02.02.2022
As if 1952 wasn’t a monumental enough for boxing, tonight’s highlight fights saw Australia and Japan on the world title scene. Through Jimmy Carruthers we covered highlights from a 1951 match, a 1952 match and then took our first step into 1953.
Yoshiro Shirai versus Dado Marino NBA/Ring World Flyweight Championship 19.05.1952
Shirai Yoshio was born on 23rd November 1923 in Tokyo, Japan. His first noted boxing activity was at elementary school where he took part in a boxing kangaroo performance for a local carnival. This would not have resembled boxing or a boxing match in the slightest as it is a total performance-based routine and clearly only mentioned on his record for novelty value.
He made his professional debut in 1943 during the war and won eight straight matches before being enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy. His style at this stage was typically aggressive, a popular approach taken by Japanese boxers at the time. He returned to boxing in 1945 but was almost forced into early retirement due to injuries he sustained in battle. Enter Alvin Robert Cahn, one of General Douglas MacArthur’s soldiers occupying Japan after the war. Cahn was a trainer who took Shirai under his wing and taught him a new, more technical approach to fighting. He won his first match under this new influence in 30.07.1948 and captured the Japanese flyweight title in 1949 along with the national bantamweight title. He would successfully defend these two titles for three years a total of five times.
Salvador "Dado" Marino was born on 15th October 1915 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He debuted as a professional in 1941 and won his first 15 bouts before losing on points to a promising Chinese boxer called David Kui Kong Young in 1943 for a version of the World Bantamweight Championship. After fighting 41 times in his home country, where he won and successfully defended the Hawaiian Flyweight title, he travelled to Scotland to fight Northern Ireland’s Rinty Monaghan. Monaghan was disqualified for excessive holding, but he would defeat Marino when the two met again for the vacant NBA/Ring recognised vacant World Flyweight title. After unsuccessful attempts at the undisputed World Bantamweight title and the Oriental Featherweight title, Marino finally won the NBA/Ring World Flyweight title in his 61st fight where he won a unanimous decision over English boxer and current world champion, Terry Allen. Marino fought 10 more times before defending his title for the first time. Marino’s career prior to his title-win had seen him fight several times in the USA, Canada, England and the Philippines. These 10 fights would see him return to Canada and Hawaii but also add a few bouts in Guam to his globe-trotting list as well as Japan. In 1951 he met Shirai Yoshiro for the first time, winning a split-decision. He also stopped Horiguchi Hiroshi in Tokyo in round eight whilst fighting under heavy rain conditions. Terry Allen decided he wanted his world title bout and Marino decided he wasn’t going to give to him. He retained his world title in Hawaii with another unanimous decision on 1st November 1951. One month later Shirai and Marino squared off for a second time this time on Marino’s home territory. The fight was very different from their first meeting with Shirai winning by seventh round technical knockout. It was a non-title bout, but Shirai and Kahn believed the Japanese champion had proven himself worthy of a shot. The two would meet back in Tokyo, Japan in May the following year. Shirai stood at 5′ 4½″. Dado Marino was 5’2” and had a reach of 64”. The fight highlights saw Shirai act as the aggressor throughout the match, taking advantage of his longer reach jab. Marino used a low lead hand guard and generally worked as a counter-fighter throughout. Neither fighter had a particularly high stoppage rate and seemed to fit the out-boxer mould. Having said this, the early rounds saw the two trade blows in the middle of the ring. Marino’s age and mileage was telling. He couldn’t seem to keep up with Shirai and used a clinch a lot to wear him down. This tactic did not work very well as Shirai appeared active to the final bell. The fight ended with Shirai being crowned as the new NBA/Ring Flyweight title. He was the first Japanese boxer to win a world title. Marino would fight one more time in a title rematch but the result would be identical and he would enter retirement. Marino retired, winning 57 of his 75 fights, 21 by knockout, losing 15 and drawing three times. Marinno died, aged 74, in 1989. Shirai defended the title four times before losing it to undefeated Olympian gold medallist Argentinian Pascual Perez. He would try again in 1955 but be knocked out by Perez in round five before retiring. His official record was 46-8-4 with 18 of his wins coming by KO. He would continue as a sports commentator and critic, founded his own sports gym in 1995 and died in 2003, aged 80, from pneumonia. Jimmy Carruthers versus Elley Bennett Australian Bantamweight Championship 14.05.1951 Born on 5th July 1929 in Paddington, New South Wales, James William Carruthers first caught the sporting world’s attention at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. He defeated Argentinian Arnoldo Parés in his second match but could not fight in the quarter-finals due to an eye injury. Under the management of Dr. Jim McGirr and trained by "Silent" Bill McConnell, Carruthers entered the professional ranks in 1950. At the same time he was working on the Sydney Docks as a wharf labourer. He found early success in professional boxing, winning his first 14 bouts, nine by knockout. One of these bouts was for the vacant Australian Bantamweight title against Eliot “Elley” Bennett. Bennett was an Australian Aboriginal boxer who seemed destined to be the first Australian to win a world title. Born 1924, probably on 3rd April, in South-East Queensland, he grew up on Barambah (later Cherbourg) Aboriginal Settlement/Mission, near Murgon, and at Mary-borough, where he attended primary school. He didn’t do well at school and left education aged 13. His father was a bullock driver as well as an athlete, and Bennett first took on this job before finding work as a cane cutter, a fisherman and a peanut harvester. Also like his father, he took to sports and enjoyed football. However, his size counted against him and he moved into boxing, training on a sawdust filled heavy bag hanging from a mango tree. He soon showed promise fighting in tent shows and graduating to the preliminaries in Mary-borough. Former Brisbane featherweight fighter turned trainer William John “Snowy” Hill took him under his wing and he began his professional career in September 1946. From 1947 to 1951 he fought a total of 33 times in the east-coast capital cities. He won the Australian Bantamweight Championship in April 1948, knocking out Mickey Francis in the third round. He then knocked out top French fighter, Emile Famechon, twice and shocked the world with an upset victory over the number two ranked Bantamweight contender, Cecil Schoonmaker, in the sixth round. Schoonmaker, an American, visited Australia and took on the fight as a warm-up for a proposed match against the current world champion, Manuel Ortiz from Mexico. In typical Bennett fashion, Schoonmaker had a comfortable points lead by round five before being sent to his knees with a fierce right hand. Another American, Harold Dade, outpointed him in 1949. Dade was the former World Bantamweight Champion having taken the belt and lost it again to Ortiz two years previously and was currently the California State champion at that division, having won it from Lauro Salas (his second victory over Salas). Two fights previously, Dade had lost on points to Sandy Saddler. He failed to negotiate a deal to fight for Ortiz’s undisputed world title and this was taken by the South African, Vic Toweel. Despite his ranking, Toweel’s management refused a fight with Bennett. The bout was to take place at the Rand Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa, and a strict colour line was drawn here. Worse than even the USA’s racist policies in boxing, South African law forbade a championship between a white fighter and a “coloured” fighter. Toweel wasn’t prepared to defend his title in Australia. Always struggling to make weight, Bennett competed in the featherweight division just prior to fighting Carruthers and won the Australian championship from Ray Coleman, becoming a dual weight division champion. His bout with Coleman, like some of his others, was applauded in the national press for being some of the most exciting “little men” fights. The next month he put his bantamweight title on the line against Jimmy Carruthers. Carruthers was 5’6” tall with a 67” reach, weighing 117lbs. He was a southpaw and appears to have been a boxer-puncher. His skills favoured more that of an out-boxer, but his end record of 13 knockouts out of his 21 wins reveals his knockout ability. Sadly, there is little data available on Elley Bennett save for him weighing around 126 lb when he fought as a featherweight, coming in at the very light end of this division. Bennett’s 63% knockout score combined with his explosive style and fast hands probably made him a slugger. During the highlights of their fight, Carruthers demonstrated some excellent outside footwork. He moved from side to side, often posting and pawing with his right lead hand to set up his powerful left. Bennett pursued him around the ring, taking punishment but also showing good defensive skills with his rear hand and also with his rolling. He used a power jab frequently along with some double-jabs and seemed to favour a right uppercut. In the 15th round both men were mixing it up hard at the centre of the ring firing off fast punches. Despite Bennett’s attempts to drive Carruthers back, the challenger used swift work to avoid the ropes and corners. The points victory went to Carruthers, but he looked the worse for wear at the end of the last round and Bennett escorted him back to his corner. After losing to Carruthers, Bennett told his trainer “Thank heaven that’s over. No more bantamweight starving for me. I feel like a free man.” He successfully defended his featherweight title until his retirement in 1954. Bennett would be credited for his sportsmanship and criticised for his lack of a hard work ethic, many felt which was reflecting in his difficulties at keeping to his natural weight division. It was once said he only fought as hard as he needed to and many years later he admitted that he never liked hurting anyone, quitting boxing because he was sick of it. Unfortunately his retirement from the ring did not bring riches. The £25,000 prizemoney he thought had held in trust with the Queensland government's Aboriginal Welfare Fund did not exist. Supposed friends advised him to sink his fishing boat in hope he could recoup on the insurance. The insurance company didn’t buy the con and he was left without a fishing business. In 1969 he founded the National Aboriginal Sports Foundation. In 1973, he was recovering from alcoholism and had lost even more money through gambling. He was living in a rented flat in Brisbane and declared himself happy: “I don’t have any cauliflower ears or other effects from fighting. I’m fit but for my wonky leg”. Five years later he was visited in prison on his 50th charge for drunkenness by an old Australian opponent, Trevor King. Bennett never married but had two sons and two daughters. Not long before he died he devastated when his son was jailed for the sexual assault and murder of a small child. Bennett died in 1981, aged just 57, of pneumonia in Bundaberg. King would later remark, “A man who had given so much pleasure to so many people died a bum. And nobody seemed to care.'' However, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, “In 1993 the boxing fraternity placed on his grave a plaque displaying the Aboriginal flag and his ring record. His elder son, Roger (1948-1997), commemorated his father’s world in Up the Ladder (1995), a play about tent boxing.” Jimmy Carruthers versus Vic Toweel Undisputed World Bantamweight Championship 15.11.1952
Jimmy Carruthers won his next five bouts before he challenged Vic “The Benoni Atom” Toweel not just for the undisputed World Bantamweight Championship but also the Commonwealth British Empire Bantamweight Championship. Prior to winning these titles, Toweel was also the undefeated South African Featherweight champion. He was the first and to date only undisputed South African world champion. This was his fourth title defence and his thirteenth fight since winning the world title. Toweel was born Victor Anthony Toweel on 12th January 1928 in Benoni, South Africa. He was the second eldest of six brothers; all groomed by their father Papa Mike to be boxers in a makeshift corrugated iron gymnasium in the backyard of his home. According to Wikipedia, “All of the Toweel brothers achieved success in the boxing world: Willie won an Olympic bronze medal and fought for a world title, Allan was a top trainer, Maurice an outstanding matchmaker and Jimmy a South African champion.” Vic Toweel chalked up an amateur record of 188 wins - 160 by knockout - and only two losses. He won all the regional championships and qualified for the Olympic team. However, Toweel lost his first fight at the 1948 Summer Olympics in a controversial decision to Arnoldo Parés of Argentina. He debuted as a professional on 29th January 1949 with a second round knockout against Johannes Landman. Under a year and a half later he won the World Bantamweight Championship, his fourteenth professional fight to Ortiz’s 111th! This was an extremely rare occurrence in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Toweel was a natural swarmer. Amongst his many nicknames were “the white Henry Armstrong” and his defining attributes were his hard work ethic, his blazing speed, his stamina and relentless punching style. He gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records for knocking down British Bantamweight fighter Danny O’Sullivan 14 times, the most number of times anyone had been knocked down in a world title fight. Interestingly O’Sullivan was yet another victim of a fighter in the Bantamweight bracket who struggled to make the weight. Toweel would also cite this problem when he went up against Carruthers, but according to Box Rec Toweel came in at 117lbs whereas Carruthers was 118lbs. Toweel was 5’5” with a 69” reach (a big ape index for a swarmer). Carruthers went in as the 3-1 underdog. The fight had been postponed a few times from October due to health issues on both sides. Toweel had been suffering from double vision due to his recent victorious rematch fight with Georges Mousse (they had drawn in the first fight) and then Carruthers had contracted a blood infection possibly caused by an insect bite to the foot. He almost lost his foot at one stage, but it only held him off for a week. Carruthers had been in South Africa since June to acclimatise to the weather and had garnered a large amount of press interest due to his open training displays that included chopping blocks of wood. His coach, Bill McConnell devised a plan to jump on Toweel early who was known for his slow starts. The footage of the fight was bad quality, but Carruthers clearly on script and the plan went better than anticipated. He took the fight to Toweel and seemed to play him at his own game. As Toweel tried to dip and close the distance he was met with a barrage of punches. Carruthers pursued the champion around the ring not allowing him to catch a break. An early left hand power shot stunned Toweel and Carruthers used his footwork to avoid being clinched. Toweel failed both to clinch and to make distance as Carruthers continued the momentum, mainly landing with his rear hand. He cornered the champion against the ropes and then straightened him up with an uppercut before knocking him through them with 10 two-handed shots. Toweel beat the count as he re-entered the ring only to receive more of the same and getting knocked down on the ropes this time by six lefts where he was counted out. It was recorded that Carruthers threw 110 punches within 2:19 minutes of the first round. I am not sure that Toweel threw one! This had been first time Toweel had been knocked down let alone knocked out. Carruthers became the first Australian to gain international acceptance for winning a world title. The last Australian to fight for a world title had been Bill Lang when he was knocked out by Tommy Burns in Melbourne in 1908. According to The Gruelling Truth website: “Other Australians had claimed world titles prior to Carruthers’ challenge but none were universally recognised. Mick King and Les Darcy were both recognised as the middleweight champion in Australia, after defeating American title claimant Jeff Smith in 1914 and 1915 respectively. Albert ‘Young Griffo’ Griffiths was recognised as the world featherweight champion by Australia and Great Britain after defeating New Zealand’s “Torpedo” Billy Murphy in 1891 but not in America and Griffo outgrew the featherweight limit before he could be matched with America’s champion George Dixon.” Jimmy Carruthers versus Vic Toweel Undisputed World Bantamweight Championship 21.03.1953 The rematch took place at the Rand Stadium again. This time Toweel looked much better prepared. The footage was slightly better two. We picked up the action in round six whereby Carruthers had only a slim lead on the challenger. Toweel was clearly more at home in trying to keep the action on the inside as Carruthers worked more from the outside. Highlights from round seven revealed more style contrasts. Toweel edged forward in typical swarming style with Carruthers back-peddling whilst scoring with shots to the head. Carruthers used footwork and his long right hand jab to keep Toweel from the in-fight game. A one-two sent Toweel’s head back and then later in the round a powerful left clearly hurt him in this round. Toweel was clearly taking a lot of damage but continued to doggedly come forward. By this stage both men were already looking tired with Carruthers the fresher of the two and Toweel suffering from at least five punches to the head. By round 10 Carruthers had his man who could no longer force him back. He hurt him with another combination and then a second one sent him down for the count. Carruthers would return to Sydney one year since winning the title to defend it against Henry “Pappy” Gault from the USA. He won by unanimous decision. As if to add more thoughts about making the bantamweight division, the bout was swiftly followed by the discovery that the Australian world champion had a 30 foot tapeworm in his stomach. Toweel fought above his weight limit in his next three fights, beating the UK’s Ronnie Clayton on points in Wembley Stadium, J’burg, losing to American Carmelo Costa on a unanimous decision and finishing his career with a stoppage of Harry Walker back at the Rand Stadium. He later moved to the country of his title vanquisher, Australia, and lived there until his death in 2008 aged 79. https://clubbchimera.com/services/
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