How Good Was Ill-Fated Luther McCarty, the Best of the ‘White Hopes’?

Published

2 years ago

May 13, 2023

How-Good-Was-Ill-Fated-Lither-McCarty-The-Best-of-the-White-Hopes

Luther McCarty “is the embodiment of all that goes to make a ring champion, the possessor of speed, hitting ability, an aptitude for learning the finer points of the fistic sport and the gamest man to ever lace on a glove.” So read a widely circulated newspaper story that made the rounds in June of 1912.

The author of this puff piece (it bore no byline) was undoubtedly a reporter on the take. In this era, the sports sections of newspapers were full of stories that blurred the distinction between honest reporting and hyperbole. That being said, there was a growing sentiment among the cognoscenti that Luther McCarty had the best chance of all the Caucasian heavyweights of knocking Jack Johnson off his pedestal. Johnson’s title reign was then in its fourth year.

Eleven months after the story ran, it became a moot point. On May 24, 1913, 110 years ago this month, Luther McCarty dropped dead in the opening round of a fight with Arthur Pelkey in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The decedent was only 21 years old.

If stories about McCarty are true, he packed a lot of living into his short time on this earth. Before finding his niche as a prizefighter, McCarty — who in old photos bears an uncanny resemblance to the renowned University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne when both were of the same age — was at various times a seaman, a lumberjack, a coal miner, a cowboy, and a stunt-rider whose act was sponsored by a tobacco company.

McCarty was born in Nebraska, near Lincoln according to some sources and near McCook according to others (the towns are 225 miles apart). He spent a good portion of his youth in Clay Center, Kansas, and had his first documented fight in Culbertson, Montana, a ranching community. When he became a well-known sports personality, both Sidney, Ohio, and Springfield, Missouri claimed him.

McCarty’s father was literally, not figuratively, a snake oil salesman. Billing himself as Dr. White Eagles, he roamed the Midwest in a gaily covered wagon from which he sold snake oil, touted as a cure for all ills. His wife, who traveled with him, reportedly died from a rattlesnake bite in about 1910 while staying in a hotel in Peoria, Illinois. The snake, a prop, escaped from its box which was kept in their room. (Mrs. White Eagles was presumably McCarty’s step-mother. One of the first stories about him said that his mother was an Irish immigrant who died when Luther was a mere toddler as she was giving birth to a stillborn child.)

It was in Springfield, the Queen City of the Ozarks, where McCarty came to the fore. His conquest of Oklahoma railroad engineer Carl Morris on May 3, 2012, was a national news story. Carrying 235 pounds on his six-foot-four frame, Morris, the “Sapulpa Giant,” was two inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than McCarty who knocked him out in the sixth frame.

McCarty spent the next five months campaigning back east with mixed results. Veteran slugger Jim Stewart spoiled his New York debut, winning a 10-round newspaper decision at Madison Square Garden.

The opposite coast proved far more salubrious. McCarty’s push to regain lost luster began on Oct. 12, 2012, in San Francisco with a smashing second-round knockout of Al Kaufman. Two months later, on Dec. 10, he was in Vernon, California (a town in Los Angeles County), looking across the ring at Fireman Jim Flynn.

This fight was framed as an “eliminator” with the winner going on to fight Al Palzer for the White Heavyweight Championship of the World.

Jim Flynn, called Fireman Jim because he had worked on steam-powered locomotives shoveling coal into a furnace, was a battle-tested veteran. Six years earlier, he had given Tommy Burns a tough tussle in a failed bid for Burns’ world heavyweight title. Burns stopped him in the 15^th-round. More recently, he had challenged Jack Johnson, losing by disqualification in the first and ultimately only heavyweight title fight ever staged in New Mexico.

The late money was on Fireman Jim who went to post a small favorite. Those that bet against McCarty had egg in their face when the referee halted the massacre in the 16^th round. Flynn “was beaten to an almost unrecognizable mass,” wrote a ringside reporter. “His face was puffed until it was almost unrecognizable and his eyes were swollen shut. His seconds had to assist him from the ring, while McCarty walked out fresh as a daisy.”

Al Palzer, an Iowa farm boy, had been fighting for only two years, but he was a strapping lad, carrying 227 pounds on a six-foot-four frame, and, in the vernacular of a gambling man, he came from a good barn. His manager, Tom O’Rourke, had built George Dixon from scratch into a fighter still recognized in many quarters today as the greatest bantamweight of all time.

Al Palzer’s signature win had come against the highly-touted British import Bombardier Billy Wells, the heavyweight champion of England. Knocked groggy in the first two rounds, Palzer got off the deck to stop the Bombardier in the third frame.

Once again McCarty entered the ring a slight underdog and, once again, he made a mockery of the odds. Palzer rarely took a backward step but was repeatedly beaten to the punch. The referee halted the mismatch in the 18^th round, whereupon Palzer “reeled drunkenly to his corner and cried like a child.”

Palzer

In those days, the best measure of a mega-fight was the number of telegraphers at ringside. There were plenty that afternoon at promoter Tom McCarey’s arena in Vernon; round-by-round reports were flashed to newspaper offices and poolrooms around the country. In faraway Pittsburgh, where the New Years Day fight started at 6 pm local time, the Pittsburgh Press (“The People’s Paper”) hired a megaphone man to read the round-by-round bulletins to the crowd standing outside in the cold. Other newspapers did likewise.

mccarty cartoon 1

McCarty had two more fights before his ill-fated bout with Arthur Pelkey, winning newspaper decisions over Fireman Jim Flynn and Frank Moran, in Philadelphia and New York respectively. Then it was on to Calgary to defend his belt against journeyman Pelkey in a bout staged in a 7,000-seat wooden arena built by Tommy Burns who had taken up residence in Calgary as his career was winding down.

The bout was barely 90 seconds old when Pelkey hit McCarty with a blow that landed just above the heart and McCarty collapsed to the canvas. It was a pedestrian punch – a straight jab in a feeling-out round – but Luther McCarty had drawn his last breath. The general feeling was that the punch had aggravated an old neck injury that McCarty had suffered when he fell off a horse, a reckoning that absolved the principals of manslaughter. “The same thing might have happened to anyone walking down the street or eating dinner,” said Tommy Burns.

It was an earie scene made more haunting in memory by interconnected events.

Before the opening bell, the pastor of Calgary’s St. Augustine’s Anglican church was brought into the ring to say a few words. “He told [the combatants] not to forget in their chase of fame that they had a creator and to prepare to meet him.” As McCarty lay prone on the canvas before the stupefied gathering, a ghostly ray of sunlight came through an opening in the structure and shrouded McCarty’s lifeless body. Adding to Tommy Burns’ anguish, on the night of May 25, the day after the fight, a fire of uncertain origin burned his arena to the ground.

An era usually lasts generations and doesn’t come into focus until a considerable amount of time has elapsed. Interestingly, boxing writers were using the phrase White Hope Era when the “era” was just getting started and it was a short-lived phase that effectively ended in Arthur Pelkey’s next fight when he was knocked out by journeyman Gunboat Smith. Pelkey’s vaunted punch, wrote a reporter, was merely a suspicion.

(True, Jess Willard was dubbed a White Hope, but by 1915, when he de-throned Jack Johnson, he wasn’t tagged as such by the promoters as the label had become a term of derision. A little-known fact is that there were a number of so-called White Hope Tournaments during the late 1930s in the U.S. and Canada, but these promotions, conventionally restricted to men with no prior boxing experience — men off the street, but some ringers always slipped in — were tournaments in name only. Precursors of the “Tough Man” competitions popular in the 1980s and 1990s, they died out when Joe Louis came to be widely admired for more than just his fistic prowess.)

Newspaper reports leave the impression that Luther McCarty was a bigamist. Several days after he died it was reported that his widow, who he met in Ohio, was working in a hash house in Fargo, North Dakota. However, his inheritance went to another woman, a lady in Springfield, Missouri, with whom he had a young daughter. And whatever his faults, it appears that Luther, despite his tender age, was no fool with his money. His estate included $8,200 (roughly $250,000 in today’s dollars) on deposit in a Los Angeles bank and four oceanfront lots on a beach near Boston.

Now let’s cut to the chase and address the question we asked in the title of this article: How good was Luther McCarty, by which we mean how would he have fared if thrust against a prime Jack Johnson?

I think the answer is plain. He would have been in way over his head.

It goes without saying that Johnson was more fluid, but he also packed a harder punch. McCarty tattooed Fireman Jim Flynn and Al Palzer with every punch in his repertoire round after round after round, but both men were still standing when the bouts were terminated. Also, “strength of schedule” counts for something and McCarty’s fellow White Hopes were a motley lot. The craze to find someone to upend Johnson flooded the sport with lumbering mediocrities whose exertions would have been better deployed doing chores around the farm or unloading freight.

To call Luther McCarty a cut above the others, no matter how true, is damning him with faint praise. He was, however, a colorful character in one of the most interesting phases in American boxing history.

Arne K. Lang’s third boxing book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” rolled off the press in September. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher or via Amazon.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Arne K. Lang

Up Next

Alimkhanuly Destroys Butler and Jason Moloney Outpoints Astrolabio in Stockton

Don't Miss

Avila Perspective, Chap. 236: Jaime Munguia and More

Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser

Published

12 hours ago

May 18, 2025

Thomas Hauser

In recent years, there has been lavish praise and extensive criticism regarding Turki Alalshikh’s boxing initiative. Some of it has been warranted and some hasn’t. One issue deserves greater comment.

The judging has been pretty good.

Scoring a fight is subjective, which can open the door to bias, incompetence, and corruption.

Most people in boxing know who the good judges are. But some bad ones keep getting high-profile assignments. Why? Because they shade things toward the house fighter which is where the money lies.

When there’s a bad decision in boxing, almost always it favors the house fighter.

Overall, Turki Alalshikh’s fights have been marked by honest scoring.

Oleksandr Usyk went the distance four times against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Fury-Usyk I and Usyk-Joshua II could legitimately have been scored either way. It was in the Saudi’s financial interest (not to mention the interests of Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn) that Fury and Joshua win those fights. Yet Usyk won all four decisions.

Clearly, Turki Alalshikh wanted Hamzah Sheeraz to defeat Carlos Adames. Yet Adames retained his title when that bout was credibly scored a draw.

The list goes on.

Bad scoring trickles down from the top. Judges know that the monied interests behind a promotion want a certain fighter to win and that their receiving lucrative judging assignments in the future often depends on scoring the fight at hand a certain way.

The judging for Turki Alalshikh’s fights so far seems to have been based on the instruction, “Be fair. Get it right.”

Kudos for that.

****

Six years ago after unifying the four major cruiserweight titles, Oleksandr Usyk was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America as its “Fighter of the Year.” That designation was repeated in 2024 in recognition of his unifying the heavyweight crown.

While in New York to accept his most recent honor, Usyk sat with former NFL MVP Boomer Esiason for an interview that will air in early-June on the nationally syndicated television show Game Time.

Oleksandr came across as thoughtful and likeable during the conversation.

He shared memories of his father: “My father was a military guy. He teach me like a street fight, to work a knife, shooting. I use jujitsu, karate, wrestling, kickboxing. I say, ‘Poppa, what we do this for?’ . . . He says, ‘We prepare’ . . . ‘For what we prepare?’ . . . ‘For life.’”

Usyk won a gold medal in the 201-pound heavyweight division at the 2012 London Olympics. But his father died before Oleksandr could return home and show the medal to him. After Usyk beat Tyson Fury to unify the heavyweight crown, he cried as he proclaimed, “Hey, poppa, we did it.”

“A lot of people in Ukraine who hear that, they cry too,” Oleksandr told Esiason. “Is normal. [Some] people, ‘Hey man! Don’t cry.’ Why not cry? I like to cry.”

Speaking of the size differential between Fury and himself, Usyk noted, “For me, is like a story. David and Goliath. I not afraid because boxing is a sport. Yeah, it’s a guy a little bigger for me. No problem.”

Asked how he would describe his fighting style,” Oleksandr answered, “It’s a wonderful style.”

“Boxing for me is a gentleman’s sport,” he added. “Just respect for my opponents. A lot of people make a show. But if you make a good show and then bad boxing – [with a wave of his hand] PFFFTHF! First in boxing is class and skill; then the show.’

He explained how his training regimen includes holding his breath underwater: “I make like a fight time. Three minutes underwater, one minute rest, twelve rounds. Is hard.”

What’s the longest that Usyk has held his breath underwater?

“My record is 4 minutes 47 seconds.”

The interview closed with Oleksandr appealing directly to the American people to support his Ukrainian homeland in its defense against Russian aggression.

“I’m not political. I’m just [a] man who lives in Ukraine who’s worried for my people.”

And he talked of having brought some Ukrainian soldiers to his fights as guests: “They’re my power, my angels.”

****

Don King has been the subject of an endless stream of anecdotes. Jody Heaps (who spent three decades as a senior creative director and executive producer at Showtime) adds one more to the mix.

“Don had just brought Mike Tyson to Showtime,” Heaps recalls. “We were doing a shoot with Don sitting in a barber chair and he was in a great mood. Toward the end, someone came over to me and said, ‘If Don has the time, could you ask him about his favorite movie scene for a promotion we’re doing.’ So I asked Don what his favorite movie scene was. He told me movies weren’t his thing and said, ‘You tell me. What’s my favorite scene?’

“I talked it over with the crew,” Heaps continues. “Then I suggested the shower scene in Psycho. I figured Don had seen it. Everybody has seen it. But Don told me, ‘I don’t know anything about it. What happens in that scene?’ So I explained that you see Janet Leigh in shower. Then you see a silhouette on the shower curtain. The shower curtain is pulled aside. You see the knife plunging in again and again. And the last thing you see is blood circling down the drain.”

“Don says, ‘Okay; I’ve got it.’ He looks right at the camera and, with incredible drama, starts recreating the scene. Five seconds in, everyone is mesmerized. He takes us through Janet Leigh in the shower, the silhouette on the shower curtain, the knife plunging in again and again, the blood circling down the drain. And at the end, he laughed that loud booming laugh of his and proclaimed, ‘It was a clean kill!’

“There was stunned silence,” Heaps says in closing. “Don made it sound like it was real and he’d been there when it happened.”

****

Like most sports fans, I watched the first round of the NFL draft on April 24. I’ll do the same when the NBA draft is held on June 25. Allow me the following thoughts.

Adam Silver seems like a basketball fan.

Roger Goodell seems like a fan of making money.

Adam Silver looks sincere when he hugs a draftee.

Roger Goodell looks like he wants to take a shower.

Adam Silver comes across as though he has a sense of humor and can laugh at himself.

Roger Goodell comes across as though he doesn’t and can’t.

Adam Silver has James Dolan to deal with and keeps him in line.

Roger Goodell can’t put a lid on Jerry Jones.

Adam Silver is booed in good-natured fashion by fans at the draft.

Roger Goodell is booed with rabid enthusiasm

****

And last; a memory of Turki Alalshikh’s May 2 fight card in Times Square . . .

Security was tight. The police had been instructed to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk moving as they passed the ring enclosure which was blocked from view by a ten-foot-tall fence. Well before the event began, a young man with a video camera planted himself on the sidewalk across the street from the enclosure. A uniformed police officer approached and the following colloquy occurred.

Cop: I’m sorry, sir. You’ll have to move.

Young man: I’m with the media.

Cop: And I’m with the New York Police Department. You’ll have to move.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – will be published this month and is available for preorder at: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329

In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Hiruta, Bohachuk, and Trinidad Win at the Commerce Casino

Published

22 hours ago

May 18, 2025

David A. Avila

Hiruta, Bohachuk, and Trinidad Win at the Commerce Casino

A jam-packed fight card featuring a world champion, top contenders and knockout artists delivered the action but no knockouts on Saturday in the Los Angeles area.

You can’t have everything.

Mizuki “Mimi” Hiruta (8-0, 2 KOs), fresh with a multi-year 360 Boxing Promotion’s contract deal, once again fought and defended the WBO super fly world title and this time against Argentina’s Carla Merino (16-3, 5 KOs) at Commerce Casino.

It was expected to be her toughest test.

Hiruta, who is trained and managed by Manny Robles, showed added poise and a sharp jab that created and established an invisible barrier that Merino could never crack. It was as simple as that.

A sharp right jab from the southpaw Japanese world champion in the opening round gave Merino something to figure out. When the Argentine fighter tried to counter Hiruta was out of range. That distance was a problem that Merino could not solve.

The pink-flame-haired Hiruta looks like an anime figure incapable of violence. But whenever Merino dared unload a combination Hiruta would eagerly pounce on the opportunity. It was clear that the champion’s speed and power was a problem.

For more than a year Hiruta has been training in Southern California and has sparred with numerous styles and situations in the talent-crazy Southern California area. Each time she fights the poise and polish gained from working with a variety of talent and skill partners seems to add more layers to the Japanese fighter’s arsenal.

After six rounds of clear control by Hiruta, the Argentine fighter finally made an assertive move to change the momentum with combination punching. Both exchanged but Hiruta cornered Merino and opened up with a seven-punch barrage.

In the eighth round Merino tried again to force an exchange and again Hiruta opened up with a three-punch combo followed by a four-punch combo. Merino dived inside the attack by the Japanese champion and accidentally butted Hiruta’s head. No serious damage appeared.

Merino tried valiantly to exchange with Hiruta but the strength, speed and agility were too much to overcome in the last two rounds of the fight. Left hand blows by the champion connected solidly several times in the final round.

After 10 rounds all three judges saw Hiruta the winner by decision 98-92 twice and 99-91. The fighter from Tokyo retains the WBO super fly title for the fourth time.

Bohachuk Wins

Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk (26-2, 24 KOs) defeated Mykal Fox (24-5, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision but had problems corralling the much taller fighter after 10 rounds in a super welterweight match.

It was only the second time Bohachuk won by decision.

Fox used movement all 10 rounds that never allowed Bohachuk to plant his feet to deliver his vaunted power. But though Fox had moments, they were not enough to offset the power shots that did land. Two judges scored it 97-93 for the Ukrainian and another had it 98-92

“Good experience for me,” said Bohachuk of Fox’s movement.

King of LA

In a super featherweight match Omar “King of LA” Trinidad (19-0-1, 13 KOs) dominated Nicaragua’s Alexander Espinoza (23-7-3, 8 KOs) but never came close to knocking out the spirited fighter. But did come close to dropping him.

The fighter out of the Boyle Heights area in the boxing hotbed of East L.A. was able to exchange freely with savage uppercuts to the body and head, but Espinoza would not quit. For 10 rounds Trinidad battered away at Espinoza but a knockout win was not possible.

After 10 rounds all three judges favored Trinidad (100-90, 99-91, 98-92) who retains his regional WBC title and his place in the featherweight rankings.

“I’m living the dream,” said Trinidad.

Maywood Fighter Medina on Target

Lupe Medina (10-0, 2 KOs) proved ready for the elite in knocking down world title challenger Maria Santizo (12-6, 6 KOs) and winning by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a minimumweight match up.

Medina, a model-looking fighter out of Maywood, Calif, accepted a match against Santizo who had fought three times against world titlists including L.A. great Seniesa Estrada. She looked perfectly in her element.

Behind a ramrod jab and solid defense, Medina avoided the big swinging Santizo’s punches while countering accurately. For every home run swing by the Guatemalan fighter Medina would connect with a sharp right or left.

In the fifth round, Santizo opened up with a crisp three-punch combination and Medina opened up with her own four-punch blast that seemed to wobble the veteran fighter. Medina stepped on the gas and fired strategic blows but never left herself open for counters.

Medina didn’t waste time in the sixth round. A crisp one-two staggered Santizo who reeled backward. The referee ruled it a knockdown and Santizo was in trouble. Medina went into attack mode as Santizo pulled every trick she knew to keep from being overrun by the Maywood fighter.

In the last two rounds Medina seemed to look for the perfect shot to end the fight. Santizo kept busy with short shots and stayed away from meaningful exchanges. Medina also might have been gassed from expending so many punches in the prior round.

The two female fighters both seemed to want a knockout in the eighth round. Santizo was wary of Medina’s power and dived in close to smother Medina’s firing zone. Neither woman was able to connect with any significant shots.

After eight rounds all three judges scored in favor of Medina 77-74, 76-75 and 80-71.

It was proof Medina belongs among the top minimumweight fighters.

Other Bouts

In a super welterweight fight Michael Meyers (7-2) defeated Eduardo Diaz (9-4) by unanimous decision in a tough scrap. Mayers proved to be more accurate and was able to withstand a late rally by Diaz.

Abel Mejia (8-0) defeated Antonio Dunton El (6-4-2) by decision after six rounds in a super feather match.

Jocelyn Camarillo (4-0) won by split decision after four rounds versus Qianyue Zhao (0-2) in a light flyweight bout.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

David Allen Bursts Johnny Fisher’s Bubble at the Copper Box

Published

1 day ago

May 17, 2025

Arne K. Lang

David-Allen-Bursts-Johnny-Fisher's-Bubble-at-the-Copper-Box

The first meeting between Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, and David Allen, the White Rhino, was an inelegant affair that produced an unpopular decision. Allen put Fisher on the canvas in the fifth frame and dominated the second half of the fight, but two of the judges thought that Fisher nicked it, allowing the “Bull” to keep his undefeated record. That match was staged last December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, underneath Usyk-Fury II.

The 26-year-old Fisher, who has a fervent following, was chalked a 13/5 favorite for the sequel today at London’s Copper Box Arena. At the weigh-in, Allen, who carried 265 pounds, looked as if he had been training at the neighborhood pub.

Through the first four rounds, Fisher fought cautiously, holding tight to his game plan. He worked his jab effectively and it appeared as if the match would go the full “10” with the Romford man winning a comfortable decision. However, in the waning moments of round five, he was a goner, left splattered on the canvas.

This was Fisher’s second trip to the mat. With 30 seconds remaining in the fifth, Allen put him on the deck with a clubbing right hand. Fisher got up swaying on unsteady legs, but referee Marcus McDonnell let the match continue. The coup-de-gras was a crunching left hook.

Fisher, who was 13-0 with 11 KOs heading in, went down face first with his arms extended. The towel flew in from his corner, but that was superfluous. He was out before he hit the canvas.

A high-class journeyman, the 33-year-old David Allen improved to 24-7-2 with his 16^th knockout. He promised fireworks – “going toe-to-toe, that’s just the way I’m wired” – and delivered the goods.

Other Bouts of Note

Northampton middleweight Kieron Conway added the BBBofC strap to his existing Commonwealth belt with a fourth-round stoppage of Welsh southpaw Gerome Warburton. It was the third win inside the distance in his last four outings for Conway who improved to 23-3-1 (7 KOs).

Conway trapped Warburton (15-2-2) in a corner, hurt him with a body punch, and followed up with a barrage that forced the referee to intervene as Warburton’s corner tossed in the white flag of surrender. The official time was 1:26 of round four. Warburton’s previous fight was a 6-rounder vs. an opponent who was 8-72-4.

In the penultimate fight on the card, George Liddard, the so-called “Billericay Bomber,” earned a date with Kieron Conway by dismantling Bristol’s Aaron Sutton who was on the canvas three times before his corner pulled him out in the final minute of the fifth frame.

The 22-year-old Liddard (12-0, 7 KOs) was a consensus 12/1 favorite over Sutton who brought a 19-1 record but against tepid opposition. His last three opponents were a combined 16-50-5 at the time that he fought them.

Also

In a bout that wasn’t part of the ESPN slate, Johnny Fisher stablemate John Hedges, a tall cruiserweight, won a comprehensive 10-round decision over Liverpool’s Nathan Quarless. The scores were 99-92, 98-92, and 97-93.

Purportedly 40-4 as an amateur, Hedges advanced his pro ledger to 11-0 (3). It was the second loss in 15 starts for the feather-fisted Quarless, a nephew of 1980s heavyweight gatekeeper Noel Quarless.

Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE