Have there been any good deaf boxers?

[john garfield]

Originally Posted by Duodenum

Fitzie Fitzpatrick was deaf, and a ranked light heavyweight contender in the 1940s. He knocked a peak Ezzard Charles on his ass, was one of only three men to stop Pat Valentino, and dropped Lee Savold en route to a handy decision win despite giving away 24 pounds to Savold. As his grave marker proclaims: "W. VA.'S GREATEST BOXER."Well JG, a few months back, Rumsfeld was apparently bored on the job, and he created an interesting and challenging thread, asking us to name the greatest boxer from each of the 50 states. I set a rigorous criteria for myself in meeting this challenge. Each boxer had to be male (eliminating Christy Martin from consideration for West Virginia), professional (eliminating collegiate legend Robert Ranck for Wyoming), and a native born son of the state being represented. (This last self imposed restriction eliminated Billy Petrolle and Virgil Hill for North Dakota.)

Rummy's idle challenge lead to probably the best boxing research I've done while on ESB Classic, and with plenty of help, we managed to actually identify a native born son with winning records from all 50 states. West Virginia was one of the last states I found a representative for. (Wyoming might have been the last state I uncovered a native of, and Cowboy Eddie Anderson fit the bill nicely.)

Maybe I should try later to dig up that buried thread, and find out if we can supplement that now completed list with additional names for some of the more obscure and difficult states.

Remind me never to make a bar bet with you, D

[Duodenum]

Originally Posted by john garfield

Remind me never to make a bar bet with you, D

Don't worry, my friend. You'd likely trash me on most trivia. (As a bartender, I actually avoided bets like this, and just stuck to fixing and serving drinks. But I've been retired for over seven years now, and my mind has turned to mush in relative isolation.)

That 50 boxers 50 states challenge was surprisingly met entirely with on-line research, a first for me. (My old Boxing Illustrated and Ring Record books have been in storage for a while now, along with other reference material I'd have normally relied on for this.)

[Duodenum]

Here's the list of 50 boxers from 50 states which uncovered Fitzie Fitzpatrick. (In the arguable case of large states like California, we sometimes went with the boxer who made the greatest or earliest historical impact. These lists are extremely subjective, but again, the real challenge was finding names of native born sons for smaller and more obscure locales.)

This is in order of the state's entry into the Union:

1. Delaware - Al Tribuani
2. Pennsylvania - Harry Greb
3. New Jersey - Marvin Hagler
4. Georgia - Sugar Ray Robinson
5. Connecticut - Willie Pep
6. Massachusetts - Rocky Marciano
7. Maryland - Joe Gans
8. South Carolina - Joe Frazier
9. New Hampshire - Jason Le Houllier
10. Virginia - Pernell Whitaker
11. New York - Benny Leonard
12. North Carolina - Ray Charles Leonard
13. Rhode Island - Vinnie Pazienza
14. Vermont - Buster Beaupre
15. Kentucky - Muhammad Ali
16. Tennessee - Tommy Hearns
17. Ohio - Jim Jeffries
18. Louisiana - Tony Canzoneri
19. Indiana - Jack Dillon
20. Mississippi - Archie Moore
21. Illinois - Packy McFarland
22. Alabama - Joe Louis
23. Maine - Joey Gamache
24. Missouri - Henry Armstrong
25. Arkansas - Sonny Liston
26. Michigan - Stan Ketchel
27. Florida - Roy Jones, Jr.
28. Texas - Jack Johnson
29. Iowa - Michael Nunn
30. Wisconsin - Eddie McGoorty
31. California - Jim Corbett
32. Minnesota - Mike Gibbons
33. Oregon - Denny Moyer
34. Kansas - Jess Willard
35. West Virginia - Fitzie Fitzpatrick
36. Nevada - Ishe Smith
37. Nebraska - Max Baer
38. Colorado - Jack Dempsey
39. North Dakota - Charlie Retzlaff
40. South Dakota - Shawn Hawk
41. Montana - Marvin Camel
42. Washington - Freddie Steele
43. Idaho - Kenny Keene
44. Wyoming - Cowboy Eddie Anderson
45. Utah - Gene Fullmer
46. Oklahoma - James Tillis
47. New Mexico - Bob Foster
48. Arizona - Michael Carbajal
49. Alaska - Billy Wallace
50. Hawaii - Bobo Olson

51. Washington, D.C. - Winky Wright

52. Puerto Rico - Carlos Ortiz

[Duodenum]

Here's a web sight dedicated to Fitzie Fitzpatrick, carrying the title of his biography published earlier this year, with links to youtube footage of his July 26, 1946 15 rounder with Joe Kahut:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]