The World Little Man Championship

This is a real thing. Last captured by Nazih "Hammerhead" Kheir versus Jamie "The Giant" Fallon.

Yes, they are both midgets - and yes, this was a real, sanctioned professional boxing match (officially in the record books as being a strawweight contest) with experienced officials, and with serious ex-boxers cornering as each man's head coach, taking place on a card with a regional and national title in the co-main events. The rounds, however, were of a 1 minute duration each - half what's given female boxers.





Now, your first impression might be that "okay, it was a different time 100 years ago; exploitative and outrageous stuff like that was par for the course..." - and you'd be right about everything save the distance in the past. It wasn't a century bygone - and in fact wasn't even a tenth.













Just shy of a decade, this was 9½ years ago:

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While it was indeed an exploitative spectacle, the combatants were deadly serious about it, affording the proceedings a sort of implausible poetic dignity. Credit especially is due Fallon, who probably was outweighed here by at least two stone, perhaps the most egregiously negligent detail of this farce on the part of the organizers. He fought again three years later, dropping a split decision to another diminutive pugilist in Fiji. That's a lot of heart in a 3'6" frame.

 

@McGrain

 

Yeah. Neither seemed in the least bit oblivious to all the airs of condescension, having their mutual pro debut for a "title" with all the pageantry and gawking and stifled laughter - but they proved the figurative "bigger man" in the situation and handled it with grace and class far beyond their stature. Even in the post-fight interview with Kheir, when the Aussie Fox equivalent of Jim Gray stooped on bent knee to get the mic level with his face, he didn't shy from the moment in embarrassment, and didn't play it for laughs, he just said his piece, and seemed grateful for the chance to have shown what he set out to.

Even with Fallon, when he's running around late on pumping his arms in the air, playing up the underdog sentiment with the crowd, he was owning the moment. There was real joy and pride in his work, and he really did have reason to carry his chin as high as he could; even going 4 minutes with a bruiser like Hammerhead outweighing you by like double (while still jumping inside to flurry on a pretty regular basis) is quite impressive for a novice. The celebratory pushups, even though he must've known he lost a shutout, were a boss move.

 

I literally can't explain the urge, just as soon as I posted this felt "I'll have to be tagging Mac in this, now.."

 

I've heard of every sort of trainwreck variant on the sport, yeah - but usually those fall under the category of "semi-pro", exhibitions, white-collar boxing etc.

What stood out about this, for me, is that it was deemed suitable enough - despite a few ...small discrepancies from the norm - by the commission (the Queensland branch of the ANBF) to enter the annals of BoxRec with every other sanctioned professional bout in history.

 

You know, I did have that same thought, what if they actually found some fit and properly trained men of Fallon's own proportions? Instead of going 0-2 he could have put together a nice record, depending. He moved well in there. Meanwhile, you have Nazih, clearly blessed with natural physical strength, but I have to imagine someone his own size with even half Fallon's nimbleness would have a field day with him.