New HW Boxers Rated

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Well this is it...we top things off with Allen Williams

This one you'll see my rating is quite a bit different to Lee's.

Allen Williams - Australia - HW
Career Record: W39(KO 23) / L8(KO 5) / D1

TITLES:
Australia-New South Wales State Heavyweight Title
Australia Heavyweight Title
South Pacific Heavyweight Title

Unknown Information has been left blank.
DOB would appear estimated in boxrec.

Original Rating by Lee Skye

Frist won the Australia HW Title defeating Ken Brady in May 1955 and held it til he was defeated by Steve Raduly in November 1959.

In the March 1953 Ring Ray Mitchell noted under his News from Sunny Australia as Williams becoming a heavyweight title contender in Australia. He defeated Norrie Bell in Dec 1952 to win the New South Wales State HW Title.The June 1953 Ring ran a short account of Williams next fight which took place in Singapore against Alex Buxton, British Empire Middleweight contender who gave away 32 pounts (33 by BoxRec) to Williams who proved too slow to handle Buxton but managed to last 10 rounds.

After beating Rudy Crivic twice including defending his NSW Title and then beating Kelly Couper and top Australian HW Ken Brady, Williams finished 1953 with a 2nd successful defence of the NSW HW Title beating Doug Brown. This was all good to earn Williams raning in the Class B heavyweights in the Feb 1954 Ring annual ratings, continued to be rated that in 1955.

After defending his NSW HW title against Ross Jenkins Sept 1954, Williams went on to draw 12 rounds with Kitione Lave and then on a 15 round decision against Ken Brady in May 1955 to take the Australian Heavyweight title. The Sept 1955 Ring account of the fight was very brief accounting only their fight weights and that Williams "was too smart". It did earn him a jump for the first time in that month's Ring British Empire HW rankings, all the way to #7. Interesting though the 1956 Annual Ring ratings they still placed him with the B group.

A pretty good article in the Oct 1956 Ring on Williams recounts his fights in Fiji traveling there just days after beating Ernie Hughes defending his Australian title and took a 15 round decision against Tom Hini, a guy with a 1-1 record to win what they called the South Pacific Heavyweight Title.

After winning the Australian Heavyweight title against Ken Brady in May 1955, Williams went on to defend his title 10 times, second only to the 11 defenses by Bill Lang who held the title from 1907-1910. Williams last defense on November 30th 1959 as a "pathetic" showing according to the March 1960 Ring account of the fight. Writer Ray Mitchell described Williams a shell of his former self of his earlier days as the Australian champ.

June 1954 Ring notes in an account of Williams April 1954 TKO loss to Kitione Lave and that Lave sent Williams down to the canvas for the first time in Williams career. The Sept 1954 Rings notes that Williams went to Inverell with an offer for a fight and beat his opponent, Joe Dargin so quickly that he was coaxed back into the ring to take on a local heavyweight, Soctty McDougall. McDougall managed to last to the 3rd. This last paragraph you'll see it out of order like this in the Biography. Should have been more to the top. Not sure how I did that.

So what next??!!!

[Rocco Del Sesto]

So I was reading a good article in the January 1952 Ring on Joe Louis’ last fight against Rocky Marciano. Nat Fleischer who wrote the article made some comment to the affect of maybe this being the dawn of some fresh young talent to imerge onto the boxing scene. As specifically I’m sure he was thinking of who might come up to over take the old timers like Charles and Walcott amongst other heavyweights. Got me interested to look at who was there at that time in the late 40s to early 50s dominant amongst the heavyweights between Louis’ first retirement and the Marciano/Louis fight.

I’ve started looking at some of those fighters. One thing that seems to stand out is there not being any real dominant true heavyweights. A number of onetime or current light heavy fighters aspiring to move up and take advantage of Louis’ growing age in the late 40s? Started doing some updating of the fighters files that I have, most of which from the official database. Maybe start posting something’s in the near future on this. This has gotten my interest up more on this era of boxing than I have ever had.

[Hootowl9]

Graveyard Walters - HW
Career Record: Won 1(KO 1) / Lost 1(KO 1) / Draw 0
(BoxRec #18099)
================================================== =========
1952-12-01 Walters defeats LHW The Panther (BoxRec #204717) by KO rd 2/?

1952-12-08 Walters lost to HW Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams (BoxRec#9382) by KO rd 2/10
(This was William's 24th straight win and 23rd by knockout.)

================================================== =========
Perhaps Walters moniker of "Graveyard" was given more consideration as it appears he moved on to other life opportunities.

[Hootowl9]

Henry Wacker - HW
Career Record: W17(KO 11) / L7(KO 1) / D1
Debut: 1938-07-25
Residence: Taylorville, Illinois, USA
Birth Place: Taylorville, Illinois, USA
1930's HW (BoxRex#40439)

I'll be posting some more HW's I use in my uni. as I tend to rate them. Always a sucker for a name at times.

Little testing so hope these are useful to some.

[Hootowl9]

Johnny York - HW
Alias: (Yorck)
Career Record: Won 8(KO 5) / Lost 13(KO 2) / Draw 1
Debut: 1953-06-25
Residence: Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA
BoxRec #29417

[Hootowl9]

Henry Culpepper - HW
Career Record: W3(KO 1) / L3(KO 1) / D0
(BoxRec#34453)
Alias: Super Pepper
Debut: 1971-07-08
=======================================
Culpepper fought his first four bouts in the United States at Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles posting 3 win's & 1 loss vs really no one of note.

Beat John McGauhey ( KO 1/ 4) - Fred Everett (Pts 6/6) - Howard Smith (Pts 6/6)
Lost to Vic Scott ( KO 1/4)

Culpepper then travels to Japan to fight HW Alonzo Johnson (#9369) With a record of 23(6) - 18(5) - 1 at Nippon Budoakn. Culpepper takes a loss by Pts going 10 rounds with Johnson. This was Alonzo Johnson's last fight as he was fading at the end of his career, losing his prior 6 bouts vs good competition. Alonzo Johnson was also a sparring partner for Muhammad Ali.

Culpepper then returns to the United States to fight HW slugger Leroy Jones whom was 7-0 at the time, at the Silver Slipper, Las Vegas. Culpepper takes a loss by UD going 8 of 8 rounds vs the hard hitting Jones. Appears that was the end of boxing for Culpepper, still his last two bouts were good fights.

[Hootowl9]

Jim Cooper - HW
Career Record: Won 16(KO 6) / Lost 14(KO 13) / Draw 1
Hometown: Bellingham, London, England
(BoxRec #29786)
Alias: Twin George
Debut: 1954-09-14
HW Sir Henry Cooper's twin brother.

(My take on Jim Cooper.)

[Hootowl9]

Don Friend - HW
Career Record: W0(KO 0) / L8(KO 7) / D0
Residence: Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Debut: 1930-03-24
(BoxRec #121726)

Sorry, just had to post this guy.
A nice "friend" opponent to start a career. The guy actually faced a couple of somewhat fairly decent fighters. (Or took a dive for ?)

[Hootowl9]

Ernie Knox - HW / LHW
Career Record: Won 10(KO 3) / Lost 9(KO 4) / Draw 3
Alias: Rainbow
Debut: 1957-10-04
Residence: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
(BocRec #10839)

Ernie Knox died from a subdural hematoma on the brain on October 16, 1963, two days after he lost to Wayne Bethea by a ninth-round knockout.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Mentioned a week or so again about reading a article from Ring 1952 about the sense that heavyweight boxing was in a downward turn in quality and had "grown old". In need of new young talent to take up the reigns of the heavy division. I've been looking on line finding different articles, reprints of newspaper articles about different heavyweight fighters and the fights in the post WW2 era up into the early 1950s. I've found more discussions about that perceived state of the heavyweight division.

As mentioned before it's gotten me interested in looking at some of the heavies from this era and looking at that transition period of end of The Brown Bomber's reign as heavyweight champ into the 1950s. I'm starting this new tread, A New Era for Heavyweight Boxing to look at that passing of the torch from Joe Louis. It was a passing that the boxing world appeared to struggle with for awhile. Between Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano there appeared mix of things happening to find a successor to Louis. Walcott and Charles were of course the big names and the titled champions in that time, but, interesting to read that they did not appear to many it seemed to be the real answer to The Brown Bomber's deserving replacement.

This may turn into more of blog kind of thing. I don't know, but I hope also to explore these heavyweights of the late 40's early 50's and offer anything I can on them that may already be in the game or come across some new "minor gems".

[Rocco Del Sesto]

When Joe Louis' military career and World War II ended the boxing world awaited Joe's return to the ring, that return being against Billy Conn In June 1946. During the last couple weeks just browsing around the internet and BoxRec I can across that BoxRec has listings of what they call National Boxing Association's Quarterly Ratings. Never realized those existed. You more in depth boxing historians, maybe you can lend some insite into those ratings history and were they ever published to the general public in some fashion like the Ring's ratings in the magazine?

So I was looking at those and looking at the post WW2 NBA and Ring heavyweight rankings for 1946 to see who were the rated heavies at that time beside Louis.

NBA Ratings of July 19 1945:
Joe Louis, Champion
Billy Conn, Logical Contender
Outstanding boxers:
Jimmy Bivins
Melio Bettina
Tami Mauriello
Joe Baksi
Lee Oma
Elmer Ray
Johnny Flynn

Gus Lesnevich was LHW champion and Archie Moore and Freddie Mills the top contenders of note.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

At the turn of the year 1946
and to note, I'm mentioning Light Heavyweights here because some factor very much in the heavyweight competition with Light Heavies wanting to get in on the more prestigious heavy class with it's bigger payoffs.

NBA announced ratings of Jan 15:
Joe Louis, Champion
Billy Conn, Logical Contender
Outstanding boxers listed were:
Tami Mauriello
Jimmy Bivins
Honorable Mentions:
Lee Oma
Jersey Joe Walcott
Elmer Ray
Bruce Woodcock
Arturo Godoy
Joey Maxim
Johnny Flynn
Lee Savold

Light Heavyweights
Gus Lesnevich, Champion
Logical contenders
1. Archie Moore
2. Freddie Mills
Outstanding boxers
1. Lloyd Marshall
2. Billy Fox
3. Phil Muscato
4. Anton Christoforidis
Honorable mentions
Joe Kahut
Jack Johnson
Fitzie Fitzpatrick
Ezzard Charles
Billy Grant
Oakland Billy Smith


Around the same time we have Ring Magazines annual rankings Feb 1946:
Heavyweights
Joe Louis, Champion
1. Billy Conn
2. Tami Mauriello
3. Jimmy Bivins
4. Elmer Ray
5. Bruce Woodcock
6. Lee Oma
7. Freddie Schott
8. Arturo Godoy
9. Jersey Joe Walcott
10. Joe Baksi

Light Heavyweights
Gus Lesnevich, Champion
1. Archie Moore
2. Phil Muscato
3. Billy Grant
4. Lloyd Marshall
5. Joe Kahut
6. Nate Bolden
7. Jack Johnson
8. Freddie Mills
9. Oakland Billy Smith
10. Fitzie Fitzpatrick

NBA Quartely Rankings continue in 1946:
April 9th
Heavyweights
Joe Louis, Champion
Logical contenders
1. Billy Conn
Outstanding boxers
1. Tami Mauriello
2. Jersey Joe Walcott
3. Jimmy Bivins
4. Lee Oma
Honorable mentions
Melio Bettina
Elmer Ray
Bruce Woodcock
Joe Baksi
Phil Muscato
Johnny Flynn

Light Heavyweights
Gus Lesnevich, Champion
Logical contenders
1. Archie Moore
2. Freddie Mills
3. Billy Fox
4. Oakland Billy Smith
Outstanding boxers
1. Ezzard Charles
2. Anton Christoforidis
3. Lloyd Marshall
Honorable mentions
Joe Kahut
Jack Chase
Walter Woods
John Henry Eskew
Hilton (Fitzy) Fitzpatrick
Coley Welch

NBA Rankings as of July 9 (They appear again In Jan 1947 as listed in BoxRec)
Heavyweights
Joe Louis, Champion
Outstanding boxers
1. Tami Mauriello
2. Jersey Joe Walcott
Honorable mentions
Elmer Ray
Lee Oma
Bruce Woodcock
Billy Conn
Jimmy Bivins
Tommy Gomez
Joe Baksi
Joey Maxim
Johnny Flynn

Light Heavyweights
Gus Lesnevich, Champion
Logical contenders
1. Ezzard Charles
2. Billy Fox
Outstanding boxers
1. Oakland Billy Smith
2. Archie Moore
3. Lloyd Marshall
Honorable mentions
Freddie Mills
Joe Kahut
Johnny Colan
Tommy Yarosz
Jack Chase

So I see a lot of names I at least know of but also a good number I do not know about at all. Have to look up in my data base to see if they are even there, especially with the light heavies. I see in the later half of 1946 Ezzard Charles shows up in the NBA Light Heavy rankings.

Prominent heavyweight beside Louis is Billy Conn, waiting for his rematch with Louis to get even with 1941. But 1946 would see both of these fighters appearing to be on the very downward side of their careers. Physically and ability to contend with the younger group though some not that much younger.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

1946 brings about the awaited return to the ring of Joe Louis and Billy Conn a rematch of their classic fight from 1941. Conn has not fought since very early 1942 so he’s been away from the ring for over 4 years. Louis has not done much else either officially cepting for exhibitions throughout the war. One official fight in November 1944 against Johnny Davis which the New York State Athletic Commissioned ruled Louis’ heavyweight title at stake it what was to be a 4 round exhibition. Louis KO’d Davis in the 1st round. I found on the internet a short news clipping that was from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Nov 16 1944 by a Tommy Holmes. This mentions this fight as being part of “Sgt. Joe Louis’” heavyweight champion’s current exhibition tour. “He cuffed one Johnny Davis six times about the face with left jabs. Then , the Dark Destroyer threw his right hand just once.” The writer, Tommy Holmes noted that he’d never heard of Johnny Davis from Brooklyn.

A paper called The Maple Leaf which was a publication in Europe for Canadian forces during the war ran an article in Jan 24 1945 where Joe Louis spoke of his plans he felt to be after the war to fight one more time and that being against Billy Conn and then retire. The article stated that Louis made this comment the previous summer but then was saying now he confirmed those comments but he would probably change his mind on retiring. The article notes that one thing to change his mind would probably be Mike Jacobs’ desiring to put Joe into an exhibition schedule that would be more than just the fight with Conn. Money issues Louis was in the mist off coming out of the war helped to solidify him not just fighting that one last time. In the article it goes on to account comments from Louis that “Conn is a good boxer and plenty fast, but he’s no puncher.” The article also talks of Louis having seen several good British fighters while in England, one of them being Freddie Mills: “Oh, he has a good left hook.” So setting up the 2nd Conn vs Louis fight in June 1946

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Billy Conn WW / MW / LHW / HW - USA
Career Record: W64(KO 15) / L12(KO 3) / D1

TITLES:
National Boxing Association World lightheavyweight title
NYSAC World light heavyweight title

Unknown information has been left blank.

Defeated: Tony Zale, Gunner Barlund, Lee Savold, Bob Pastor, Gus Lesnevich, Melio Bettina, Gus Dorazio, Fred Apostoli, Ray Actis, Teddy Yarosz, Vince Dundee, Fritzie Zivic, and Honey Boy Jones

William David "Billy" Conn started out career as a welterweight. Breaking his fight weights and opponents in BoxRec and An article found on the internet from a paper called the Berkeley Daily Gazette dated Feb 11, 1939 was an account of Conn's 2nd straight fight against then NYSAC World Middleweight Title holder Fred Apostoli and it stated after Conn beat Apostoli in the 2nd fight on Feb 10, 1939, Conn was officially moving up to the light heavyweight division with is ultimate goal, the heavyweights. The article notes Apostoli did not loose the fight as a title fight because Conn came into the fight 8 pounts over the Middleweight limit of 160.Conn will move up to light heavyweight to most likely take on the NYSAC LHW title holder Melio Bettina, which Conn did and defeated Bettina for the LHW crown after a tune up fight against Solly Krieger.

A case to rate Conn's career as following...

Welterweight 7/1934 to 1/1936 thru Johnny Yurcini fight
Record: W13(KO 3) / L6(KO 1) / D1

Middleweight 2/1936 to 2/1939 thru 2nd Fred Apostoli fight
Record: W32(KO 4) / L4(KO 0) / D0

Light Heavyweight 5/1939 thru 2/1942 thru Tony Zale fight
Record: W14(KO 6) / L1(KO 1) / D0

Heavyweight 1/1942 thru 11/1948 thru Jackie Lyons fight
Record: W5(KO 2) / L1(KO 1) / D0

So the file attached I've made WW and MW ratings. The TBCB3 LHW and HW ratings I did not change other than I changed the Valid as of dates to correspond to the above how I broke his career down. That's the interesting thing for me looking at these old fighters. I knew the history for the most part of the first Louis / Conn fight. Did not really know much or really anything at all about the 2nd fight 5 years later almost to the day. What I did not know at all was Conn starting out at WW and then really a good part of his career appears to be as a middleweight, more so than an light heavy as he's best known for. My take anyway.

The 2nd Conn / Louis fight did not shape up anything near what was expected or hoped for based on the 1st fight. Some deemed it so bad that a New York Representative at the time, a Donald L. O'Toole demanded that the New York Boxing Commission hold up the purses of Louis and Conn until an investigation be made into the fight. O'Toole apparently looked on the fight as a "fraud". I found this account of an article on the internet run by The Glasgow Herald on June 21 1946. Another account I found on the fight, by The Baltimore Afro American paper on June 22 said a disappointing small crowd of 45,266 paid to see the fight when a crowd of 70,000 was anticipated. Not sure why that. This account pretty much described Louis as just making short order of Conn in this fight.

So some different take on Billy Conn if you like, or not like.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Why did this guy never get a title shot??!! Ranked high both as a Heavy and Light Heavyweight fighting many of the top fighters of the 40s and early 50s.

The attached file I only updated fighter information and biography information.

Jimmy Bivins LHW / HW USA
Career Record: W86(KO 31) / L25(KO 5) / D1

Unknown information has been left blank.

Defeated: Mike DeJohn, Wes Bascom, Coley Wallace, Charley 'Doc' Williams, Ted Lowry, Clarence Henry, Pat Valentino, Turkey Thompson, Lee Q Murray, Curtis Sheppard, Oakland Billy Smith, Archie Moore, Buddy Walker, Melio Bettina, Lloyd Marshall, Tami Mauriello, Anton Christoforidis, Ezzard Charles, Lee Savold, Bob Pastor, Joe Muscato, Joey Maxim, Gus Lesnevich, Billy Soose, Nate Bolden, Teddy Yarosa, Charley Burley, Johnny Barbara, and Frankie Hughes.

Won the duration light heavyweight title by defeating Anton Christofordis and successfully defended it against Lloyd Marshall.

On Sept. 15, 1942 he won a split decision over Tami Mauriello for what as listed as the "Duration Heavyweight Title" which was up for grabs as champion Joe Louis temporarily relinquished his belt to serve in the Army.By the end of 1942 he was ranked by The Ring as the number one contender in both the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight divisions.
https://www.findagrave.com/memeorial...8/jimmy-bivins

For all his success against many of the top heavyweights and light heavyweights of the 1940s-1950s and being ranked as high as he was by the Ring and NBA it's a wonder why he never got a title shot. Joe Louis is commented to have wondered as such in an interview with the New York Times in 1948.Bivins fought Joe Louis in a 6 round exhibition in 1948 and thne in a 10 round non-championship fight in 1951, but he lived never getting that championship bout. As late as 1953 he was still ranked number 5 contender to the heavyweight crown.

Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999.

Birth name: James Louis Bivins

Inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Melio Bettina LHW/HW USA
Career Record: W82(KO 36) / L14(KO 3) / D3

His career though ranked by NBA and Ring right after the war would turn to be in it's downward swing over 1946 thru 1948 never factoring in being any kind of consideration to competing for Louis' title.

File again is just some personnel and bio updates to update your records with if need be. Bettina another of those really good light heavyweights in the 1930s to mid 1940s moving up to heavy division but never becoming a serious contender there.

TITLES:
NYSAC World Light Heavyweight Title

Unknown information has been left blank.

Defeated Tiger Jack Fox in February 1939 for the NYSAC World Heavyweight Title. Lost that title and a bout also for the vacant National Boxing Association World Heavyweight Title to Billy Conn in July 1939. Lost a return match to Conn for those titles in September 1939.

Lost a 15 round decision in January 1941 to Anton Christoforidis for the vacant National Boxing Association World Heavyweight Title when the NBA ruled that Billy Conn had relinquished the title for failing to defend it in six months and by signing to fight Joe Louis for the heavyweight title.

Bettina after fighting a 10 round draw with Jimmy Bivins in March 1945 then is not in the ring again till July 1946 to win a 10 round decision over Eddie Blunt.Bettina including that fight manages to win 12 fights over the next couple years and found him self rated back to #7 heavyweight in the Feb 1947 Ring ratings but his lone fight then in 1947 turned into a 1st round KO defeat to Gus Lesnevich. Bettina would not fight again for a year, managed 7 of those last 12 career wins but none against any top rated opponents. A 6th round KO loss to Johnny Flynn in Dec 1948 finished his career.

In 1934 he beat Tony Zale to win the Intercity Golden Gloves light heavyweight title, a competition that pitted New York's best young boxers against thier Chicago counterparts.

A good account of Bettina's career can be found also at..
https://highlandscurrent.org/2016/01...s-world-champ/

Breakdown of record LHW/HW taking Bettina's March 1941 fight against heavyweight Buddy KNox as his move to Heavyweight...

LHW W52(KO 24) / L11(KO 1) / D2
HW W30(KO 12) / L3(KO 2) / D1

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Next of the top rated late 40's HW's again one who started in WW division and worked up through MW, LHW, to HW. Least my take on it. So here's Tami Mauriello with my take on breakdown of him to the respective weight division. the HW rating from TBCB3 I did not change. I tested it some with the 61 fight HW career and results were really good so I didn't touch.

Tami Mauriello - WW/MW/LHW/HW - USA
Career Record: W82(KO 60) / L13(KO 4) / D1

Unknown information has been left blank.

Born Stefano Mauriello
An article found on theinternet,mentions his family says he was born May 24 1923. Another website,findagrave.com,also puts his birth date as 5/24/23.
www.boxing.com/tami_mauriello_a_cut_above.html

Defeated Jimmy Carollo, Freddie Schott, Jimmy O'Brien, Bruce Woodcock, Henry Cooper, Bunnar Barlund, Lee Oma, Lou Nova, Steve Dudas, BUddy Knox, and Steve Belloise. Played Tullio in the movie "On the Waterfront" in 1954. Lost in two bids at the light heavyweight title and his lone shot at the heavyweight belt to Joe Louis.

Moved to Heavyweight Division with fight against Jay D. Turner on 12/16/1941 after twice loosing to Gus Lesnevich in August and November 1941 for the NBA and NYSAC World Light Heavyweight Titles.

In September 1942 Mauriello fought Jimmy Bivins for the "duration heavyweight title" while Joe Louis was in uniform during the war. He lost to Bivins by 10 round split decision.

Mauriello's one shot at the official World Heavyweight Title came in September 1946 with a shot to take on Joe Louis but lasted only to 2:09 in the first round.

After boxing he went into acting, appearing in On The Waterfront in 1954.

Career by weight division
1939-07 WW W12(KO 8) / L0(KO 0) / D0 thru Mike Angieri fight
1940-03 MW W16(KO 10) / L1(KO 0) / D0 thru Wildcat O'Connor fight
1941-05 LHW W4(KO 4) / L2(KO 0) / D0 thru 2nd Lesnevich fight
1941-12 HW W50(KO 38) / L10(KO 4) / D1 remainder of career

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Did not do anything with the ratings attached. Updated a little data and bio info included. Found some interesting articles on a couple of his fights.

Joe Baksi - HW - USA
Career Record: W61(KO 30) / L9(KO 1) / D3

Defeated: Bruce Woodcock, Freddie Mills, Freddie Schott, Lou Nova, Buddy Knox, Lee Savold, Tami Mauriello, Buddy Walker, and Frank Poreda.

Unknown Information has been left blank.

Trainer: Whitey Bimstein

Joe Baksi took on Tami Mauriello in last February 1944 a 5-12 underdog to Mauriello who was the number 2 ranked challenger for Joe Louis' crown.Baksi though sent Tami to the canvas in the 1st round with a left hook and piled up an impressive lead to cruise to a unanimous decision.This article confirms Baksi being from Kulpmont, PA, a former anthracite coal miner.
From The Ellensburg Daily Record, 2/26/44.

The Lewiston DAily Sun, 3/31/45 accounts Baksi' unanimous 10 round decision over Lou Nova on March 30th. Baksi knocked Nova down for a 9 count in the 4th on his way to the decision. Baksi caught Nova with three hard lefts and rights to the head in the 9th to pen up a bad cut over Nova's right eye. Another Baksi left then started blood spurting from the cut. With the blood flowing freely, surprisingly it would seem Referee Ruby Goldstein let the fight continue and Nova fought gamely in through the 10th. The fighters were given an ovation from the fans at the end for a great fight.

A 4/15/47 article from the Prescott Evening Courier found on line on the upcoming fight between Baksi and Bruce Woodcock mentions that Baksi is a former Pennsylvania coal miner. This fight was being billed as the winner potentialy then meeting Joe Louis for the world heavyweight crown.The Deseret News the next day 4/16/47 account of the fight mentions Baksi flooring Woodcock five times in the first two rounds winning all six of the first completed rounds. Woodcock was bleeding and groggy when the referee haulted the fight at 1:12 of the seventh round.

Baksi' chances to climb into the ring to fight champ Joe Louis we dashed though in his next fight on July 6, 1947 Swede Olle Tanburg upset Baksi in a 10 round majority decision in Stockholm. His last big chance fight in December 1948 was a 11th round TKO loss to Ezzard Charles.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Exploring Baksi and the others thus far talked about brought Olle Tandberg in the picture, a top European heavyweight of the time. So decided to take a look at him. I did some testing of the TBCB3 rating in my data base. A good number of Olle's opponents also have in my data base and with my play testing ending rating him up some to a 7 overall. Not totally convinced that's right compared to there's. Maybe too high, but, for what it's worth..

Olle Tandberg - HW - Sweden
Career Record: W23(KO 11) / L6(KO 1) / D1

TITLES:
Swedish Heavyweight Title
EBU (European) Heavyweight Title

Unknown information has been left blank.

Full name was Olof Peder Tandberg.

Defeated Karel Sys in May 1943 for the vacant EBU European Heavyweight Title on a 15 round UD. Lost it to Sys 6 months later on another 15 round decision.

Defeated Nils Andersson on a 15 round decision for the Swedish Heavyweight Title in September 1946.

In early July 1947 he won a 10 round majority decision over Joe Baksi which thrust Tandberg into the the group of possible heavyweight opponents for Joe Louis' crown.That fight helped vault Tandberg into the NBA Heavyweight rankings in Dec. 1947 listed as No. 1 Outstanding boxer with Joe Walcott the logical contender to Louis.

A short article online from The Ludington Daily News,07/17/47, discussed Louis'lack of interest in there being worthwile opponents for him to meet and so had no thoughts to defend this title that year.Joe and consented to engage in two 10 round non-title bouts in Madison Square Garden in November and then in March the following year with Olle Tandberg maybe getting the dubious distinction to clime into the ring with Joe in the spring.It didn't happen though after Tandberg was beaten by Joey Maxim at the Garden that January.That quickly dropped Olle out of the NBA picture.

Pre Professional career, Olle was 1st in the 1937 European Championships Heavyweight and 1st in 1939. He fought in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. After getting a 1st round bye he won a decision over American Art Oliver, then was defeated by Hungarian Ferenc Nagy in the Quarter Final.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Next up to take a look at Lee Oma. Looking at these heavyweights of the 30's, 40's 50's I never realized how much many of them fought. A lot of fights many of them racked up in their careers. Unlike it seems compared to todays fighters, even those in the 60's, 70s and 80s that I was more familiar with.