It would be better to have a separate thread for new fighters from the lower weight classes.
Here is the first:
<b><font size=3>Rene DeVos</b></font>
"Little Fox"
Middleweight
Belgium
b. 1902-05-02
Career, 1917-34
<a href="http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=017902" target="_blank">Record</a>: 156-25-25 (56)
Style: Either
Fouls occasionally
CFB/S 11/11
HP 2
CKD 2
CKO 1
REC 2
CUTS 2
AP 3
KI 7
AGG 7
END 9
DEF -4
FS 1
OR 3
DP 4
CON 5
INT 9
PRF 10
FI 2
FO 2
CU 2
GK 2
CLI 70
Punches
J 25/0
H 19/1
CR 19/1
CB 18/1
UC 15/1
PL 40
CP 42
PM 62
Rate 9
DeVos was one of the greatest European middleweights of all time. He defeated Bruno Fattini of Italy for the European title in 1926, and defended it a couple of times before coming to America to fight the next year. Lew Burston, who also discovered Pete Sanstol, brought him to the States.
DeVos won a unanimous ten-round decision from Dave Shade in 1928 as part of an elimination tournament for the right to meet Mickey Walker--he won two out of three matches with Shade during his career--but he dropped a decision to Ace Hudkins at Madison Square Garden in the tourney's next bracket. (Hudkins then lost to Walker on points in 1929.) Even so, the New York <i>Times</i> described him that year as the leading contender for the middleweight crown.
By the thirties, though, DeVos was in decline. Returning to Europe, he lost to Marcel Thil and twice to Gustave Roth--the second time by knockout, ending his career.