Here's a question thats been rolling around in my head for the past week or so. Jimmy Wilde is reputed to of fought hundreds of unofficial boxing contests prior to his official boxing career began. From Wikipedia... Jimmy was the son of a coal miner, who himself worked in the coal pits. He was small enough to crawl through gullies impassable to most of his colleagues. Wilde first fought at the age of sixteen in fairground boxing booths, where crowds were amazed by his toughness and ability to knock down much larger opponents, most of which were local toughmen weighing around 200 lbs. The reason I even started contemplating this is because I put the gloves on against someone whom I work with, who's 200 pounds. I'm lean at 160 pounds. I knocked said person down hard with 14 oz gloves, but the difference between 160 and 200 is microscopic compared to the difference between 100-110 and 200. A jump between bantam and feather is absolutely massive, none the less what Wilde supposedly did. Who here thinks Sung Kil Moon, Ricardo Lopez, Khaosai Galaxy or even Ruben Olivares knocking a 200 lb, albeit untrained 200 pound man, out? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Now here are the questions that need to be asked. Did Wilde put, and knock down men that large because the gloves were 4-6 ounces and poorly made? Was he simply an absolute genetic freak, the best P4P puncher of all time as many have called him? Are these stories valid, or straight out bull****? Has anyone here have any gym stories of vastly smaller fighters hurting or blowing out much larger, untrained men?
From a Jimmy Wilde fan site... Jimmy Wilde, like Bob Fitzsimmons and the original Joe Walcott, has been described as something of a physical freak. He stood 5 2 ½, had a 68 reach and never weighed more than 108 pounds but possessed the power of a lightweight. Modern Strawweights, Junior Flyweights and Flyweights cannot compare to his ability since he held the 112 pound title and knocked out men almost twice his weight. Another source. He was taught to fight by future father-in-law, the legendary mountain fighter Dai Davies, while working in the mines of Wales. At 16, he began exhibiting in the boxing booth of Jack Scarrott, where he appeared from 1909 to 1914 in an estimated 500 fights according to Tracy Callis. In boxing booths little Wilde knocked out rugged muscular miners weighing as much as 170 or more pounds.
I keep trying to fins some accounts of his booth fights but they are hard to come by, have you managed to find anything at all? I tend not to bring up his booth fights when talking about Wilde as a lot of the circumstances are unknown, like you said....was it the gloves, was it the men that were just big with no boxing abilities. or was it that Wilde did infact have good enough power to knock much bigger men down. It'd be good if anyone had any information on the subject.
I beleive he did it, but in those days how many 200lb men were walking around, I think in the mining villages maybe a LHW would be nearer the average booth fighters weight? what do you think? And also with Wilde's unique style, sharp accurate counters, and obvious speed and power - I can see him sparking a bigger untrained man. As well as the other fighters you mentioned.
Yeah, I've seen those before and they only seem to touch on it, I'm still trying to find something that would give a better account, they all just seem to say the same: At the age of 16 Jimmy began fighting in boxing booths. It is estimated that he fought anywhere in the region of between 500 - 1000 fights when including the bouts he engaged in during these boxing booth days. The booth fights would hone Jimmy's skills and begin his legendary status. For he fought hundreds of opponents, mostly all of which were several stones (1 stone = 14lbs) heavier than himself, and indeed fought as many as 25 opponents in one day!! For a day in the boxing booths Jimmy could earn the equivalent to a weeks wages in the coal mines. Check out some of those comments from this article too : http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/halloffame/sport/jimmy_wilde.shtml
fighters fought hundreds of booth fights sometimes as many as 3 in one night, they also fought lots of "G fights" sparring sessions with booth mates to draw the onlooks into the ring, the onlookers were usually local tough guys or drunken wanabee tough guys, the booth fighters were mostly trained pros - almost every TOP British fighter of note, champion or contender had a booth career along with their "sanctioned" pro career. they also fought loads of "UN-sanctioned" pro fights against fellow local pros wherever the booths were traveling, some fighters kept better track of these fight records and are credited with them, vertually hundreds of pro fights, where as other fighters equally aren't credited with dozens and hundreds of Un-sanctioned pro fights, but fought them none-the-less, just didn't do as good a job of keeping the record. an excellent book on the Booths is "a Fair Fight" (as in fairground) by a woman who grew up in the Shows & Fairground people. and in N. America, one only need talk to Greg Haugan a lightweight who before being a top pro worked in Alaska or the north country and won many tough man contest and beat plenty of bigmen circa late 70's or there about.
It must be surmised that many of the larger men Wilde fought were likely, by-and-large, ignorant of Boxing. That he was also a man of extraordinary abilities is also a given. For every learned comment that spoke of Wilde's slight nature would also trigger the observation of very much defined and hardened muscle on the back and arms. Whatever there was of Wilde, it was rock-solid. He estimated himself to of had around 850 fights in those booths. Going against every text-book, some believed that Wilde got extra power from reaching with his forward stance, letting his rear foot leave the ground for extra extension.
