Les Darcy

[thunderfromdownunder]

recently hired and watched "the les darcy story" on vhs.
it was good because i dont really know a lot about the man many consider to be my countries finest boxer ever. only 4 of his fights were ever caught on film and it shows most of all of them...by far the most impressive one was his 9th round stoppage of former champ george chipp.

anyways i got some questions for those who know more about him...

1. what was his level of competition like?....i can look at all the records here on boxrec but im sure that wont tell me all that there is to know.

2. do you think Les could have competed with the greats of the MW division?

&3. what makes people rank Les Dracy ahead of Jeff Fenech on Australian p4p lists?
comments and opinions would be appreciated
thank you

[Sundance Kid]

Thunder, your man Les Darcy was a revelation.

Had he lived, it was Nat Fleischer's opinion that Les might have been greater than Stanley Ketchel.

The level of Darcy's competition was the highest possible. George Chip, Jimmy Clabby, Eddie McGoorty and Jeff Smith were the best men of the day. Les beat them all before his death at 21.

Heavyweight Fred Fulton broke Darcy's jaw in a training session, and Les died from tooth poison and pneumonia.

Eddie McGoorty himself was a wonder. He was addicted to the drink yet beat some of the greatest middleweights around.

MIKE CASEY

[Les Darcy]

I'll sound a little biased because of my name, but Darcy was a great fighter. The only two middleweights of the time he didn't beat were Mike Gibbons and the real champ Al McCoy so he fought good opposition.
Sundance Kid, are you sure it was Fred Fulton who injured Darcys mouth leading to the blood poisoning? I read that it was from a fight with a local heavyweight Harold Hardwick where Darcy had a couple of teeth knocked out that caused the blood poisoning? From what I've read of the Darcy-Fulton spar, they took it easy for a round then Darcy nearly knocked Fulton out in the 2nd round and his corner stopped the session. BTW, are you Mike Casey of Grandslampage.net? If so, I'm a big fan of your site and articles.

[Sundance Kid]

Hi Les. Thanks for your comments.

The story I got on the broken jaw was from an old boxing writer called Denzil Batchelor, who was a contemporary of Darcy and a great admirer. It was Batchelor who claimed the poison resulted from Fulton breaking Les' jaw.

Others, like Fleischer, credited Darcy's death to pneumonia and a broken heart through being hounded by the authorities for being a war 'slacker'.

It's difficult to get the definitive version, which I'm trying hard to do, as I want to do a big piece on Les at some time.

Yes, I'm Mike Casey of Grand Slam - thanks for your kind words, Les, and I'm glad you enjoy the articles.

[Les Darcy]

That's a pretty credible source you have. In the Hardwick fight he had either a tooth or several teeth knocked out and the Dentist whofixed them didn't do a great job. The pneumonia from what I've read came as a result of the blood poisoning and from what I understand was recorded as his official cause of death.
It's good to see Darcy high up on your middleweight list on your site, I find he's extremely underrated by most historians. Actually, I think it's good that your all-time rankings are on your site. It's good to read the lists of historians without having to go hunting through search engines for them.

[KOJOE90]

http://www.dinkumaussies.com/PIC/Les%20Darcy.jpg

[bollox]

I thought Les was poisoned by the Americans, just like Pharlap (insert pinnocchio emoticon here)

It's almost a given that fighters tha die before their careers are over naturally, end up with a legacy that may be greater than their achievements or talent. I'm not saying that Darcy is today overrated but like Sal Sanchez, you just don't know how it all would have ended do you??

[Boilermaker]

Thunder, your man Les Darcy was a revelation.

Had he lived, it was Nat Fleischer's opinion that Les might have been greater than Stanley Ketchel.

The level of Darcy's competition was the highest possible. George Chip, Jimmy Clabby, Eddie McGoorty and Jeff Smith were the best men of the day. Les beat them all before his death at 21.

Heavyweight Fred Fulton broke Darcy's jaw in a training session, and Les died from tooth poison and pneumonia.

Eddie McGoorty himself was a wonder. He was addicted to the drink yet beat some of the greatest middleweights around.

MIKE CASEY

Mike, you have a great source about the Fulton story but are you sure he didnt get the broken jaw part the wrong way around? I am not sure if you still post on this sight (I am guessing not). But i would love to hear more about what your conversation with Denzel Batchelor or get a link to that Les Darcy article, if you ever wrote it.

The common story (as told by Jack Dempsey ) is that Darcy forced Fulton to retire in the second round. This new version, I have never heard, but it is certainly interesting and provocative.

[bollox]

There's a million page thread about Darcy on esb and about 50 of those pages are about the Fulton spar. It's beenn disputed that it even happened according to some posters

[Bladder]

There's a million page thread about Darcy on esb and about 50 of those pages are about the Fulton spar. It's beenn disputed that it even happened according to some posters

I thought that thread was deleted ..... as well as half the contributors being banned!

[bollox]

There's a million page thread about Darcy on esb and about 50 of those pages are about the Fulton spar. It's beenn disputed that it even happened according to some posters

I thought that thread was deleted ..... as well as half the contributors being banned!

Bummer. There was some great references and info in the thread. It seemed to me Klompton was pretty hard done by when a few gave it but couldn't take it back, then spat the dummy

[Boilermaker]

There's a million page thread about Darcy on esb and about 50 of those pages are about the Fulton spar. It's beenn disputed that it even happened according to some posters

Yes, I was aware of that thread

Klompton's trouble over there was unrelated to that thread and something supposedly about an argument with Alan Sugar. But, the deletion of that thread did result in the retirement of one of the all time great posters from over there ... or worst depending on your point of view.

[Bladder]

Klompton's trouble over there was unrelated to that thread and something supposedly about an argument with Alan Sugar.

Alan Sugar (Ronaldo Ice Tea) started posting on that thread purely to attack Klompton but was really only making himself look a twat ..... and then a few others started taking the piss out of him and they got banned. All Klompton did was respond in kind to him.

[Tinnie]

Thunder, your man Les Darcy was a revelation.

Had he lived, it was Nat Fleischer's opinion that Les might have been greater than Stanley Ketchel.

The level of Darcy's competition was the highest possible. George Chip, Jimmy Clabby, Eddie McGoorty and Jeff Smith were the best men of the day. Les beat them all before his death at 21.

Heavyweight Fred Fulton broke Darcy's jaw in a training session, and Les died from tooth poison and pneumonia.

Eddie McGoorty himself was a wonder. He was addicted to the drink yet beat some of the greatest middleweights around.

MIKE CASEY

Mike, you have a great source about the Fulton story but are you sure he didnt get the broken jaw part the wrong way around? I am not sure if you still post on this sight (I am guessing not). But i would love to hear more about what your conversation with Denzel Batchelor or get a link to that Les Darcy article, if you ever wrote it.

The common story (as told by Jack Dempsey ) is that Darcy forced Fulton to retire in the second round. This new version, I have never heard, but it is certainly interesting and provocative.

The earliest version of the story was from Mick King late in 1917 after Les had passed.

[Boilermaker]

What is the deal with changing names to Allan Sugar? Weird

[Boilermaker]

What is the deal with changing names to Allan Sugar? Weird

No one? :??

Anyway, back to topic. Here is a good article about Tommy Ryan and his proposal to fight Tommy Ryan. Tommy is rightfully referred to as the greatest middleweight of the time outside of Bob Fitzsimmons. He is definitely an underated great. I find his record to be very, very similar to Sugar Ray Robinson's and he probably doesnt deserve to rank all that far behind Robinson.

http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2016 ... ehtml&.pdf

[Bladder]

What is the deal with changing names to Allan Sugar? Weird

No one? :??

We are not allowed to use Ronaldo Ice-Tea's real name here ..... for pretty much the same reason everything went mad on Eastside recently

[Boilermaker]

Just a tiny little more on the Darcy Fulton rumours. Mick hawkins is confirmed as one source who viewed the fight.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article ... by=dateAsc

their is an article in the Mirror Newspaper which is curently being digitised where they apparently look into the truth of this rumour. It will be most interesting to see what they could dig up back in 1917 when they looked at this story.

[Boilermaker]

Here is what they could dig up on the subject back in 1917.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article ... rchLimits=

WF Corbett does seem confident it didnt happen, though he would have been in california as opposed to new york, so that isnt all that convincing. It is also interesting hat Mick Hawkins is quoted (second hand) as not knowing anything about it. the other quoted guys seems to me no more than guessing. If anything, i suppose this small article goes a little against it happening but not really anthing one way or the other.

[stevedoc]

What do we know about this Aussie terror.

[Tomasino]

What do we know about this Aussie terror.

He had a ton of potential and beat some very good men while still young. A murderous puncher by all accounts and a tragedy he died so young.

[doug.ie]

When Les Darcy died aged 21, his body was put on view for almost four years !!...according to this..

Quoting biographer Peter Fitzsimons from his book - 'The Ballad of Les Darcy'...
"For as long as four years after Les Darcy's death it was still possible to view his body in his glass-topped coffin in it's vault, at which point the deterioration was marked enough that the vault was closed permanently."