Today, it seems to be an accepted part of the game for two boxers to, in the process of preparing for a big fight, engage in a verbal, and sometimes physical, argument, at the weigh-in or during a press conference. This is often criticized by traditionalists, who remember the so-called old days when two contestants used to exchange joy while shaking hands. Undoubtedly, things have gone bad but was everything always this good before?
The first major quarrel that I can clearly remember, and to this day I think, remains the most notable to have taken place in the United Kingdom, was in 1985 when Mark Kaylor and Errol Christie were involved in a brawl. infamous on the street after a pre-match press conference. for their epic battle in the final elimination match for the British middleweight title. And who can forget the heck that happened when David Haye and Dereck Chisora met at a press conference in Munich in 2012?
Back in 1930, Hounslow’s Ernie Rice and Leeds’ Harry Mason met in a regular 15-round match at Ring, Blackfriars. Both were former British lightweight champions and they didn’t like each other. A few days before the competition, they, along with the manager and promoter, met at Savoy Grill, a prestigious restaurant in Central London, to agree on who would referee the competition. After about 10 minutes, things went awry and three tables were overturned, wine, food and cutlery strewn across the floor, and waiters and other diners had to step in to separate the two.
Witnessing the event was the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It took 20 minutes to restore order, before Mason’s mouth was bleeding and Rice’s clothes were in tatters. The Supervisory Board met three days later and after an investigation, the match was allowed to continue. The venue filled the stands and Rice, a Londoner, was cheered in the ring. Within a minute, he was booed from there. After knocking Mason at the start of the round and knocking out his man, he ignored referee Matt Wells’ instructions to stop boxing and lunged at Mason as he lay on the floor, completely out of control. . Rice was disqualified after about thirty seconds of boxing.
Another incident, which I didn’t know until recently, happened in 1921 between two very famous boxers. Joe Beckett, from Southampton, was the reigning British heavyweight champion at the time. Two years ago, he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Georges Carpentier when he was eliminated in the first round. He suffered the same fate again in 1923, this time for just 15 seconds, and it is for this that he is still remembered today. However, he is not a bad champion, with a deadly left hook. In 1920, he claimed his most notable victory, defeating an elderly former world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns, the Canadian who lost to Jack Johnson in 1908. Beckett handled Burns with relative ease. , stopping him for seven innings at the Royal Albert Hall.
In the next match against American tennis player Frank Moran, Beckett was amazingly knocked down after just two rounds. The following year, Burns publicly stated that Beckett appeared to be terrified of Moran and his famous punch, and that he lay down after being knocked down.
Beckett and Burns, along with Carpentier and Jimmy Wilde, were guests of honor at a Rugby League match featuring Bradford Northern, and at a reception at a Leeds hotel after the Beckett game. plunging into their old rival, the two engaged in a fight that was said to be more intense than the one that had taken place at Kensington the year before.
Thankfully, once words and whippings were exchanged, the two men let go of their differences and continued, as I am happy to say, Kaylor and Christie did in 2010.
