WHO AM I? XLI

Note: This is a Quiz about a fighter that is a personal favorite of mine, so this one will be a bit longer than usual;


I was the Lineal and Undisputed Champion of the World in my division for a couple of years;
I knocked out every fighter that I beat in World Title fights;
My record against Champions of the World is of 4-7-1;
My record against Hall of Famers is of 4-8-1 and I scored knockouts against the two that I beat;
Between 1908 and 1916, I faced at least one All Time Great fighter per year...every year;

I was raised in a farm. It was a tough business with few monetary gains and my dad struggled a lot to keep it running. Thus, at the age of 16, I decided to relieve my family of the efforts of having another mouth to feed and I left home in pursue of a better luck.
I went from selling newspapers in the streets to shine shoes, taking all kind of jobs I could in any place I visited;
One day, I entered in a gym - ironically not far away from home - and it was in that "temple" that I discovered my pugilistic tendencies;
I adopted the good old meat based diet and off I went to fight professional boxers in the Furniture City, where soon after I signed a deal with manager Frank Mulkern;
At the beginning, I was no more than a preliminary fighter fighting in local venues, already in possession of a good variety of skills but still lacking all the rest;
After a few more fights, the increasing crowds that showed up to those events adopted me as their favorite fighter and started to describe me as a scrappy brawler with insane stamina, an unbelievable chin and an iron will;
My left hook was already considered world class and my attacks to the body started to become how they are remembered today... legendary;
I was the living proof that a fighter can be made;
Billy Papke's former manager, Tom Jones, saw the potential of a great fighter and money-maker in me, and took me under his wing on the way to the top;
With all that early success, I also inspired my two younger brothers to leave the old farm and to become professional boxers;

I won my World Title against all odds in one of the most bloody contests in the entire History of the Sweet Science;
In other words, I achieved the impossible in front of 18 thousand people in an old fashion fight till the end, against a Legend of the sport that got his nickname from no other than Jack London.
He knocked me down with a right punch to the head around one hour after the beginning of the bout, but soon after, I started to prove to everyone present in that cold arena of February, that I wasn't the normal underdog they expected.
I got up from that vicious attack and I fought with all I could, battering him with non-stop punches from one end of the ring to the other.
Hours had passed since the beginning of the contest, the flesh of my face was visible to everyone, my eyes were swollen and almost closed, and my opponent was no better. Our bodies were between the color blue and purple and more than ready to be dropped in a hospital bed for weeks, with no visitors allowed. Exhausted and almost blind, I still found the energy that I needed to beat him, and in a heroic attack that convinced the old Smith to stop the fight, I finally beat the brutal Legend... an hour after that knockdown;
Many reporters on the ringside said this was the most brutal fight they ever seen, and they were right;
The day after, another enormous Legend of the fistic game issued a challenge to me in a big newspaper, for a 20 round World Title fight to be held anywhere and under any conditions that I wanted. He even stated that he was willing to post 1,000$ to bind the agreement and that he would make a side bet of 5,000$ in the city of New York. Unfortunately, he was already struggling with tuberculosis and died soon after;
I became very famous after that bloodletting title fight, true, but I was proud of my origins, and in the end, I never ceased to be my hometown boy;

Usually, a fighter's life becomes much better after a World Title is won, however, and for a number of different reasons, that was not my case;
As a Champion, I broke my arm in one fight and I broke it again in another fight just 3 months later;
I was affected by appendicitis, suffered a serious attack of ptomaine poisoning, got my ribs cracked in sparring and had the bones of both of my hands cracked and knocked out of joint;
As if that is not enough, I started to struggle with demons in my head...heavily;
A few years after I lost the Title and still bounded to the punch-drunk dream that I would get another shot to fight for it, I found myself with enough sanity to decide to go to "Cream City" to have 10 Rounds fights instead of the long wars that messed me up so much, and for so long;
However, another chapter of my life already had started before I even noticed;

By then, people already looked at me like I was from another planet, a freak, an outsider. To be franc, I felt the same, and so I went to the mountains to live with the animals and surrounded by trees;
I don't know if the bad idea was to go up there or to be back from there. What is certain is that once I returned from the mountains, like Zarathustra, I was rejected by everyone and condemn to wander to dark alleys and dead-end streets;
It didn't took too long till I started to go in and out of Hospitals and Mental Institutions;
While forced to be in those hellish hotels, I got beaten up by the staff of these places while they had me under heavy medication;
In one of the few times that I was released from those Hell holes, I looked for this butcher of a doctor in Los Angeles called Livingstone Barnes, famous for his expertise in treating Mental Illness with surgery;
Now, I must remind you that this was the dark Era of the Dr. Horrors concerning this particular Medical practice;
That said, the good doctor said the operation was a success and convinced me that I was cured;
"What a miracle", I thought. I ran immediately into all journalists I could find and told everyone I was cured and ready to fight again, as good as before;
So, as fast as a lightning bolt, I jumped to the ring at first chance ready for another fight and to prove to everyone that I still had it. However, the fight didn't went as well as expected and I got booed by everyone in the end, to the point of a couple tears starting to falling down through my old and unrecognizable cheeks while I was leaving the square;
That was my last "dance";
I denied to grant any interviews whatsoever after that or even to talk to anyone at all. As you can imagine, I was back to the streets the moment I abandoned those gloves back there;

Fortunately, a gentlemen that was a friendly promoter of mine helped me in the meantime. He welcomed me in his Boxing Gym with the fake promise that I would fight again in front of the same huge crowds as before. In reality, he just wanted to help me by keeping me away from the streets and from those murderous Institutions filled with good doctors and "modern cures";
Sadly, I was already way beyond of being able to receive any kind of help and I ended up in a Hospital once again, just to be spanked by the staff till my sixties;
In the end, I had a great boxing career, crowned with a World Title and amazing years such as 1909, 1911 and 1913;
Amongst the real tough fighters that I beat, there's Tommy Langdon, Gene Delmont, Frank Picato, Kid Beebe, Pat Gilbert and Anton LaGrave;

My life was a tough one and for me the word "mercy" have the solitude meaning of having me as the provider and never the receiver. Still, I left my mark in the ring and in life, and I'm still remembered and cherished by those who study the History of the Sweet Science with passion;

I was born in the same day as the great Italian poet and writer Giuseppe Ungaretti, author of the beautiful poem: "A Beautiful Night";



Who am I?

 

Absolutely correct!