Barlund was soundly defeated suffering a cut eye and chin early in the match, and winning no more than two of the ten rounds. He also had a heavily publicized win over Finland's Gunnar Barlund on Octoin a ten-round points decision at New York's St. Though Simon was the clear winner, the Detroit Free Press wrote that Toles more than held up his end of the fight looking far better in the fourth, and that only in the final rounds did Simon, showing greater endurance, take the fight to Toles. Simon performed better fighting in close, and was unaffected by a few punches to the jaw. After the fight, boxing promoter Mike Jacobs announced his intention to match Simon with Louis for the heavyweight championship. In one of his best known victories against a highly rated adversary, he defeated Roscoe Toles on December 6, 1940, in a ten-round unanimous decision before 5000 at Detroit's Olympia Stadium. Simon outweighed Blunt by 28 pounds, and persevered to pull off the win with a points victory. The last three rounds were fought in a heavy rain in the outdoor arena. In a well-attended match against a known opponent, Simon defeated Eddie Blunt in a ten-round points decision at the Meadowbrook Bowl in Newark, New Jersey on May 20, 1940. Behind in points in the first five rounds, Simon unleashed a tremendous right to the mouth of Walcott 2:32 into the sixth causing the knockout, and Walcott barely moved as he was counted out by the referee. A heavyweight in every sense, he benefitted from a remarkable sixty-two pound weight advantage in the match. In one of his most memorable victories, in a ramp up to the heavyweight title, he knocked out the legendary Jersey Joe Walcott, a future heavyweight champion, in six rounds in Newark, New Jersey, on February 12, 1940. The match took a turn for the worse in the fourth when the two boxers' heads clashed, and Reddish received a bad gash on his forehead, leading to the referee ending the fight from a technical knockout in the fourth. As was not uncommon in Simon's matches, he had a sizable weight advantage over his opponent, in this instance a remarkable fifty-six pounds. In the prior month on December 6, 1939, Simon had defeated Reddish in a fourth-round TKO in Philadelphia. Reddish peppered Simon's body and jaw with left hooks and right swings, and won an easy decision. Simon was down twice in the match, and Reddish was given eight of the ten rounds. In a rare loss on January 22, 1940, he dropped a decision to Willie Reddish in a well-attended match in Philadelphia. His two most notable early career losses against well known adversaries came against Lou Nova in 1936 in a six-round points decision and the six-foot-six Buddy Baer, brother of Max, who knocked him out in three rounds in 1937. According to most sources, in an impressive display, he won his next thirteen fights, and nearly all by knockout. Making a stir in his professional debut in March, 1935, at the age of 21, he knocked out Jim Dowling at the Jamaica Arena in Queens, New York. While pursuing his boxing career in his 20s he worked as a police patrolman in Long Beach, New York. Brown trained many of boxing's greatest including Italian champions Rocky Marciano and Rocky Graziano, and later Larry Holmes and Roberto Duran. During a High School football game, several boxing promoters in the crowd noticed his strength and told him if he pursued boxing, he could have a lucrative career and they could arrange for him to be trained by the legendary trainer and cut man Freddie Brown. He was a star lineman on his high school football team and was an interscholastic shot-put champion before taking up boxing. Simon was born to Jewish parents Max and Rose in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York on May 30, 1913, and attended John Adams High School. After retiring, he became an actor and had roles in two of America's best-known movies about boxers, Academy Award winner On the Waterfront and Requiem for a Heavyweight. In 1940, he was rated the sixth best heavyweight in the world, and would rise higher in the next two years. He was managed for most of his career by Jimmy Johnston, and trained by Freddie Brown. He fought Joe Louis for the world heavyweight title twice. Abraham Simon (– October 24, 1969) was an American professional heavyweight boxer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |