Tommy Gibbons

Tommy Gibbons ( born March 22, 1891 in Saint Paul, † November 19, 1960 ) was an American boxer. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.

Professional career

The Irish -born gibbons in the footsteps of his older brother, the world-class middleweight coupler Mike Gibbons, who, as he fought against Harry Greb and lost. Both were defensive artist.

Gibbons began his career in 1911 as a welterweight and then denied fighting against the world class middleweight. They are difficult to classify from today's perspective, because many in the so- called "no -decision era " took place, where official point judgments were forbidden.

Except against Greb fought against George ( " KO" ) Brown, Joe Herrick, George Chip, Gus Christie, Silent Martin, Billy Miske, Clay Turner, Burt Kenny, Georges Carpentier and Chuck Wiggins.

The Shelby fiasco

Gibbons became famous but by his failed title fight in the heavyweight division in 1923 against Jack Dempsey. Shelby, a 2500 -strong community in the middle of nowhere in Montana wanted to catch a supposedly lucrative fight and stepped up to the Dempsey management. Jack "Doc" Kearns, Dempsey 's manager, asked the then enormous sum of 310,000 warranty U.S. dollars. He also wanted to bring his own referee, James Dougherty. This was granted and built a huge arena with 40 208 seats, but only 6000-7700 paid ( depending on the source ) spectators came. Two weeks before the fight had even looked even bleaker, as only about 1,500 tickets had been sold. Gibbons had agreed to be paid from the profits. Since it was the biggest flop of the boxing history, he saw a penny. He lost after all, only on points in a boring fight. Shelby was ruined and three banks went broke because they had the sum guaranteed.

End of career

Against Gene Tunney Gibbons went in June 1925 for the first time KO and finished his career then.