Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Lee Savold
American boxer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Lee Hulver Savold (March 22, 1915 – May 14, 1972) was an American professional boxer who held the British and European (BBBofC/EBU) versions of the World Heavyweight Championship between 1950 and 1951, and was a leading contender in the 1940s and early 1950s. During his career he fought storied Heavyweight Champions Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano.[2] Savold was inducted into the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.[3]
Lee Savold's best selling trading card is the 1951 Topps Ringside (No. 52).[4]
According to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) records, the highest grade of this card is MINT (PSA 9) and "the second series of cards (No. 49 - No. 96) are somewhat more difficult to obtain than the first series."[4]
Remove ads
Personal life
Lee Hulver Savold was born in Canby, Minnesota (his birth was recorded in the nearby town of Marshall). His parents were farmers and ranchers of Norwegian ancestry. In his youth, he broke horses and herded cattle on his family ranch.[5]
At one time or another, he was a bouncer, bartender, road laborer, and stockyard worker. In 1944, he joined the merchant marine and took part in several convoys to Murmansk, Russia. After retiring from boxing, he worked for Local 825 of the Operating Engineers Union.
- The word "hulver" is believed to be derived from the Old Norse word "hulfr," which also referred to holly, according to etymological sources. Its association with Thor in Norse mythology also connects it with strength and resilience, as holly resists lightning.[6]
Remove ads
Boxing career
Summarize
Perspective
According to a Minneapolis newspaper article in 1934, Lee Savoldi, 18 years old, was "managed by battle-scarred veteran Jock Malone, who fought the best of them in his day, and who says in Savoldi he has a proper successor to Mike Gibbons, Billy Miske and Mike O'Dowd."
In 1935, Lee Savold won the Minnesota Class A - Pro heavyweight tournament for a chance to fight future heavyweight champion, Joe Louis.
In January 1937, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) ranked Lee Savoldi as the No. 9 heavyweight for the year 1936.
On March 1, 1940, sportswriter Dan Morgan explained to Whitney Martin why Lee Savold is "another Gibbons" and "the best prospect around."[7]
"Look at him. Tommy Gibbons all over again. He feints, he shifts, he holds his hands ready to hit from anywhere. He's liable to knockout Pastor. Maybe he does tire, but Pastor will tire too. All heavyweights tire. You know the first two things a heavyweight does? Eats and sits down. Savold's that rare combination in a heavyweight, a hitter and a boxer. There aren't many of them around now. In fact, just Savold and Louis. Take Pastor, only a boxer. And Nova, and Buddy Baer, and Paychek and Roscoe Toles, all just boxers. Then there's Galento, just a hitter, and Godoy and Campolo, and Abe Simon, all freaks, meaning they're neither boxers nor hitters. I tell you, Savold is the best prospect around."[8]
On April 1, 1940, Lee Savold was featured on the cover of The Ring magazine. He was nicknamed "The Blond Bomber" by sports editor Garner "Sec" Taylor because of his blond hair and comparisons to Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber." Louis was on the previous cover for March.[9]
On September 16, 1940, Lee Savold knocked out Andy Miller in the first round. Jack Dempsey, former heavyweight champion, who was at ringside, presented the Iowa State Heavyweight Championship trophy to Savold after the bout.[10][11]
Lee Savold started off the year 1942 by registering three knockout victories in a row, finishing off Neville Beech in four rounds at Washington, D.C., Teddy Wint in nine rounds at the Coliseum in the Bronx, and Wallace Cross in nine rounds at Newark.
On May 25, 1942, Lee Savold stopped Lou Nova in the eighth round of the United States Navy Relief heavyweight bout at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., which was named The Ring magazine Upset of the Year.[12] Savold was unmarked and scored the only knockdown, catching Nova off balance with a left in the second round. There was no count. Nova was forced to surrender because of face cuts.[13]
After fighting professionally for nine of his 25 years and now the third ranked NBA leading heavyweight, Savold wanted a shot at Joe Louis' heavyweight crown. He thought he could give Private Joe Louis a good battle. "I'm in the best condition of my life and hitting better than ever before," Savold said. "This is the chance I've been waiting for, and I'm ready to fight Louis any time, any place." When questioned as to who his next challenger was for Joe Louis, promoter Mike Jacobs said, "It's all up to Uncle Sam. Joe Louis belongs in the army now and it's up to them to say when Joe can fight and whether he can fight."[14]
On July 21, 1942, Lee Savold, one of the country's leading contenders for the heavyweight championship, moved closer to a title bout by virtue of a ninth-round knockout over Bill Poland before more than 15,000 fans, whose dollars went into a "Bomber-for-MacArthur" fund. In the first minute of the knockout round, Savold let go with a left jab to Poland's throat and followed it up with a hard right to the jaw that sent the New Yorker to the canvas, where Referee Jim Braddock counted him out. The bout was sponsored by the American Federation of Labor.
On August 7, 1944, Joe Baksi won a 10-round scrap against Lee Savold in front of 16,135 fans at Wrigley Field, Chicago. The Illinois Athletic Commission sanctioned the bout as for the "World's Duration Heavyweight Championship." Savold made no excuses.
"I was in shape," he said in his dressing room, "but the maritime service took some zip out of me. I can't concentrate too much on my ring wars, especially when I'm training for a bigger battle."
On February 4, 1945, Pfc. Clarence Lasky reported in the Sport Chips section of T-Patch 36th Division News: "The exhibition bout between Jack Johnson and either King Levinsky or Lee Savold was prohibited by the Illinois Athletic Commission. Johnson, who lost the heavyweight championship to Jess Willard in 1915, now 68 years old, failed to pass the physical examination."
On March 19, 1948, Lee Savold set the record for the quickest knockout in a main event bout at Madison Square Garden by knocking out Italy's Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds. He was the underdog, and had been substituted for Joe Baksi, who had injured his ankle, on only 48 hours' notice. According to National Broadcasting Company (NBC) archives, this was the earliest kinescope recorded boxing match on Friday Night Fights (Gillette Cavalcade of Sports). Savold's record stood until Gerry Cooney tied the record by KO'ing Ken Norton in 1981. It was finally broken on March 10, 2007, when Sultan Ibragimov KO'd Javier Mora in 46 seconds. Mora substituted for Shannon Briggs on two weeks notice.[15][16][17]
On June 6, 1950, Lee Savold stopped Bruce Woodcock in the fourth round at White City Stadium, London, to win the British and European versions of the World Heavyweight Championship. Nat Fleischer, whose record book is the recognized authority in the United States, said he will list the bout as a fourth-round knockout.[18]
Lee Savold was now recognized by two world sanctioning bodies, the BBBofC and EBU (formerly IBU), as the World Heavyweight Champion. The only official rival at this time was the NBA, who recognized Ezzard Charles as the World Heavyweight Champion.
BoxRec states:
"Once upon a time there were only eight weight divisions, with only one champion per division, for a total of eight boxing world champions at any one time (sometimes fewer, if one boxer was the champion of two or more divisions at a time). A contender became the world champion only by beating the then-World Champion, or by beating other contenders in an elimination tournament for a vacant world title. In those days there were only a handful of world sanctioning bodies-including the National Boxing Association, New York State Athletic Commission, International Boxing Union, British Boxing Board of Control, and a few others."[19]
On September 1, 1950, Lee Savold was featured on the cover of The Ring magazine. Stanley Weston remarked, "As for Savold, his decisive knockout victory over Bruce Woodcock won for him the British version of the world heavyweight championship."[20]
Four days later, Lee Savold participated in a exhibition bout with future middleweight champion, Randolph Turpin, at Vicarage Road (Watford Football Club). The event was promoted by Jack Solomons as the "Grand Boxing Tournament" and featured six pro bouts.
On June 12, 1951, J. Onslow Fane, chairman of the British Boxing Board of Control and president of the European Boxing Union, withheld comment on whether the board would recognize the winner of the Joe Louis-Lee Savold bout as world heavyweight champion. "Despite reports to the contrary, we are not committing ourselves in any shape or form," Fane said. "Our official reaction to all such queries has been 'no comment.'"
On June 15, 1951, the first large scale intercity theater television went online. The Joe Louis-Lee Savold boxing match was carried to intercity theaters from Madison Square Garden, New York, on American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T Corporation) television networks. It was the first professional prizefight to be shown on closed-circuit television. The estimated 81,022 buys record was broken just a few months later in the Ray Robinson-Randolph Turpin rematch (100,000 buys).
"The Louis-Savold fight carried incredible implications for baseball," said Paul Jonas, the chief of sports telecasting for the Mutual Broadcasting System. Mutual already held the TV contract for the World Series, but Jonas envisioned vast additional revenue from theaters. "The major leagues," he said, "are face to face with a pot of gold."[21][22]
On September 9, 1951, German Boxing Officials announced that "heavyweight Lee Savold has been signed for a 10-round bout with Germany's Heinz Neuhaus. It was disclosed that German promoters Walter Englert and Joachim Goettert arranged the fight with the help of American traveling promoter Fred Kirsch."
On February 14, 1952, The Associated Press (Boxing) reported: "Philadelphia, Rocky Marciano stopped Lee Savold in the seventh round of their scheduled 10-round heavyweight fight."[23]
On January 18, 1954, Kitione Lave, the "Tongan Torpedo," who defeated the former New Zealand heavyweight boxing champion, Don Mullet, was offered a bout with the American, Lee Savold, in Sydney, Australia. J. Phillips, representative of the Australian Boxing Club, said that the winner of this fight would be matched against the winner of the Australian title bout between Ken Brady and Norm Harvey.
Remove ads
Death
Savold died on May 14, 1972, aged 57, at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune Township, New Jersey. He had been admitted a month earlier after suffering a stroke in his apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey.[24]
Professional boxing record
Summarize
Perspective
All information in this section is derived from BoxRec,[25] unless otherwise stated.
Official record
All newspaper decisions are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.
Unofficial record
Record with the inclusion of newspaper decisions in the win/loss/draw column.
Remove ads
References
Further reading
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads