12.03.04 – By Jeff Day – The president of the United States was Dwight D Eisenhower. Winston Churchill was in his second term as Britain’s Prime Minister. We were still a year or two away from the emergence of Elvis Presley although Bill Haley was turning country music into rock ‘n‘ roll. The movies released in 1954 included The Caine Mutiny, Dial M For Murder, Rear Window and On The Waterfront. On The Waterfront portrayed Marlon Brando as former washed up fighter Terry Malloy. Also starring in the movie were former heavyweight contenders (and Joe Louis victims) Abe Simon, Tony Galento and Tami Mauriello.
What was going on in the real boxing world half a century ago? Well, we had just one world champion in each of the traditional eight weight classes. The champions at the start of 1954 were: Heavyweight – Rocky Marciano; Light Heavyweight – Archie Moore; -Middleweight – Carl ‘Bobo’ Olsen; Welterweight – Kid Gavilan; Lightweight – Jimmy Carter; Featherweight – Sandy Saddler (though was inducted into the army in 1952. Did not return until 1955); Bantamweight – Jimmy Carruthers; Flyweight – Yoshiro Shirai.
Although Olsen, Carruthers and Shirai may not be regarded among the all time greats of the ring, there can be no doubt that Marciano, Moore, Gavilan, Carter and Saddler certainly are.
The Ol’ Mongoose Archie Moore was the first of the above World Champions to defend his title against former king Joey Maxim on January 27. This would be the third meeting between the pair. Moore had taken Maxim’s title by 15 round decision in December 1952 and would be beaten in their rematch, also by 15 round decision in June 1953. Their final meeting resulted in a…yep, you guessed it, a 15 round decision for Archie who at this time was either 37 or 40 years old depending if you believe him or his mother and she should know. She was there at the birth after all! In his next fight, Maxim would inflict the first professional defeat of Floyd Patterson’s fledgling career, but would then lose eight of his next ten bouts before retiring.
We all accept boxing’s often-sleazy standards and what occurred on February 26 would once again cause its integrity to be questioned. Former World Featherweight king Willie Pep, still the number one contender for his old crown met Lulu Perez in Madison Square Garden. Perez was a 20-year-old fighter not thought to be in Pep’s class.
After all, Pep was about to enter the professional prize ring for the 190th time. However, between the weigh in and fight time, Perez’s odds had changed dramatically.
The former champion was floored 3 times in the second round. Because New York state operated the 3 knockdown rule, Perez was awarded the victory. Although Pep always denied it, having seen the film it is not too difficult to understand why general consensus was that Willie took a dive. Less than a year later Perez was taken apart by Saddler in 4 rounds in a non-title bout.
Whatever truly happened in the Perez fight, Willie Pep was a master boxer who was once credited with winning a round without actually throwing a punch. In 241 professional fights Willie lost just 11!
March 5 saw Jimmy Carter lose the World Lightweight Championship to Brooklyn veteran Paddy De Marco. Carter had lost 6 of his previous 11 bouts and was a big underdog who was a free-swinging brawler. Remarkably, it would be Paddy’s greatest effort in his 102 fight career as he boxed his way to a 15 round decision.
A few months before, De Marco’s manager Jimmy Dixon had died. Paddy made a lovely gesture and gave what would have been his former manager’s 33% cut from his title fight purse to Dixon’s widow. Once again, the Garden paid host.
Just 4 days later, the brilliant Light-heavyweight king Archie Moore was back in the ring after his last meeting with Joey Maxim and knocked out heavyweight contender Bob Baker in 9 rounds. Baker was a seasoned pro who had fought many of the best heavyweights around and beaten the touted Cuban heavyweight Nino Valdes.
On 2 April Carl Olsen defended his World Middleweight Championship against World welterweight Champion Kid Gavilan. Remember, at this time there was no light-middleweight division. Although Gavilan was a brilliant welterweight, he found the extra strength of the Hawaiian too tough a hurdle. Although Gavilan had the edge in speed, he could not impose himself of Carl. Olsen ran out a clear winner on points over 15 rounds. At least Gavilan had the comfort in the knowledge he was still the welterweight king – at least for now. The Gavilan bout was Olsen’s second of seven outings he would have in 1954.
Although Thailand is now a major fight venue for the lower weight classes, the first World title fight to take place in the country was on 2 May 1954 when bantamweight king Jimmy Carruthers of Australia defended against local man Chamrern Songkitrat outdoors in the national stadium.
This was one of the most remarkable bouts in the history of the bantamweight division. Shortly before the bout took place, torrential rain fell and the canvas was drenched. There was the distinct possibility that the match would be postponed and rescheduled. Instead, Carruthers and Songkitrat proceeded to box barefoot in the still steady rainfall and even when the electric ring lights exploded and the ring was splattered with glass they continued! At one stage Carruthers was hopping about the ring. Despite this, the Aussie won a clear decision and then promptly retired from the ring. He was just 24 with a 19-0 record. He did return 6 years later but the skills and timing had long gone and he won just 2 of 6 bouts.
Yoshiro Shirai was Japan’s first World Champion. He had annexed the flyweight crown in May 1952 and on 24 May 1954, almost two years to the day that he won the crown, he defended it for the fifth time with a victory over Leo Espinosa.
Yoshiro would lose just 8 times in 57 starts. The Olympic Middleweight Champion of 1952 was future professional heavyweight king Floyd Patterson. In fight number 14 he would face Joey Maxim in Maxim’s first fight since his loss to Archie Moore in January.
It was assumed that Patterson would be too fresh and too fast for the former light-heavyweight and so it seemed, but Joey was awarded a controversial eight round decision. Maxim would go on to win only two of his last ten fights after the Patterson bout.
World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano would defend his crown twice in 1954, on each occasion against former king Ezzard Charles. Their first meeting took place on 17 June in Yankee Stadium in front of more than 47,000 fans and Rocky admitted it was his toughest ever fight.
Charles boxed as expected for the first 4 or 5 rounds and was in a comfortable lead, but as ever, The Rock began to engage Ezzard in a war and for round after round they punched freely at each other. Rocky suffered a bad cut to his left eye, but his almost inhuman strength and stamina eventually slowed Charles down. In the end Marciano had warranted his victory, yet Charles had gained many admirers in defeat.
There was no major action in July, but on August 11 Archie Moore made another defence of his World Light-Heavyweight crown against Harold Johnson. Astonishingly, this would be Archie’s debut in Madison Square Garden. He had met Johnson four times previously in non-title bouts and had been victorious on three occasions although each match had gone the distance.
With each man so familiar with the other’s style, it was a pretty non-descript meeting until Archie lowered the boom in round 14. It would be one of only four inside schedule defeats Harold would suffer in 87 fights. He would go on to win the NBA title in 1961.
Carl Olsen defended his middleweight crown against Rocky Castellani on August 20 in San Francisco. Castellani was a top class fighter who met the best the welterweight and middleweight divisions could offer. Olsen was having his fifth of what would be seven fights in 1954. At the end of 15 rounds the champion retained by decision.
Because of the competitive nature of their first fight, Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles would meet again on September 17 at Yankee Stadium. This time ‘The Rock’ did not let Ezzard settle into any kind of rhythm. The challenger was floored in round two, but came back and split Marciano’s nose open in the sixth. By the start of round eight Rocky also had eye damage. His first defeat appeared imminent, but as a mark of the truly great fighter he was, Marciano came out blazing and landed his vaunted ‘Suzy Q’. This resulted in the second knockdown of the fight. When Charles rose Marciano connected with more punches -including one behind the head as Ezzard was bending over. Whether Marciano was or wasn’t the best heavyweight of them all, when he had a man hurt it was goodnight!
Chamrern Songkitrat was given another opportunity at the World Bantamweight Championship on September 19. He would contest the title vacated by Jimmy Carruthers with Algerian born but French based Robert Cohen. Chamrern would also have home advantage, as they were to meet in Bangkok. Robert was not too concerned about this, as he had won the European Crown in February from Irishman Jim Kelly in Belfast.
Once again, Cohen proved what a good boxer he was by taking a well-deserved decision over the Thai who at least on this occasion performed in the dry and with his boots on! The home crowd that included the King and Queen of Thailand did not welcome the decision.
For Cohen it was a short-lived reign. He won a non-title fight and then retained his crown with a draw against South African Willie Toweel in Johannesburg, but lost the title to Mario D’Agata in 1956.
On October 20 Kid Gavilan’s five-year reign as World Welterweight Champion can to an un-edifying end. He met 24 year old Johnny Saxton in Philadelphia. ‘The Keed’, 4 years older was the favourite going in, but the contest was a dour affair with both men far too cautious. At the end of fifteen non-descript rounds, Saxton was announced the unanimous points winner. Interestingly, the Cuban was voted the winner by 20 of 22 ringside reporters. As with the game today, scoring a boxing match is purely subjective and is not an exact science.
Gavilan would box a further 26 times winning only nine. Johnny Saxton would lose and regain his title in 1955 and 1956. He would be stopped twice by Carmen Basilio in title fights. On the same night, the incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson announced that he would box again after a two-year retirement.
When Paddy De Marco defended his World Lightweight crown against the man he took it from, Jimmy Carter in San Francisco, the 31 year old former king boxed a far more convincing fight and the champion played straight into Jimmy’s hands. Although the fight was level at the halfway mark, Carter began to make his class tell by round nine when he scored a knockdown.
From then on it was all Jimmy who inflicted another knockdown on Paddy in round 14. Referee Ray Flores had seen enough by the early moments of round 15 and stopped a defenceless De Marco. Carter had thus become lightweight champion of the world for a third time. He would lose the crown for the third time in 1955 to Wallace ‘Bud’ Smith. For De Marco it was his last
title fight and he retired in 1959, one year before Carter hung up his gloves.
On November 26 in Tokyo, homeboy Yoshiro Shirai defended the World Flyweight Championship against 1948 Olympic Champion Pascual Perez of Argentina. In July of 1954 Perez has held the champion to a draw in a non-title bout in Buenos Aries, but this time with the title on the line had to travel to Japan.
Although Shirai had boxed more than twice as many times as a professional as Perez, the Argentine’s amateur pedigree made up for any lack of professional experience. A knockdown suffered by the Japanese in round 12 cemented Pascual’s dominance that continued until the end of 15 rounds. So it was that Japan’s first world champion was dethroned by Argentina’s first world champion.
Perez reigned for six years retaining his crown successfully on ten occasions before retiring in 1964 at the age of 38, an incredible age for a flyweight. He was beaten just 6 times in 91 fights and only twice by stoppage and they were in his last two fights when well past his brilliant prime. He must rank as one of Argentina’s greatest ever boxers with Carlos Monzon and Nicolino Locche.
The final World Championship fight of 1954 was Carl Olsen’s 7th and final fight and third defence of the year. He defended against Pierre Langlois in San Francisco. The European was simply out muscled by the tough Hawaiian and Carl retained with an 11th round victory.
So there you have it. Not the proliferation of titles we have in 2004, but as you can see 1954 had no shortage of memorable and fascinating action for the fight fan of the time.