ATG FLYWEIGHT TOURNIE: THE FINAL - Jimmy Wilde beats Midget Wolgast by wide unanimous decisoin

It's the dream final, probably. Both men were rock hard, both men were geniuses and both men mined styles that were deemed to strange and difficult for mainstream production. Nobody boxes like Wilde. Nobody boxes like Wolgast. Here the similarities end.

Wolgast is a defensive genius with a stabbing, brilliant offence. He feinted his opponent forwards and then moved off the center line, his reactions to any offensive foray a deft slip of the head, but his own offense was what differentiates him from other great defensive wizards. Wolgast, who couldn’t punch to save himself, was unequalled at firing off blows while on the move. I mean he might be the best ever, of anyone who has ever lived, at firing off punches in bunches while on the move. You'd expect that man to be boxing somewhere below bantamweight.

His bread and butter was a shrill pop of a jab that he could land whatever angles his balletic movement inflicted, and as an improviser he was second to none. When the time came to scrap, he moved in on his man, head working like a cat about to strike, deploying a swarming body attack of dizzying variety. He was a jazz musician in a pair of boxing gloves, and domination was his art.

This combination made him a disaster for a generation of flyweights. Willie Davies slumped to multiple defeats against him, their rivalry perhaps the greatest in flyweight history as Davies time and again pushed his opponent to the very brink but succeeded in winning only one of their seemingly endless stream of combats.

Even the beginnings of his excellence are too long to tell but his 1927 win over Izzy Schwarz is as fine a place as any. Schwartz was an experienced ring veteran, only months away from his own victory over Willie Davies and a year from his victory in an NYSAC title fight, but he couldn’t do anything with Wolgast who, though still a teenager, clearly out-pointed him. Billy Kelly, Ernie Peters, Phil Tobias, Ruby Bradley, Johnny McCoy, Jackie Brown – the list of made men he befuddled starts here and just rolls on and on. In fact, no fighter in this tournament defeated more ranked contenders than Wolgast. That bears repeating – Wolgast defeated more ranked men than any other flyweight in history, which is the same as saying anyone.

And yet he was never the champion (though he did lift a strap against Black Bill while still a teenager, an extraordinary feat). Can he reign as the ATG Tournie champion?

This content is protected

Jimmy Wilde, of course, carries the greatest offence in flyweight history. I've always said that what made Wilde truly great wasn't what he did at flyweight, but what he did above that weight and certainly it won't bother him one little bit that Wolgast comes in the heavier man. He can be seen on film exhibiting not just the power but the strength of a much, much bigger man.

As for Wilde’s championship legacy at flyweight, tracing it can be difficult. For some it can be counted from 1914 when he lifted the European flyweight title against the even smaller Eugene Husson, a fight also billed for something called the “gnatweight title”. This claim is muddied by Wilde’s fellow Welshman Percy Jones, who held the IBU flyweight title at the same time; he then lost that title to Joe Symonds. The Symonds claim was in turn strengthened over Wilde’s because he was able to defeat the man who stopped Wilde in 1915, Tancy Lee. When the gnatweight title fell by the wayside the European title Wilde held remained just that in terms of lineage while the IBU title, held by Jones and Symonds, morphs into the flyweight title – meanwhile America recognized no meaningful flyweight champion, though a “paperweight” title did receive fleeting attention.

This mess was born of a semi-recognized division which was as geographically moribund as any, ever. Within this division, Wilde’s early involvement in competition for such titles does speak to his elite status, but he cannot be named the best flyweight in the world until 1916, especially not in the light of his knockout loss to Lee in 1915. From 1916 to 1920 though, Wilde was the Don and the single most significant flyweight in history as he became the overseer of the division’s transition to legitimacy. His destruction of Sid Smith in eight rounds at the very end of 1915 was the true beginning of his evisceration of the poundage and when he later turned the same trick in just three his confirmation as prime was complete. In between he forced Symonds to quit after twelve before avenging himself upon the still red-hot Tancy Lee that June. When he hosted and dominated American flyweight Young Zulu Kid in December his claim was beyond dispute. The first undisputed flyweight world champion had been born.

Between 1911 and 1920, Wilde lost to just one flyweight in Lee and he butchered his nemesis in the return. It is possible to be ultra-critical in pointing out that Wilde’s record of 1-1 against the best fly he ever fought is perhaps a little unsatisfactory, but Wilde settled their dispute in that second fight. This streak is the hottest of the hot and is paralleled only by the very greatest fighters in history; certainly, no flyweight ever recreated it. Wilde did all of this boxing with a savage abandon and in a style recreated by no fighters either before or after him, a style birthed by his power, his heart and his granite chin.

This content is protected

It's possible - arguable - that this is the single best fight that can be made in all of boxing's history. It is the best offence against the best defence of what may be the two best fighters head-to-head in their division's history. Think about that. How often can the two best fighters in a division's history be said to be this elemental?

Who wins this battle of the elements, the most distilled fantasy fight in all of boxing?

Who is the ATG champion in the flyweight division under the following rules?

15 round fight.
1950s referee.
8oz boxing gloves.

Cast your vote and explain yourself in a post below! You have 3 days.

 

Absolutely magical.

 

This content is protected

This content is protected

If you had to guess which one was the killer puncher and which one was the box-mover based upon their publicity shots, you'd get it wrong I bet.

 

OK here's me:

Against Frank Genaro in 1930 on the biggest night of his career, Midget Wolgast got full-on blasted by a Genaro right hand, hurt him, put him back, early in the fight, and Wolgast changed. He changed his fight approach. He tried to out-peck Genaro. He got hit with a very hard punch, and he changed his style to a more a conservative, counter-punching approach. That's interesting to me.

It's not just any fight: it's the biggest fight of Wolgast's career. And Genaro, a much lesser puncher, was able to put him in a box.

Wilde would put him in a box. Genaro early, Wilde, booming right hand, Wolgast goes on the slide. He'd try to come back and Wilde would get him again. And again. Wilde would win key rounds. You can see it. Two rounds up in the air, splitting the judges, then, boom, Wilde wins a key round beyond all dispute. No knockdowns. Just four or five clear Wilde rounds in and among the confusing storm. Enough to bring him a decision on conflicting scorecards.

 

This content is protected

Genaro vs Wolgast?

 

Their draw is definitely frustrating. If one of them wins clean, there's your GOAT right there for me. But MW sure doesn't need Genaro for a top five rating; he defeated more made men than any other flyweight so far as I can tell. At the poundage.

An hour to crown a champion!

 

It's up!

Jimmy Wilde is the ESB flyweight champion.

Wherever he is, i'm sure he's stacking this alongside his most cherished honours.

Personally I was looking forwards to his inevitable dust-up with Miguel Canto but Peter Kane busted him, so no joy, a terrible shame. Still, Wilde did good business and saw off some good fighters before taxing Wolgast consistently and surprisingly in the final, to take a surprisingly dull and rather rather clear unanimous decision. Wolgast had his moments early but he didn't like what Wilde had to give him.

Wilde fights in such an odd and strange manner, it's magical really how he was pre-eminent in his own time and rates now as one of the greatest of all time. Head-to-head he has the clear respect of a hardcore of posters who really know their boxing.

A worthy, worthy winner.

This content is protected