[Rocco Del Sesto]

I was looking around some on the BoxingForum24 website and came on this discussion about Lem Franklin. Heavyweight from the late 1930s through to 1944 when he tragically died from injuries suffered in his last career bout. A real good heavyweight with a punch some opinions place on par with Joe Louis at the time.I did some looking around the Times and found a good number of articles about Lem.

I did a bit a play testing of the TBCB3 DB Team rating I have and results were pretty good so I did nothing with the rating itself. I did some updating of this fighter record and bio to post here and hope you enjoy the updated file.

Lem Franklin - HW - USA
Career Record: W32(KO 28) / L13(KO 8) / D1

Unknown information has been left blank.

New York Times article on August 4, 1944 about the death of Franklin from injuries suffered in his bout with Larry Lane on July 24th, placed Franklin born in Mobile, Alabama, won an international amateur crown and fought his way to the heavyweight finals in the Chicago Golden Gloves and National A.A.U.before turning pro in 1937. Article noted that the medical examiner reported Franklin had suffered multiple concussion hemorrhages from a blow or blows to the middle of his forehead.

Some different accounts of Frankling fights in the NYTimes notes Franklin fighting out of Cleveland, Ohio so his record is changed with his hometown to Cleveland.

The N.B.A. quarterly boxing rankings posted in the NYTimes on Jan 2, 1942 showed that Lem Frnaklin was ranked the no. 2 heavyweight contender to Joe Louis' crown behind Billy Conn and head of no. 3 ranked Buddy Baer. The Ring Magazine Feb 1942 Annual Rankings also had Franklin ranked 2nd behind Conn but had Bob Pastor ranked 3rd. Buddy Baer was ranked 7th. Interesting despite these rankings, Baer was due to meet Louis for the heavyweight title on January 9th. Franklin apparently attained this ranking with 19 consecutive wins and an NC called in a bout early in the streak.

From that pinacle of his career, it spiraled down and out of the next 2 years as he lost 8 of his last 10 bouts finishing with that faithful bout against Lane.

On February 24, 1942 Franklin met Bob Pastor in Cleveland in a big production billed as possible winner being the next opponent for heavyweight champ Joe Louis. Pastor entered the ring a 13-5 underdog, registered the first full count knockout suffered by Franklin as Franklin was counted out at 2:08 in the 8th round. After about a 32 second battering that sent Franklin to the ropes, a savage right hook to the bounce bounced Franklin off the ropes and he nose dived to the canvas.

Franklin's next bout on March 30th in PIttsburg was against Harry Bobo, a Pittsburgh fighter with a dynamite right according to the NY Times piece on the fight. In turned into a shocking quick defeat for Lem. After putting Bobo down for a quick 3 count earlier in the first, Bobo bounced back and his dynamite punches sent Franklin down for a 7 count, then a 9 count on a second trip to the canvas.

June 24th, 1942 NYTimes pieces accounts Franklin's next fight, against Joe Muscato and it ends in another 1st round loss, this TKO as referee Joe Sedley stops it a 2:58 af Muscato had "slapped" Franklin around with a flurry of rights and left.

Noteable wins by Franklin included against Freddie Fiducia,Charley Belanger Abe Simon, Curtis Sheppard, Tony Musto, Jimmy Bivens, Carl Vinciquerra, Eddie Blunt, Willie Reddish, Abe Simon, Lee Savold, and Paul Williams.