Tommy Loughran : Does anyone rate him down for "drawing the color line" ?

I havent been able to dig up any outstanding examples but am willing to be enlightened SQ.So feel free to do so,as H. E .Grant appears very reluctant to .

 

How about Larry Gaines?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO0cndcdeY0[/ame]

Defeated Primo Carnera and knocked out a young Max Schmeling. How come this guy never got a title shot? How come Loughran or Tunney never fought him? Boxing Historian Kevin Smith spoke highly on Gains when I talked to him personally.

 

Larry Gaines wrote a book in the 1930s called THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, which I once read while I was a youngster...He, and other fighters were in AWE of Harry Greb..He wrote this part description of Greb. " Greb fought like a widcat,and lived like an alley cat ".Wow what his contemporaries thought of Harry Greb, including that tough Larry Gaines...I know Harry loved women in his dressing room before his bouts...Strange way to prepare for your fight methinks...

 

But if Loughran chose to fight Norfolk and Siki in 1925, would he have been fighting a "fast" fighter.

And there might be other reasons than race to duck Flowers. He was a southpaw. Many fighters ducked southpaws. I remember an article in which Joe Louis admitted that his management kept him far away from Melio Bettina.

 

The exception for me would be a champion who is avoiding his top, or at least a worthy, contender.

 

Ive read it and foolishly lent it out ,never to return.
I spoke briefly to Gains at the fights he was a real gentleman.Didnt think too much of Carnera, but was a big Dempsey fan ,he had been a sparring partner for him, as you know.
Gains wanted Sharkey ,but was frozen out of a title shot.
He was not even allowed to fight for the British Title,you could say this was because he was Canadian,but Ben Foord a South African was allowed to and he won it .Gains had to be content with being the British Empire champ .British boxing operated a colour bar in regards to domestic titles at that time.It came about because Jack Johnson had made a verbal agreement to fight Sam Langford, for the National Sporting Club,Johnson ran out on this and, in retaliation the club refused to allow a coloured fighter to box there,the BBBOC adopted this policy, by not allowing blacks to fight for titles, and gentleman Gains was a victim of it.

 

Loughran fought and defeated many soutpaws including some world champs ,like LATZO

 

I too have given friends books to read and never have them returned...The first one was "Give Him To The Angels ",by James R Fair. I never received the book back...Now 60 years later its a collectors item... Thank God I just bought 'The Fearless Harry Greb", by Bill Paxton...Great book about my absolute favorite fighter...But no more lending, I say...

 

*This not a big issue and I might easily be wrong, but I don't think Latzo was a southpaw. I understand that boxrec lists him as a southpaw, but thier photo of him shows a righthander. Wikipedia also lists him as a southpaw. Cyberboxing's photo again suggests a righthander.

I have never seen film of Latzo.

I have googled a couple of his fight reports. I read no mention of his being a southpaw.

**My real evidence. The 1976 Ring Record Book contains a list of southpaw boxing champions. Latzo is not listed. I think Nat Fleischer and the ring staff would have seen him box many times.

***Just for info, here is the Ring list of southpaw champions as of 1976:

Billy Backus, Melio Bettina, Venice Borkorsor, Lou Brouillard, Jimmy Carruthers, Young Corbett III, Flash Elorde, Hiroyuki Ebihara, Tiger Flowers, Paul Fujii, Fighting Harada, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Sandro Lopopolo, Al McCoy, Freddie Miller, George Nichols, Yoshiaki Numata, Jackie Paterson, Vincente Saldivar, Kuniaki Shibata, Ben Villaflor, Johnny Wilson.

 

Burt, many thanks for the heads up.I too have never seen Latzo in action, but I do know Loughran met and defeated several south paws.

Stay well:good