Flyweight wasn’t a lot of a division till Jimmy Wilde got here alongside. Whereas not the primary of the little champions, “The Ghost With the Hammer in His Hand” confirmed that even the pint-sized pugilists may carry a murderous punch and he reigned as flyweight’s greatest for the higher a part of a decade. Ready within the wings was the person who would change into the primary Filipino world champion, certainly the nation’s first preventing sensation, Francisco Guilledo, aka “Pancho Villa.”
In 1922 Worldwide Information Service editor Davis J. Walsh wrote, “[Villa] is yards sooner than any fighter we’ve seen in an American ring in ten years, hits from any angle with uncommon accuracy and appears to pack a punch for a bit man.” In 1923 Villa defeated an getting old Wilde and turned the division the wrong way up, however simply two years later a surgical procedure complication took Villa’s life and left the division with no ruler. Enter Fidel LaBarba, 1924 Olympic gold medalist.
In his first ten fights as a professional, LaBarba had confronted future welterweight champion Jimmy McLarnin 3 times and Newsboy Brown as soon as, failing to defeat both of them. However the expertise he gained little question aided him in bout quantity eleven, when he captured the vacant world flyweight title by choice over Frankie Genaro, who himself had bested the late Villa 3 times. Although flyweight nonetheless wasn’t a lot of a glamour division and performed second fiddle to the larger males of the Nineteen Twenties, it nonetheless produced a heap of drama throughout that decade, with LaBarba’s brief, potent reign a serious a part of it.
Combating out of Los Angeles, LaBarba averted defeat via 14 matches as champion, even when he couldn’t handle to greatest Brown, settling for a second draw with him in late 1926. Then got here rumblings of one other champion, a fighter from Scotland named William “Elky” Clark, who challenged the legitimacy of LaBarba’s crown.
Following some gentle verbal sparring via the press, Clark’s supervisor Charles J. Harvey bought permission to ferry Clark from Scotland to America, however there remained two issues. First, most of LaBarba’s bouts after profitable the title had been contested at catchweights and there was doubt he may make the flyweight restrict. Plus, the New York State Athletic Fee was reluctant to sanction a LaBarba vs Clark struggle with out the latter first proving himself towards lower-level American opposition.
By mid-November of 1926 at the least one of many points had been resolved because the president of the Nationwide Sporting Membership of London, Peg Bettison, stepped ahead to vouch for Clark’s skills, permitting the NYSAC to sanction the match. Famed promoter Tex Rickard would promote the conflict, whereas Madison Sq. Backyard matchmaker Jess McMahon dealt with the finer particulars.
Any questions relating to the legitimacy of LaBarba’s declare to the world title figured to be confirmed someway with this eagerly anticipated worldwide conflict. As Walsh wrote in mid-December: “It could be that the assembly of Clark and LaBarba will reclaim among the stark internationalism that made the matches between George McGovern and Pedlar Palmer, Jem Driscoll and Abe Attell, what they had been. That type of factor, reenacted, would do boxing no hurt.”
Including an additional dose of historical past was a pre-fight report from the Related Press stating Clark can be the primary boxer to make use of the brand new transatlantic telephone system, as he had scheduled a name to The London Occasions to offer his description of the struggle the next morning.
The Backyard, jammed with 16,000 folks, watched as Newsboy Brown earned a call over Frankie Genaro within the 10-round co-feature, then waited with shocking anticipation for a bout between two males who weren’t even near being native. Pleasure was for naught nonetheless, as LaBarba handed Clark a decisive beating via 12 rounds. What might need been a hard-fought battle to resolve a world, undisputed flyweight champion wound up as a substitute marking a violent finish to Clark’s profession.
Proper arms dropped Clark as soon as within the first spherical and thrice within the third, whereas a left to the physique decked him within the eighth. An AP report learn, “Solely his gameness and defensive intuition saved the stoop-shouldered wobbling little invader from a knockout within the face of a gentle hail of hooks, jabs and uppercuts that got here from all instructions.” Editor Walsh remarked, “I doubt if the Britisher landed multiple clear punch per spherical whereas the left handing he took was against the law.”
For extra years than not, the lineage of the flyweight class has been murky, however within the yr after its formal inception the division provided fixed motion and alter. Following LaBarba vs Clark, boxing went on with out each fighters, as it could have performed anyway; LaBarba vacated the title that fall to attend Stanford College, whereas the loss aggravated a lingering eye harm for Clark, making it his final struggle. Clark’s spouse didn’t fret although, saying she can be pleased to see Elky return to his former vocation as a riveter and to play the accordion once more, as he had in occasions previous. — Patrick Connor
