classic boxing pictures

'Hello, handsome.'

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Champion Forever Johnny Honey Boy Bratton

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Honey Boy gets a boost from Brockton Strong Boy

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Rock may have been tight with the dollar but he was giving of himself

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Great photos Rocky of one of my forgotten favourites Johnny Bratton..What a CLASSY fighter he was in his prime ! He was blessed with everything save a fragile and chronic
bone problem in his jaw which shattered several times...Cheers...

 

Edit: Just realised Johnny Bratton is the Honey Boy my mistake but still some further info of his story would be appreciated cant find much.

 

...this is not johnny bratton. he claimed to be him and usually hung around the park by the chicago historical society and and even fooled and ex-wife of the honey boy. finally a reporter checked him out and then found johnny was living in new york, i think. maybe a halfway house....it's been a long time since i've learned the story. johnny was still trim. he had some mental problems which were diagnosed as not brain damage from fighting, but the huge emotional let-down from being a big celebrity to a broke has been.

terrific fighter.

 

very bizzarre - i knew from reading an article from an old boxing illustrated magazine titled "A Story Of Winners and Losers" that Johnny was mentally ill from prior to the Gavilan loss - think it mentioned something about him receiving mail from Adolf Hitler or something wierd and that by that stage his mailing address was sancmento mental hospital or some such place can't remember the name - the writer wrote that when he dissappeared from the fight game the last time he saw Johnny was him staring forlornly out of a padded cell - but then some years later Johnny was back in Chicago went to work with his dad in a Jitney (an unlicenced cab) but some punks blew Johnnys dad away with a shotgun - sure it said something about him sleeping rough in the old cab even when offered a room with his sister - the last part was about the night they re-ran the film of Johnny beating Charlie Fusari for the NBA title and they got him smartened up for the night and played the film in the arena where he won it - he was mobbed again in a poignant moment when he won but i think Johnny slept in the lobby of the arena that night and the cleaner or somebody upon investigating some sounds late at night discovered him shadow boxing in one of the long mirrors in the hallway - even more bizzarre twist that that guy in the photo was pretending to be him - didn't that happen with Bob Satterfield aswell:huh really odd stuff

 

Luis Angel Firpo The Wild Bull Of The Pampas who came this close to stopping the great Jack Dempsey in the first round

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Another Argentine Wildman - Arturo Godoy

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Focussed Firpo

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It always shocks me how tiny people were back in the day. Firpo is decent sized but hardly head-turningly large. For a modern heavy, he is downright puny.

 

A very young Gorgeous Georges meets and greets Lil Arthur

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Andre Anderson who knocked Jack Dempsey to the canvas in Dempsey's fist fight in The Big Apple

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MIckey Walker and Young Corbett are weighing in

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