article by Nicholas Pucci
Boxing, in the Olympic venue, has an ancient history, if it is true that it made its debut in the American edition of St.Louis in 1904 when the home champions obviously prevail in the seven weight categories. Four years after the five-circle event returns to Europe, in London in 1908and the situation is almost identical, with the British boxers making good and bad weather beating the competition in the five scheduled races, one of which, the one relating to the middleweights tells the curious story of our protagonist today, Johnny Douglas.
Douglas, who was born on September 3, 1882 in Stoke Newington, a suburb of London, he is in fact already a good cricketer with Essexa team in which he made his debut in 1901 and which will see him engaged until 1928, so much so that playing for his national team from 1911 to 1925 wearing the captain’s armband several times and in 1915 deserve the election a Wisden Cricketer of the Yearand approaches the “noble art“since he was a boy, going on to win the Amateur Boxing Association middleweight title in 1905when he fights for the Belsize Boxing Club. He’s an excellent hitter, aggressive (curiously, in cricket he plays defense instead), his punch leaves its mark and when he performs at the 1908 Olympics, right in front of friendly audiences, The Times describes his performances as among the most brilliant ever.
The tournament takes place in a single day, on October 27, at Northampton Institute di Clerkenwelle Douglas made his debut by beating the Frenchman Renè Doudelle in the first round, knocking him out in the first roundto then take advantage of a bye in the second round. In the semifinal Douglas faces his compatriot Ruben Warnes, who goes down in the second round, and in the final he finds the Australian Snowy Baker on his waywinner in turn of the third Briton qualified for the semifinals, William Philo, knocked out in the first round.
The challenge between Douglas and Baker is balanced, even if the Englishman is superior and hits his rival repeatedly in the second round. Finally Douglas’ victory is defined with a verdict on points and years later Baker falsely accuses Douglas’ father of being the only judge of the match and thus having favored his son to win the gold medal. In truth, the referee of the match is Eugene Corri, whose vote is not decisive for the purposes of awarding the victory as two judges have already decreed the superiority of the English boxer, while Douglas senior, seated at ringside, is present in the guise of president of Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABA), with the task of awarding the medals.
That the gold one ended up around his son’s neck is just a nice coincidence… it’s not, unfortunately, the tragic existential epilogue, on 19 December 1930, when the two men, returning from Finland where they had dealt with a shipment of timber, the family business, perished in the shipwreck of the SS Oberon off the Læsø islands. United, through thick and thin.
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2023-07-06 06:31:00
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