Joe Bygraves

Joe Bygraves ( born May 26, 1931 in Kingston, † 16 January 2012) was a Jamaican boxer.

Career

Joe Bygraves, who started as a young man in Kingston with the boxes, in late 1952 left his home for economic reasons, and went to Liverpool to become a professional boxer in England. He signed a contract with Johnny Campbell, who became his manager. On 12 February 1953, he played in Liverpool his first fight against Don Maxwell at light heavyweight, he won by knockout in the first round. In the same year he remained in Liverpool victorious in his next five fights. In the heavyweight moved up, he fought on June 9, 1953 in London against Joe Crickmar and lost by KO in the 1st round. Just one month later, he joined Liverpool for revenge against Joe Crickmar and lost again, this time by tech. KO in the 5th round.

The year 1954 was marked by very many battles, to fight Joe with the intention upwards denied. And even though he had to take some losses this year, he lost eg on February 23, 1954 against the experienced former British middleweight champion Albert Finch on points, but he drew attention to himself by some famous victories over opponents. He defeated among others, thereby Peter Bates from England on July 2, 1954 in Manchester on points.

On April 18, 1955 Joe Bygraves got the chance to distinguish itself against the emerging Henry Cooper. However, he does not quite succeeded in doing so. He gave Cooper indeed a good fight, but lost this over 8 rounds on points. 1955 won Joe Bygraves in Dortmund against Hugo Salfeld from Germany in the 5th round by KO, defeating Kitione Lave from Tonga in Birmingham on points. Against the former European champion Franco Cavicchi Joe Bygraves was disqualified on 31 October 1955 in Bologna for deep hitting.

Joe Bygraves, however, had established itself in the British and European heavyweight scene. He got plenty of offers and fought very often. Great victories followed, especially late in his career, including many bitter defeats. On June 26, 1956 Joe Bygraves won against Kitione Lave in London, the British heavyweight championship by one point victory over 15 rounds. He defended this title on 19 February 1956 in London by a sensational knockout victory in the 9th round about Henry Cooper and on 27 May 1957 a draw against Dick Richardson. On November 25, 1957, he then lost his title in Leicester by a point defeat after 15 rounds to Joe Erskine.

In the following years he won, among others nor against Gerhard Zech, FRG, Franco De Piccoli, Italy & Albert Westphal from Germany. But he was defeated by the U.S. world ranking boxer Willie Pastrano, Wayne Bethea and Zora Folley, against former world champion Ingemar Johansson of Sweden, European champion Karl Mildenberger from Germany and George Chuvalo from Canada. After a defeat on 20 March 1967 in London against the largely unknown Hector Eduardo Corletti he ended his career.

Professionally, then tried to Jos Bygraves in different Matiers. He was, inter alia, also for some years a farmer in the vicinity of Dover. But the mid-1990s he returned to Jamaica, where lost its tracks. He died on 16 January 2012 at the age of 80 years.