Educate me on - Peter Kane

I'm pretty sure an author Brian Hughes had a good book out on him.

I don't know that much about him, though.

 

I believe his father, Kwai Chang, while a simple apothecary, was also a knowledgeable fighter, instrumental in Peter's upbringing in the art of combat. Also of note is that "Lo Si" Ping Hai was oft a frequent adviser in Peter's camp who sometimes took the reigns in his training. All in all, a very well-schooled fighter.

 

Kane was one of those strong punchers in the lower weights. He had good upper body strength, which he developed while working with or for a blacksmith.

 

ATG post.

 

I wish we had more footage of him to observe his documented ko power and blacksmith's upper-body strength, he looks like a powerful, aggressive, mobile (if slightly crude at times) puncher type in the brief clip of the Lynch rematch, though he was young and probably pre-prime after learning his trade in the booths. He looks very good against an atg but the video is too short to get any real idea.

If what I've read about him is true, he seems to have been - reading between the lines - more than a tad unlucky at certain key points throughout his career. He was, as mentioned before, only 19 at the time of first Lynch fight and by all accounts still a bit raw, though his size, strength, power and determination still meant that he gave Benny - who although already sowing the seeds of his own destruction, was still a great fighter - a heck of a go. He did even better in the rematch and could have walked away with the title then had the circumstances been different. I also remember reading somewhere that he badly damaged his right hand against Jurich and had to have his little finger amputated later on, which robbed him of a certain degree of punching power while he was still becoming more complete and well-rounded as an overall fighter. Difficulty in making the weight and the outbreak of the war set him back even further and he was never able to get a shot at the bantamweight title for reasons I don't know. His career seems to have stalled at this point for a good amount of what maybe should have been his best years. Of course, he then ended up draining himself to death to make flyweight, turned up in no real condition to fight against huge-punching Jackie Paterson, got starched in a single round shootout and retired a few months later. We probably never saw what could have been his best years for one reason or another.

Still, he notched up some notable wins during his comeback and snaffled the European bantamweight title when past his best. Nat Fleischer ranked him as his number 9 flyweight in 1958 and Herb Goldman ranked in the top 15 a couple or three decades later (yeah, I know they were biased towards the old timers).

As a basic comparison, I think there's a parallel to be found between Kane and Lynch in that both of them could have lived up to their initial promise a lot more. For different reasons of course with Lynch being the greater talent. Lynch's legacy seems to have embedded itself more in boxing culture than the numerous flyweight champions who followed him: Kane, Paterson, Monaghan, Allen etc

 

One thing I found out: by the time he fought Paterson, Kane had found his work in the RAF made it easier for him to make flyweight again.