Fight:82405

Freddie Mills 174 lbs beat Jock McAvoy 170 lbs by RTD in round 1 of 12

• Date: 1942-02-23
• Location: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, United Kingdom
• Referee: Ted Broadribb

Freddie Mills, England's boxing find of the war, scored a quick victory over Jock McAvoy Monday when an injured back forced the British middleweight champion to retire at the end of the first round of the scheduled 12-round bout. The match was to obtain a challenger for Len Harvey's light-heavyweight title. Mills, 22-year-old Bournemouth boy, is regarded as promising heavyweight material and a number of impressive victories in the ring have made him one of the best drawing cards in Britain. The unsatisfactory ending to the most important fight of the war came just before the bell when McAvoy stopped fighting and slumped into a corner in pain. A doctor said later he had sprained a muscle behind his left kidney. Mills, who outweighed McAvoy 174 to 170 1/2, had been expected to win but the crowd, filling every seat in massive Albert Hall, had hoped for a close fight in view of McAvoy's greater experience. [Winnipeg Tribune, Tuesday, February 24, 1942, page 12.]