Max Baer vs. Tommy Farr (1st meeting)
Max Baer 211 lbs lost to Tommy Farr 198 lbs by PTS in round 12 of 12
- Date: 1937-04-15
- Location: Harringay Arena, Harringay, London, United Kingdom
- Purses - Baer - $22,500, Farr - $15,000
- Pittsburgh fight promoter Jake Mintz announced after this bout that he would offer Farr $10,000 to come to Pittsburgh in June to fight light heavyweight champion John Henry Lewis in Forbes Field. However, Farr was already signed before this bout to fight Walter Neusel, whom he met in June in the same Harringay Arena.
- "I'm washed up. I'm going back to my ranch in California and retire." -Max Baer, in his dressing room after the fight, however, he was back at Harringay the following month to face Ben Foord.
"Tommy Farr, 23 year old Welshman, sprang into the front rank of the world's heavyweights Thursday night by registering a clean-cut victory over Max Baer before 14,000 wildly cheering fans in Harringay Arena. In the first round Farr bashed Baer with a hard left and opened a gash above the American's eyebrow. And from then on it was easy sailing. Half-blinded with the blood, Baer contented himself with desperate tries for a knockout but the knockout never landed. Each round was a repetition of the preceding one. Baer tried time and again to throw his devastating right hand into Farr's jaw. But Farr stayed away from the punch from start to finish. He stepped inside the free-wheeling swings and clubbed Maxie around with left hooks. Baer's bad eye, ripped deeply and dripping blood all the way was largely responsible for the Californian's setback. Impartial observers thought however, that the eye was only a contributing factor - that Farr had Maxie's number all the way." -Associated Press
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