Referee Joe Wallis

[Chuck1052]

Starting in the 1910s, Joe Wallis seems to have been the most important and most active Australian boxing referee for about three decades, a time when Australia had a terrific amount of professional boxing activity. It was estimated that he refereed between 50,000 and 60,000 bouts, including many significant ones. Wallis must've been the most portly boxing referee that I have ever seen on film, live television or in person. He was known as an able, fair and knowledgeable referee despite having an apparent lack of mobility, possibly due to his massive girth, and a tendency to allow some bouts to continue far too long, resulting in some virtually helpless fighters taking a tremendous amount of unnecessary punishment.

It does seem that Wallis has a resume as a referee which is unmatched in Australian boxing history in many ways. Yet it appears that he hasn't been inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame.

- Chuck Johnston

[Beltane]

Bit more background about Joe Wallis from these links:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wallis- ... john-11947

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18288849

[Tinnie]

Bit more background about Joe Wallis from these links:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wallis- ... john-11947

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18288849

Cheers for that

Wallis certainly did let fights go too long at times.... in a way he was the product of his times, there were plenty of referees who erred that way. There is a clip on youtube of Johnny Saxton vs Tony DeMarco ive watched several times, where although there is a bit of back and forth, Saxton ends up taking an incredible amount of punishment, to the point where i dont even know how he was standing.

Shame Wallis never wrote a book... im sure he woulda had some good yarns.

[Chuck1052]

There are a few photographs of Joe Wallis which can be found on the Trove website. Yes, the photos show that he was heavyset to a great degree.

I know a fellow from the Los Angeles area who has footage of some 1930s Australian bouts. The footage showed some extremely physical action.

- Chuck Johnston

[Alohacongigi]

Well written and very grateful to share.




แทงบอล

[Alohacongigi]

Pamplona is filled with information, offers new information for me.

[Chuck1052]

I have my doubts that Joe Wallis refereed 50,000 to 66,000 bouts during his career. To approach even a total of 50,000, Wallis would have had to referee at least 1,400 bouts a year on an average basis. An average professional boxing card usually had about five bouts at the time. Wallis would have to referee all of the bouts on five or six cards a week to come close to approaching a total of 1,400. In my opinion, the only realistic way that Wallis could have refereed so many bouts is if he also was the third man in lots of amateur ones.

- Chuck Johnston

[Beltane]

The story that Joe would have officiated in over 50,000 bouts in his career, would have to be a furphy.

Based on this physical description of Joe:

Of middle height, Wallis steadily put on weight until he was a portly fifteen stone (95 kg). Photographs of him officiating in his middle age show him in white shirt and trousers and black and white patterned shoes, with hands clasped behind his back, accentuating his ample stomach. Peter Corris has claimed that he used his weight as an asset to 'rough up' lighter boxers 'spelling in a clinch'.

If he had refereed this huge amount of bouts, he should have looked like a whippet.