A longshot here... I am coming across contradictory references to Black Gunboat Smith, a heavyweight (or heavyweights) who fought at the same time, late teens and early twenties. One, who is listed on boxrec, fought out of Central and South America. But there was also a fighter out of Pennsylvania calling himself Black Gunboat Smith... http://boxrec.com/boxer/574470 But boxrec ALSO has him fighting in Panama. Are these two conflated? If they are not the same person, any knowledge to kick down on the Pennsylvania BGS? Did he go by a different name?
Not a long recorded career... The Pennsylvania BGS is written about in glowing terms by the local press. He obviously had more than two fights. The Central American BGS is here... http://boxrec.com/boxer/32796
I looked this guy up, and found quite a few references to a Pennsylvania Black Gunboat Smith in the Harrisburg Telegraph, but he seems to have been a lightweight. Maybe he really is a different person and the fight boxrec have listed for him in Panama actually belongs to the other one. Lightweight or not, he apparently tried to get a fight with Jack Dempsey at one point: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038411/1919-01-18/ed-1/seq-13/
