Frankie Britt (Dias)
Name: Frankie Britt
Alias: Johnny Dias, Young Johnny Dias
Birth Name: John Raposo Dias
Hometown: Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Birthplace: Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Died: 1975-09-30 (Age:66)
Height: 175cm
Pro Boxer: Record
Manager: Benny Ford (in California)
Frankie Britt was a Portuguese-American fighter born in Fall River, Massachusetts, on November 1, 1908 and whose actual name was Johnny Dias. Dias took the name of Frankie Britt after another Portuguese-American fighter who had used the ring name of Frankie Britt, but whose real name was Frank Pacheco. The earlier Britt/Pacheco retired in 1923, well before Britt/Dias began his career. Thus there were two Frankie Britts, neither of whom was really named Frankie Britt!
Britt/Dias used his own name (Dias) when he began boxing. In 1932 he began to use the name of "Frankie Britt," and continued to fight as Britt until the end of his career, except during an extended stay in California (1936-37).
This situation is further complicated by the fact that there was another fighter named Johnny Dias, who came from Fall River and is actually Britt/Dias' brother, Manuel (Chick) Dias and who began his career before Britt/Dias. To distinguish between them, the Johnny Dias who fought mostly as Frankie Britt was sometimes called "Young Johnny Dias," and that name is applied to him here.
A partial record for this Frankie Britt (Young Johnny Dias) appeared in the 1943 edition of THE RING ALL-TIME RECORD BOOK. Three fights listed in that record have been deleted because they were not reported in the Boston Globe (primary reference for this record), or in any of various other sources used. These deleted fights are:
- 1935 Hookie Jackson, no location given, Draw 10
- 1936 Hookie Jackson, no location given, W 10 (for Britt)
- 1937 August 30, Sonny Jones, Holyoke, Mass., L 10
Linda Feijo, Frankie Britt's daughter, has been kind enough to check the personal data here, and to supply his photograph. Frankie worked in the cold storage facilities at Newport RI Naval Base after retirement. He received a disability retirement at age 55, dying of bone cancer at age 66.