13.09.07 – By John Carter: Flashback 1950…….Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, Archie Moore, Jake LaMotta, Randy Turpin, Ray Robinson, to name but a few – fighters we all instantly recognise. But it was a whole lot different back then. In 1950 a new record for knockdowns was recorded by Vic Toweel of South Africa, bantam champion at the time he dropped Danny O’Sullivan twenty times during their fight in Johannesburg but the quickest knockout of the year belonged to Heinze Neuhaus who stopped Hans Dragstein in Germany in just 15 seconds, only TWO punches were thrown. Back then; going through a year undefeated was a MAJOR task even for the highly rated men. Before reading on, perhaps ESB’s very own sparring partners Ted Sares, Tark, Mr Bill or EZ-E could hazard a guess before they read on?
Anyhow, in the Heavyweight division only Rocky Marciano, Ezzard Charles, Lee Savold and Bob Baker remained unbeaten. Among the light-heavyweights were Joe Maxim, Archie Moore, Harry Matthews, Albert Yvel, Jim Slade and Willie Hoepner. In the middleweights, greats such and Jake La Motta, Randy Turpin, Rocky Graziano and Dave Sands, Pete Miller and Ronnie Delaney all tasted only victory. Ray Robinson, Eddie Thomas, Johnny Saxton and Mickey Tollis all survived the welterweight division. Further down at lightweight, James Carter, Eddie Chavez, Roberto Proietti and Johnny Gonsalves won all their fights. At featherweight Percy Bassett, Al Philips, Rocky Mckay and Ciro Morasen. Bantamweights included Vic Toweel, Peter Keenan and Gianni Zuddas. Only two flyweights went through 1950 unbeaten Dado Marino and Stumpy Butwell.
In 1950, Cisco Saenz, a welterweight set a record by fighting 35 times. Not far behind him was Bob Torrence, another welterweight, hailing from California who stepped through the ropes on 30 occasions. Rocky Slater, a middleweight from Los Angeles also fought 30 times and Jim Dillon from Columbia went to the post 27 times. Imagine anything like that today. Charley Salas, a 147 pounder from Phoenix fought 28 times and posted a record number of rounds fought, all 213 of them.
But of course, 1950 was not without its tragedies too. Nine fighters lost their lives during that year, but that was nothing compared to the year before when 16 pugilists died. Supposedly, 1950 was a “good” year as more thorough examinations were starting to take place by the boxing physicians. The most prominent death in 1950 was that of Laverne Roach who died Feb 23rd, the day after being knocked out by Georgie Small.
All in all 1950 was a turbulent year for boxing. Many of the supposed “rated” men were defeated, a whole host of title bouts took place and youngsters were beginning to make their mark. As the Manager once said to his fighter after receiving a gift draw, “ It could have been worse “ Floyd Mayweather et al, you’ve never had it so good!