[professordp]

Known as someone you didn't want to tangle with, Jimmy Mallish generally didn't look for trouble. He was the sort of fellow you gave a little more space if you encountered him in a crowded Hull City, Quebec pub.


Jimmy kept to himself and was remembered as a quiet guy who liked to take a drink, then return home to his wife and four children. But Jimmy also liked to fight. Not a bar room brawler, he expressed his aggression in the boxing ring. In 1971 he crowned both Quebec's Golden Gloves champ and Canada's amateur middleweight king.


He caught the eye of local boxing impresario, Vern Stevenson who did something that, on the surface, appeared totally illogical...he renamed Mallish "Jimmy Nobody"!


Jimmy Nobody soon became part of Vince Bagnato's stable (Bagnato is best remembered for putting heavyweight Bob Felstein in a top hat and tails). Bagnato believed the boxing was part sport and part entertainment. He noted, "there are more nobodies than there are somebodies". Bagnato planned a campaign to promote Jimmy that included buttons reading, "Be A Somebody, Support Nobody".


Local boxing scribes ate the angle up, "Jimmy Nobody wanting to be somebody" and gave him coverage in their columns. Thus it appeared that Jimmy was on his way.


His first bout, nevertheless, was a managerial misjudgment of major proportion. Pitted against ring savvy Joe Durelle in a scheduled ten rounder, Nobody was counted out in the fifth. He bounced back against Alvin Gibbs, who was making his pro debut, winning a four frame decision.


With a record of 1-1 some strings are pulled, and he's on the undercard for a six rounder with the Ali-Chuvalo NABF title match in Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum in May 1972. Jimmy outpoints his opponent, Les Vegas (gotta love the name!) then goes 2 and 1 in his next three bouts.


This takes us to December 1972, and Nobody's facing Canadian icon, Donato Paduano. The fight's a ten-rounder, but it's being held in Jimmy's hometown, Hull City, before a highly partisan crowd. The local press hyped the contest as "The Slugger versus The Boxer". Nobody was the former.


Although Jimmy came out strong and won the first round, it was a mismatch. From the second round on, Paduano took command. He put Nobody on the canvas three times before referee Gaby Mancini stopped it in the fifth.


Still the local boxing writers gave Jimmy credit for having "heart". He wasn't counted out despite being floored three times. The general consensus was that he was "green", but with the proper guidance, he had a future as a boxer.


Sadly, that future was never to be realized. A few weeks after the Paduano match, Jimmy and two friends had a night on the town. They entered a local restaurant after closing time and a scuffle ensued. A waiter struck Jimmy on the head with a softball bat. Two days latter he died.


Jimmy's wife, Lorna, delivered an impromptu epilogue. "I wish he hadn't become a boxer so everyone would have left him alone. They always tried to goad him into fights."


Following Mallish's funeral, there was an attempt to help his widow and her four young children with a couple of fundraisers, but it soon subsided as people moved on.


Lorna Mallish made the definitive statement when she opined, "my husband couldn't get insurance because he was playing with death every time he stepped into the ring."


These are some the things you see when you dare to lift a log in the forest.