Teddy Baldock Statuette Fund

Teddy Baldock was a good wee fighter. I have some footage of him vs Panama Al Brown, that I could give to Martin Baldock if he does not already have it.

 

http://www.londonexboxers.org.uk/boxing_lives_detail.php?boxer_ID=43

Quite a bit of footage for a 20's fighter...

 

No love for britains youngest ever world champ?

 

The bio linked from that site is superb

 

I'd reccomend the book 'The Pride Of Poplar'.

 

Brilliant site.

Didn't realize that Baldock won recognition as Bantamweight champion, at that point the Bantamweight title was as fragmented as it is now (perhaps even worse).

So did Willie Smith lose his 'title' to Brown, or did Baldock regain recognition with his win over Brown?

 

Just started reading the book today,good stuff. :good

 

Baldock won the title with his win over Archie Bell.. though it was disputed, he lost 3 fights later to Willie Smith.

 

How strong a claim was it?

 

Well he is widely regarded as Britains youngest world champ... boxrec has the fight listed as the world bantamweight championship (not that this means anything) The British board delcared Baldock the world champ.

 

I should have jumped in on this post sooner but only just logged on tonight. It is hard to legitimise a fighters claim from an event that occurred so long ago, especially taking into account the confused state that the Bantamweight class was in. Tony Canzoneri and Bud Taylor were certainly great fighters, who may well have fought in better class over a longer period than my grandfather. Charley Phil ********* was having trouble making the weight not to mention he and Bushy Graham were suspended in New York following the discovery of a secret agreement regarding purse money, so were out of the running. Fidel La Barba, formerly the World Flyweight champion who had decisively beaten Elky Clarke and later held decisions over both Taylor and Graham, was also in the mix but was twice beaten by Johnny Vacca, who it was then arranged would travel to England to meet my grandfather for the World title, unfortunately he was then beaten by Archie Bell.
On the night prior to his departure from New York, Bell was introduced into the ring at Madison Square Garden, by the announcer, Joe Humphreys as the man who was going to England to fight Teddy Baldock for the bantamweight championship of the world. It was also stated that Tex Rickard had arranged with Bell's manager Ike Dorgan that in the event of Bell defeating Baldock he would be accepted as the world's champion and would defend the title against the winner of the Taylor/Canzoneri contest, my grandfather could not be offered the same terms as he was still only 19 so could not fight in America over the championship distance until he was 21!

Also if you look in the November 1927 issue of Ring magazine they run a feature on Archie Bell, quote "there is nothing left for the New York Boxing Commision to do but crown Bell as King of the bantam roost. He has made his mark, has done all one could ask of a fighter and has clearly demonstrated he is head and heals above his rivals". So Archie Bell was certainly held in high regard by the American boxing press.

Obviously I have a biased opinion concerning my grandfathers claim to the world title but most of the highly regarded British sports writers of the time also endorsed his contest with Archie Bell as being for the world title. There could be plenty of arguments as to whether Tony Canzoneri or Bud Taylor might have beaten him, but these will only be peoples personal opinions. My grandfather could only fight who was put in front of him and at the time Archie Bell was regarded, even by the Americans as one of the top contenders.
I'll climb down from my soap box now and look forward to hearing from anyone who has ideas on how we can raise the money to get a fantastic statue erected in East London for Britain's youngest World champion.

 

Quality post mate. Thanks for that, brought the situation to some clarity for me.

Wasn't Pete Sanstol and Panama Al Brown claimants at this point as well?

 

I'm also related to Teddy, and therefore I'm also bias.

 

Not 100% but I think that was a couple of years after Teddy's reign.