Nickname origins

Bobby Boogaloo Watts

Ken Hissner: If I didn’t ask you how you got that nickname I would kick myself later.

Bobby Watts: It was an amateur championship fight in Vineland, New Jersey. First in the ring was Johnny Jones. Then I made my entrance “dancing” up the aisle and into the ring. The ring announcer said “in the red corner Johnny ‘Shing-A-Ling’ Jones. In the blue corner from Philadelphia Bobby ‘Boogaloo’ Watts.” (We laughed). There were two big dances popular then and that’s the first time I was ever introduced by that name.

http://www.doghouseboxing.com/Ken/Hissner030608.htm

 

Miracle Matthew Franklin (Saad Muhammad)-

On February 2, 1978 Matt faced Richie Kates from nearby Vineland, NJ who had grown from a popular middleweight into a very rugged light-heavyweight. “The Big Matt Attack” went from a forward moving aggressive style to a full-blown “kill or be killed” style. As anyone would guess Matt and Richie Kates didn’t spend much time feeling each other out, and just before the end of the fifth round Richie Kates caught Matt cleanly, and Matt fell face first to the canvas. Nick Belfiore rushed into the ring and carried/dragged Matt back to the corner with the laces of the tops of his shoes dragging on the canvas. Again, it seemed like Matt might not survive, but in the middle of the next round Matt stopped Kates, and the Miracle Matthew moniker became popular.

 

Too bad Dancing Machine Carter wasn't fighting that night also.

 

Sometimes neither a nickname or the backstory is very cool!

Stanley Kitten Hayward

DH: Dude, now is as good a time as any to ask you. Where did you pick up ‘Kitten’? I mean, it doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of men.

SH: (laughing) I know what you mean, but there’s a story to that. My manager’s girlfriend asked him what was my nickname and George told her something like…they called me ‘Stonewall’ or something like that. So, she said that that was no nickname and suggested since he was a Katz, that I should be a Kitten, and the name stuck.

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/blog/?p=13812

 

A boxer from the 1700's was known as Death because he went pale when he fought.

 

Albert 'Tweety' Davila - Davila had that nickname as a kid. I think I read where some lady in the neighborhood called him that because he was so small but had a big head, like Tweety-Bird.

Sugar Ray Robinson - I recall watching that old series 'Those were the days' I think it was called, where the moderator asked Ray where he got the name. Ray said it was when he was an amateur and had changed his name to Ray Robinson. He had just knocked out an opponent and some guy said 'Wow, that was sweet." and some lady replied, "He's sweet as sugar." That was the story Ray said, anyway.

 

Canelo he's ginger, Canelo is Spanish for cinnamon

Fat Boy Willie Meehan, is because of... Well he's a fat boy

Jarrell 'Juiced' Miller is fairly obvious

 

My understanding of the Sweet Pea over Sweet Pete nickname was that he ordered a robe with it on and it was spelt wrong.

I know Herol 'Bomber' Graham was a school nickname because he use to run around a lot. In the UK we would say he was 'bombing around'. Hence the reason that a relatively light puncher had such a nickname, it was not ironic.

 

"Two Ton" Tony Galento, because when he was late to one of his fights and his manager asked why, he replied "I was delivering two tons of ice". It also fit his, um, physique

 

Bob Cat Montgomery

Montgomery got his nickname of "The Bobcat" from a Philadelphia sportswriter because Bob
continually moved forward pawing and striking at his foes.

http://bxhof.tripod.com/montgomery.html

 

Chango Carmona - Chango, which means ****** in Spanish, was derived from his ability as a child scaling fruit trees in his native Acapulco for their wealth.

Rodolfo 'El Gato' Gonzalez, which means 'Cat' in Spanish was derived from his habit of playing with his opponent before knocking him out.

Alvaro 'Yaqui' Lopez was created by his manager. As an amateur they were fighting some club show in an area of California which had a predominant population of Indians. The story was that one of the natives approached the manager asking what tribe Lopez was from and the manager replied that he was a Yaqui, because that was the only tribe he knew. The crowd loved it that he was one of them and the name stuck.

 

Do you know how Midget Wolgast became known as, well, Midget Wolgast.

Strikes me as an odd fighter to name yourself after.

 

Not a nickname, but Freddie Welsh became known as such because on his professional debut in Philadelphia, the MC couldn't remember his surname and, upon hearing his accent, just introduced him as 'Freddie Welsh', which stuck.