Nipper Daly - The youngest ever pro boxer aged 9?

Can you fill us in on how the rest of his life panned out? Very interested. Also was there extreme long term effects on his health as a result of being in brutal fights from such a young age?

 

I think you must have taken the quote below a bit too literally! What the writer meant was, he won the fight by a big margin.

'The “Nipper” won practically every round and practically walked home by the length of the whole journey from London to the Midlands.'

 

Well it certainly had an effect on him. Being hailed by all the top boxing writers and fans as a likely world champion one minute and then being finished the next, is a hard thing for anyone to accept, let alone a kid of 17 or 18.

But luckily he had the sense to see he was finished as a boxer and didn't try to carry on as lots of fighters do after they've had their time. For the most part he was healthy and strong, but he simply wasn't able to do what he'd once been able to do inside the roped square. All those hard fights and the constant strain of weight-making took its toll.

If you're interested there's a book due out on him early next year. If you send me your email address, I'll send you details as soon as it's out.

 

Hi Alex,

I wrote the article, one question that occured to me when I was doing the research was why Nippers management turned down the world title shot against Battalino?

I know it was a tough fight but they hadn't really shown much concern/ compassion about matching Nipper in difficult fights and making him fight too often before that point (and would carry on doing it afterwards).

It seems to strange time for them to suddenly become cautious....

Regards
Gaz

 

This is something i would be interested in why would you turn down a shot at the title? especially in a 6 round fight and as mentioned by Gaz he was matched tough through his whole career i doubt they would have been too worried about the consequences especially in such a short fight?

 

I think (and he thought) that they feared losing him to an American manager. They obviously knew they had a potential goldmine on their hands and if they let him loose in America, it wouldn't be long before others were trying to sign him up. There were repeated calls for him to travel to the states and box, but his manager wouldn't allow it.

 

Its a shame because essentailly he never fulfilled his potential would it be fair to say then that nipper was held back by his management throughout his career whether it be moving to america or tough matchmaking back in the UK also the stress of making weight.

Also may i ask what age did he live to?

 

Yep, that makes sense. That was the only possible reason I could think of given how they'd handled Nipper up to that point.

 

He lived till 75.

The trouble was, he wasn't held back enough. However talented he was, he shouldn't have been fighting grown men when he was only 15 and 16 and certainly shouldn't have had 33 pro fights (mostly 15-rounders) in a single year! He was unlucky to have been boxing just before the BBB of C got into full swing, if he'd been born, say, 10 years later none of it could have happened.

Yeah, the stress of making weight as a growing teenager certainly added to the burden. If he'd boxed as a grown man, he'd have been a middleweight or light-heavy.

 

I am interested.

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That is crazy. Duran turned pro around 15 as a Bantam and grew to a Lightweight, albeit a big one.

So basically we are saying we had a kid of 15 beating some top names, and he still hadn't really started growing yet. He must have grown loads after he retired.


Also Gaz good wee article, i enjoyed it. I want to know more about him now, though.

 

GPater: cheers, I'll send you details when it's out.

I'm not sure about the average rate of growth from that sort of age onwards, but perhaps Duran had matured exceptionally fast. Although, having said that, my grandfather was fighting well below what would have been his natural weight at that time - constant training and dieting kept the weight off.

Basically, for him to establish himself at a particular weight class, say bantamweight, he'd need to remain at that weight, beat all the top contenders, etc., as if he grew into the next weight division, he'd almost be starting for scratch. The British fight scene was highly competitive back then (there were so many more fighters at each weight class) - to be honest, what we have today doesn't compare - it's so much easier now to establish yourself as a top domestic fighter.

 

I understand the different 'scene' or 'culture' of the day. It is really impressive that Nipper basically established himself in 3 different classes.

I would have thought that for a young kid to have been competitive with adults he would have matured very quickly, but this does not seem to be the case here. How did Nipper deal with his opponents strength? and power?

 

jeez...9 years old...this is mental, i can barely get my head around this!

 

Wow.......this would be a great present for Christmas...shame it's out next year but i'm interested in purchasing a copy when it comes out. Looks like an amazing read and something of legend.

Just told my dad and he's stunned as we are....

 

On the whole, I'd say he was at a disadvantage in strength and punch-power when facing guys in their 20s, but even so, he must have been exceptionally tough and resilient for a lad his age. What he was noted for was his uncanny speed and boxing ability, which allowed him to outclass grown men and finish a 15-round fight without much damage.