BoxRec

Let me first say that I'm doing this out of respect for my father in law, who was a pretty good amateur boxer in his day. Around 1960 or so he had a few workouts under the tutelage of an old retired fighter named Paul Wangley. Wangley taught him to throw a right hook that was very effective, and he used it to become Minneapolis city champ in his division and win many tourney trophies. He remembers this old fellow very fondly. Recently I taught him how to browse boxrec and he was disappointed to find Wangley listed with only an undistinguished 15-15 record. He believed that Wangley had been much more successful than that, or at least had had many more fights than that.

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hu ... &cat=boxer

Is it possible that there's more to the story? I know that this wouldn't be the first case of an old fighter exaggerating his accomplishments, but I also know that there are boxers whose boxrec records are incomplete. If this is the case with Wangley, how can it be remedied? How can I find out?

fistic mystic wrote:Let me first say that I'm doing this out of respect for my father in law, who was a pretty good amateur boxer in his day. Around 1960 or so he had a few workouts under the tutelage of an old retired fighter named Paul Wangley. Wangley taught him to throw a right hook that was very effective, and he used it to become Minneapolis city champ in his division and win many tourney trophies. He remembers this old fellow very fondly. Recently I taught him how to browse boxrec and he was disappointed to find Wangley listed with only an undistinguished 15-15 record. He believed that Wangley had been much more successful than that, or at least had had many more fights than that.

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hu ... &cat=boxer

Is it possible that there's more to the story? I know that this wouldn't be the first case of an old fighter exaggerating his accomplishments, but I also know that there are boxers whose boxrec records are incomplete. If this is the case with Wangley, how can it be remedied? How can I find out?

Yes, it is possible.

For example, the record of Sid Barbarian [dangerous contender for the lightweight title who Benny Leonard would not fight]

is obviously very incomplete on boxrec.

QUESTION:

Do you have access to local newspapers going back to the time Wangley fought?

If you do, copy Wangley's record as it appears on boxrec,

take it to the library and look up the sports page for the dates of the day after his fights took place.
These writeups may lead to further and further info of the type you want.