![]() ![]() His first bout on record – in 1928 in Salt Lake City – was notable mostly for his opponent, a former Utah football player named Brick Stevens, arriving in the ring without trunks underneath his bathrobe. After three high-profile fights against Maxie Rosenbloom, he fought new light-heavyweight champion John Henry Lewis in a nontitle bout at the Armory in 1936 before nearly being stabbed to death in New York three years later. In the mid- to late 1930s, Tiger Jack Fox reached remarkable highs and lows. He was 5-3-1 in those fights, including two dominating wins, one a knockout, over Walcott, who more than a decade later would become heavyweight champ at age 37.Īnd in Spokane, he was simply the main event. Significant enough to fight for the light-heavyweight title in 1939 – one of nine bouts Fox had against world champions past, current and future. But he was a very talented fighter and one of the greats of his era, and played a significant part in boxing history.” “It’s kind of the nature of the category. “Old timers may be on a ballot for a while before they’re recognized,” IBHOF executive director Ed Brophy said. ![]() He’s going into the “old timers” category – which, to belabor the gag, could have been the case when he was still in the ring. Now another minor mystery: Nearly 70 years since his death, Tiger Jack Fox is worthy of a headline again – as part of a 13-person class being inducted this weekend into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canestota, New York. So they weren’t sure, either.Īround Spokane – his home for 20 years and 34 of his fights – it was said he was “40 going on 55,” a wink both to a rigorous nightlife and the punishment from what he boasted were more than 330 fights. The Washington State Athletic Commission finally pulled his license in 1948, ruling that fighters couldn’t be active after age 38. Fox insisted it was 1908 – except for those times he said he was “a year younger than Jersey Joe Walcott,” who was born in 1914. Boxing record books said he was born April 2, 1907. And why Spokane for a home base anyway?īut the most disputed detail was always the first: his date of birth.Ĭolumnists, matchmakers, ticket buyers – everyone, it seemed, was preoccupied with his age except the man himself. Or why did he always seem to be cadging coffee at downtown diners on a Monday, pockets empty after a Friday night payday? Then there were the murky circumstances surrounding the knifing in a Harlem hotel that likely cost him a world light-heavyweight championship. ![]() How was it, for instance, that he adopted his curious boxing style? Sketched by nearly every Spokane sports writer of his era as mimicking a man lugging two heavy suitcases, he added more cartoonish touches – thrusting his jaw forward as bait, making faces – in a rough blueprint for what Muhammad Ali made iconic a generation later. Mystery was always in Tiger Jack Fox’s corner. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |