The curious case of Jersey Joe Walcott and his prime.

There's seems to be a serious lack of information and understanding (and plenty of misinformation) as to when Joe's prime actually was and why. I've dug up one of my old posts that was long lost on a late thread page. I think it's worth a thread of it's own especially given the tripe we see dished up on a daily basis.

Ok i've gone and done some research as to why Walcott seemingly primed up latter than the norm and wasn't at his best at an age when he was expected to be in his physical prime. Scartissue and god forbid choklab were on the right track for sure.

To keep it simple, and it is actually very simple -

Walcott was destitute and struggling to put food on the table in his first career all the way to his 1940 "retirement". When he did get a bit of money e.g. $375 from beating Roxie Allen the money would be gone instantly to pay the grocery store, milkman, landlord and various other people as he was forever living in debt.

This went on all the way to 1940. Throughout this first career he had little time to train let alone train properly and also struggled to feed himself. Obviously this stunted him severely and led to the guy underperforming by a long way. He was talented but in continual poor shape and not being brought along.

The Pearl Harbour attack led to him getting a bit better wartime job. He was still living tough tho things were going a bit better.

He took two fights in 44 as he needed some extra cash.

The turning point of both his life and his boxing career came in late 44 when he was introduced to Felix Bocchicchio, a store owner, local promoter and president of an athletic club among other less savory things.

Felix brought in a manager for Walcott, had his license re-instated and took care of he and his families financial burdens and set them up better.

He then hooked him up with trainer Nick Florio who was experienced and held in high regard.

Florio got him straight into a regular training and eating routine which would obviously make one helluva difference given his previous circumstances. Three square meals a day with lots of meat, vegetables and roadwork were a big part of the new regime.

At this point Walcott was 30 and about to start realizing what true potential he had left.

They gelled well and over the next few years worked on feinting and hand movements among other things and developed Walcott's shuffle and "walkaway". Walcott's only other world class training had been 12 months with Blackburn in his first career.

So now he could concentrate on getting into good fighting condition on a semi-permanent basis. He still held his job but was able to do shorter weeks and put a lot more time into boxing.

From here on it was mostly up and up for Walcott and all this comfortably explains why he peaked late in life, later than countless others had.

Regarding the 46 losses - Post fight X-rays showed Walcott broke a bone in his left hand and injured knuckles on his right against Maxim. The decision was also controversial and the AP scored the fight for Walcott.

The Ray verdict was fair but quite close.

It's far from impossible Walcott was still improving a little.

Walcott came back to beat both Maxim and Ray straight away in his next two fights. The Maxim rematch was also close.

The Louis fight was next and I'd say Walcott due to the various factors outlined was now definitely prime from about 1946 with age slowly starting to collide with the career and lifestyle turnaround. It's fair to say Walcott stayed well above the level he had been pre 1944 for multiple years.

Walcott was actually very consistent from 46 onwards. The only loss he had a solid favorite would have been to Rex Layne.

 

It's very straight forward stuff.

 

Exactly. His career is hardly complex after a little research. The facts are there. Who is going be be very good or consistent with no time to train and bugger all food.

 

Very true. Thankfully opportunities opened up otherwise his unique abilities would have been lost to boxing. Makes one wonder how many others were out there that threw the towel in due to the circumstances of the times. Perhaps we missed some great fighters. It's probably odds on actually.

 

What's that got to do with Walcott and his late prime tho? Keep grinding that axe.

 

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