BoxRec

..bobby dykes died on may 31. not a name for the ages, but wel known in his day. a six foot welter, he lost a squeaker to to kid gavilan for the title. this match had some historical significance. if i rememeber right, it was the first official racially mixed match in florida. i say official because there were many matches in which the "negro" fighter (to use the terminology of the day, "passed" as white. Also it was one of the rare "mixed" title fights in the south up to that time.

dykes was pretty good..he beat some good welters....drew with ray robinson in an over-the-weight match ...(which i saw on tv...actually ray won easily and actually carried him and put on what was essentially a boxing exhibition.) he had the bad luck to catch johnny bratton one of bratton's good nights and got cold cocked..first round, i think. late in both of their careers he won a decision over gavilan.

he was a top ten welter for a while..in an era of good welters.

he added a few pounds and finished his career as a middleweight. he had about 150 fights. he beat some good fighters at that weight too.

check him out on boxrec for details, as i'm ging by memory here...which was triggered off by a one line mention on a chicago sports page announcing his death.

He was a good fighter and a succesful buisnessman after his career was over. He packed in 146 fights into his career and fought some great fighters . Had some real solid wins as well . And he hung em up before he was 30. Dykes seemed like a very sharp guy.

http://www.oldpostcards.com/media/spo005404.jpg
R.I.P.

http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=11094

Dykes was a good fighter. He lost a majority decision to Ray Robinson in a non title fight and lost a controversial decision to Kid Gavilan for the welterweight title. The Gavilan decision was interesting in that Dykes would have won had the lone Cuban judge not incorrectly scored one of the rounds. Aside from that had the bout been scored on a rounds basis Dykes would have won. Very interesting.