopped in eleven of his thirteen career bouts. He was stopped by Bob Cleroux, in-state favorite Billy Tisdale and served as Tom McNeeley's punching bag in Tom's pro debut. Richie's only victory came against fellow Connecticut stiff Dennis McCann.

BILLY LAMBERT
Hometown - Wolcott, Connecticut, USA
2(2)-4-0
Lambert faced no one of interest outside of Connecticut; and even here, the term "interest" would be an overstatement.

DENNIS McCANN
Hometown - Hartford, Connecticut, USA
8(5)-5-1
McCann started to put together a decent little club career in the Hartford area until three straight losses in 1957/58 prompted him to hang em up early.

BILLY TISDALE
Hometown - Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
31(10)-24-3
Tisdale was a local favorite in the fifties and was considered a decent opponent on the national level. He lost to James J Beattie, Tom McNeeley, Bob Foster and Lee Williams in a bid for the New England Heavyweight Title. He held wins over the marginally respectable Jerry Luedee and the well traveled Al Mobley. He had a rather weak chin, being stopped 14 times over 58 pro bouts.

JOHNNY LOVE
Hometown - New Britain, Connecticut, USA
1(1)-1-1
Love was 0-1-1 against Dennis McCann, that alone suggests that this boxing experiment should not have continued beyond his first bout.

[CONN CHRIS]

LARRY ZERNITZ

Hometown - New Haven, Connecticut, USA

20(11)-6-1

Zernitz put together a decent career in Florida and the Northeast. He stopped Billy Tillman in two and decisioned a slumping Roland LaStarza. It is a little surprising that he never got a shot at the New England title, fighters with much worse resumes were routinely given the chance.

[Tiger Fan]

3 more marginal Canadian boxers from the late 40's

Billy Fifield - LHW from Toronto was 35-13-2 but fought few opponents of note. Had a shot at Canadian LHW title but was KO's by Yvon Durelle.

Billy Landry - another LHW, this time from New Brunswick. 4-8-3 in career including a loss to Durelle.

Al Simmons - Windsor middleweight had just one career fight, a first round KO loss at the hands of a young Lester Felton.

[David Myers]

<b>Oscar Pita</b> was an Argentine welterweight who lost for the first time in his 47th career bout, finishing with a 49-5-1 record with 28 knockouts. Pita started fighting in 1951 at the age of 18 and was finished by 1957, when he suffered his only knockout.

Because he fought no one in the game, his rating is largely speculative. A photo follows.

[David Myers]

As promised, the photo of <b>Oscar Pita</b>, fifties Argentine welterweight.

[David Myers]

<b>Cirilo Gil</b>

To go along with Pita here is another Argentine welterweight--a better one. Gil fought from 1952 to 1959, losing only to Kid Gavilan, Martiniano Pereyra, Isaac Logart, and Federico Thompson (his last fight). Gil avenged the loss to Pereyra, beating him three times out of four. And two years earlier he had outpointed Thompson.

No photo of him, sadly.

[CONN CHRIS]

OLLIE WILSON

Hometown - Hartford, Connecticut, USA

20(13)-42-0

Wilson fought in his home state of Connecticut and the North East from 1952 to 1958. During those years, he fought to a six round loss against local favorite Billy Tisdale, TKO'd Charley Norkus in Providence and dropped a second round KO to talented light-heavyweight Harold Johnson in Hartford. He left Connecticut with an 8-15-0 record

In 1958, Ollie relocated to Florida where his career briefly took a turn for the better. Wilson went 7 and 5 through one stretch that saw him win and defend the Florida Heavyweight Title three times. He lost the Florida title to Levi Forte in 1964, around the time that his second career began. Wilson's real claim to fame was as an opponent to the movers of the heavyweight division in the sixties. The list of heavies that tuned-up on Ollie reads like a who's-who list for the decade. His opponents included Cleveland Williams, Eddie Machen, Thad Spencer, Karl Mildenberger, Franco De Piccoli, Al Jones, Boone Kirkman,Dante Cane, Giuseppe Ros, Jeff Merritt, George Foreman and Jimmy Ellis.

[CONN CHRIS]

VICTOR "Wild Bullet" ZALAZAR MW

Hometown - Buenos Aires, CF, Argentina

31(23)-12-2

Zalazar had power but a relatively weak chin. He was stopped five times over 45 bouts, once spectacularly by Henry Hank in Detroit. Zalazar began his career with fifteen straight stoppage wins in Argentina and New York before he was handed a 10 round decision loss by Benny Paret in December of 1958. The two had a rematch one month later with the same results. Zalazar scored wins over Tony Dupas, Yama Bahama and three over Argentine MW/LHW Andres Antonio Selpa. He suffered losses to Tiger Jones, Dick Tiger, Eduardo Jorge Lausse, Juan Carlos Rivera, Joey Archer and Nino Benvenuti.

[CONN CHRIS]

Victor Zalazar (from a fight poster for his second bout with Kid Paret at St. Nicholas Arena in New York)

[CONN CHRIS]

ALFIE SANDS MW

Hometown - Burnt Bridge, New South Wales, Australia

87(63)-47-11

Alfie was the New South Wales State Middleweight Champ when he fought Harry Hayes for the Australian Title vacated by his brother Dave who had died in an automobile accident. Sands KO'd Hayes in the eight but was not widely recognized as the Australian Champion. Alfie's only two fights with a big name boxer were both against Freddie Dawson. Dawson scored two knockout victories over Alfie.

CLEM SANDS WW

Hometown - Burnt Ridge, New South Wales, Australia

46(36)-50-4

Clem was the oldest of the six fighting Sands brothers. The one-time New South Wales Welterweight Champion's biggest claim to fame was winning a 12 round decision over Jack Dempsey. This was of course not THE Jack Dempsey, but it's always nice to be able to say that you've beaten A Jack Dempsey.

GEORGE SANDS WW

Hometown - Burnt Ridge, New South Wales, Australia

54(41)-36-10

George had a busy career but never fought any big name boxers and other than a few bouts in Singapore, fought his whole career in Australia.

RITCHIE SANDS MW

Hometown - Burnt Ridge, New South Wales, Australia

45(36)-36-7

Like his brother George, Ritchie never fought for a title, but he did face a little better competition. Ritchie drew with Jack McNamee and lost to Ron Richards, Alex Buxton and Alabama Kid. He was stopped eighteen times (included a string of eight straight) and lost on a DQ four times.

RUSSELL SANDS FW

Hometown - Burnt Ridge, New South Wales, Australia

34(10)-19-4

Russell was the youngest of the six fighting Sands brothers. Russell was both the New South Wales State and Australian Featherweight Champion. He fought and beat a lot of local boys, dropping two bouts to David Oved and two to George Bracken (all by stoppage).

[CONN CHRIS]

Clem Sands

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Alfie Sands

[CONN CHRIS]

George Sands

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Ritchie Sands

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Russell Sands

[Tiger Fan]

British MW Bert Sanders who was 29-45-7 from 1945-54. Did not really beat anyone of note but lost to Alex Buxton, Randy Turpin, Dick Turpin, Pat McAteer and Jackie Marr who are already in the game.