BoxRec

As I have said many a time before, boxings distant history isnt my strongest subject, but I do enjoy learning new things and I especially enjoy lists.

I have noticed in my readings that alot of the fighters of the late 19th century were often known more by monickers than by full names. Monickers included Battling, Fighting, KO, Young, Kid, Dick (I am guessing its short for richard but I want to include it because there is a distinct group), King, the name of a city (ex Philadelpia Jack O'brien), Sugar, Tiger etc etc etc (any other subset you can think of that had a number of guys using it). These monickers were in intregal part of their name, often people didnt know the guys actual full name (unlike today where its the other way around and we dont know a guys ringname).

So here is my request for my knowledgable friends here at Boxers of the Past Forum. If you could make a p4p list of each of these groups (not all of them, just the ones you want to). If you want to include more modern guys who had these names its fine also (ex. if you are doing "Sugars" Sugar Ray Leonard or to a lesser extent Sugar Shane Mosely, as long as its an intregal part of their name). Also, if you want to include little bits of information (like Battling Nelson had an abnormally thhick skull, or about a guys style, or how his name came about) thats fine, but not necessary, I am more interested in the lists.

List example
"Kids"
1. Kid Chocolate
2. Kid Gavilan
3. Kid McCoy
4. Kid Lavigne
5. Dixie Kid
etc etc etc (this isnt my actual order of ratings for these guys just an example)

Young was one used in the old days.
Young Zulu Kid
Young Corbett II
Young Corbett III
Young Griffo
Young Stribling.

Im sure there are some more Youngs.Maybe some of the others here will know of some.

As far as nicknames go there are tons of guys who have thrown "Irish" in front of there name.

Irish wasn't used to describe them in the old days because they were all Irish! Plenty more "young" so and so's also, every name fighter you can think of.

Expug wrote:Young was one used in the old days.
Young Zulu Kid
Young Corbett II
Young Corbett III
Young Griffo
Young Stribling.

Im sure there are some more Youngs.Maybe some of the others here will know of some.

As far as nicknames go there are tons of guys who have thrown "Irish" in front of there name.

There are a lot of "Young" Jack Johnsons. Tim Moore who played "The Kingfish" on THe Amos And Andy television show in the early 50's boxed with that moniker.

You forgot the best one of all...

"Gunboat."

I wonder how many boxers of the past had the moniker "Money"?

Animals

Gorilla Jones
Bunny Sterling
Tiger Flores

Weaponry

The aforementioned Gunboat Smith
Bazooka Limon
Shotgun Taumilaga

Busters

Buster Douglas
Buster Drayton
Buster Keeton

After WW I there were a lot of Soldiers

Soldier Bartfield

Soldier Kearns

spider's my favourite followed by "fighting". whats the point of being called "fighting" just to stop people calling you "poncing about"

Too many "Irish" to mention

"Bombardier" Billy Wells

"The American Giant" Charles Freeman

"The Roscommon Giant" Jim Coffey

Tom Cannon "The Great Gun of Windsor"

"The Black Terror" Bill Richmond (colored fighter)

"The Black Ajax" Tom Mulinauex (colored fighter)

etc, etc, etc

There was alot of play on either appearance, name or race back in those days. What's almost over-looked is that alot of fighters ring names were based in part on where they came from. For John L. Sullivan he was "The Boston Strong Boy", for Sam Langford he was both the "Nova Scotian Gnome" and the "Boston Tar Baby."

the "boston tar baby" has to be one of the best monickers in boxing history

Boston Tar Baby, is one of those monikers that fed into both racism and pride in one's home town. Where the baby part came in, I can't say for certain, but I imagine it played into the whole "Kid" and "Young" monikers of the time, that or because Langford was practically a midget compared to his opponents.

the reason the monicker "tar baby" is so great is that it means "an inextricable problem" ie something you do not want to mess with.
add to that the fact that mr langford was a black man, from Boston and of relatively small stature and youve got yourself a damned near perfect boxing monicker

(a tar baby was originally a doll covered with tar used, i think, as a lure to catch wild animals - therefore something you didnt wanna touch!)

hell greb, that is something i didnt know at all. i guess it is true, u do learn something new every day. thanks for the insight!