Johnny Cuthbert

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Johnny Cuthbert
Born(1904-07-09)9 July 1904
Sheffield, England
Died29 August 1987(1987-08-29) (aged 83)
NationalityBritish
Other namesYoung Cuthbert
Statistics
Weight(s)Featherweight, lightweight
Boxing record
Total fights175
Wins124
Wins by KO37
Losses34
Draws17

Johnny Cuthbert (9 July 1904 – 29 August 1987) was a British boxer who was British featherweight champion between 1927 and 1928, and again from 1929 to 1931, winning the Lonsdale Belt outright, and British lightweight champion between 1932 and 1934.

Career

Early career and featherweight title

Born in

Sunday School classes.[1][2]

He made his professional boxing debut in February 1920. After facing inexperienced opposition during his first two years as a pro, he beat then Scottish Area bantamweight champion (and future British, Empire, and European flyweight champion) Elky Clark on points in January 1924. During a 15-fight unbeaten run between 1923 and 1924 he beat Harry Corbett and Billy Hindley, before travelling to the United States for a series of fights. After losing his first five US fights, including a defeat at the hands of Chick Suggs, he won his final fight before returning to England.

In March 1925, he lost to former British, Empire, and European bantamweight champion

Bugler Harry Lake, but avenged this two months later, only three weeks after beating Johnny Curley over 15 rounds.[3] In another successful run during 1925 he also beat Jack Kid Berg, but in August he lost to Corbett, starting a run of four straight defeats, including losses to European bantamweight champion Johnny Brown, Joe Fox, and Berg.[4]

He was unbeaten again in 20 fights between March and December 1926, including wins over Lake, Curley,

Al Brown in Paris.[7]

He challenged for the title again a year later against Corbett, but the fight ended in a draw. He regained it at the second attempt in May 1928, beating Corbett on points at

Olympia. He successfully defended the title in May 1929 against Dom Volante, and retained it in November 1930 after a drawn bout against Nel Tarleton.[8] He beat Al Brown in June 1931, Brown disqualified for hitting low.[9] His third defence, against Al Foreman (with the British Empire title also at stake), also ended in a draw. He lost the title in October 1931 when Tarleton took a points decision at Anfield. Cuthbert ran the Old Brown Cow pub in Sheffield and trained in a gym at the back of it.[10]

Lightweight

After repeatedly struggling to make featherweight, Cuthbert moved up to lightweight and after beating Volante in an eliminator faced Jim Hunter in August 1932 for the vacant British title, winning via knockout in the tenth round.[11][12] Between those two fights he lost on points to Cleto Locatelli in Paris.[13] In October 1932 he beat Tommy Bland on points but suffered a broken jaw during the fight. Two weeks later he announced his retirement from boxing.[14]

In February 1933 he came out of retirement and a month later beat Jim Learoyd at Leeds Town Hall, but lost just a week later to French champion Victor Deckmyn in Paris.[15][16][17]

He defended his British title in January 1934, losing to

NBA World featherweight champion Freddie Miller, before retiring from the sport for good.[19]

After boxing

Cuthbert had first applied for a referee's licence in April 1934, and refereed several bouts in 1935;[20][21] By 1933 he had moved to Boston, Lincolnshire, where he ran The Old Mill pub.[22] He again planned to move into refereeing in the late 1930s.[23][24] He went on to become a boxing trainer, working at the Consett Gym with the likes of Glenn McCrory, and at the Boston ABC.[25][26] He boxed an exhibition bout in a charity tournament in aid of Grantham Hospital in August 1944.[27]

Johnny Cuthbert died in 1987, aged 83.[28]

References

  1. ^ "In Charge of Boxing at Crookes". Sheffield Evening Telegraph. 13 June 1949. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Johnny Curley...". Dundee Courier. 6 July 1925. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  3. ^ "Win for Brown". Western Daily Press. 7 September 1925. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  4. ^ "Cuthbert Defeats Curley". Western Daily Press. 24 September 1926. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  5. ^ "New "Feathers" Champion". Yorkshire Evening Post. 13 March 1928. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert Draws: Grand Display with Al Brown in Paris". Hull Daily Mail. 19 November 1928. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  7. ^ "30,000 Crowd to See M'Grory's Title Bid". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 23 September 1936. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Al Brown Disqualified". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 16 June 1931. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert in Training". Aberdeen Journal. 28 September 1931. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  10. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert Beats Volante". Dundee Courier. 2 February 1932. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  11. Townsville Daily Bulletin
    , 13 August 1932, p. 10. Retrieved 27 August 2015 via trove.nla.gov.uk
  12. ^ "Cuthbert Beaten on Points". Aberdeen Journal. 4 April 1932. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  13. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert: Former Champion Decides to Retire". Derby Daily Telegraph. 10 November 1932. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  14. ^ "Cuthbert Back to Action". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 4 February 1933. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  15. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert's Come-Back". Dundee Courier. 14 March 1933. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  16. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert Beaten: French Champion Springs a Surprise". Dundee Courier. 21 March 1933. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  17. ^ "New British Lightweight Champion". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 19 January 1934. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  18. ^ "Fred Miller KO's Johnny Cuthbert", Ludington Daily News, 23 November 1934, p. 4. Retrieved 27 August 2015 via Google Newspapers
  19. ^ "Boxing". Lincolnshire Echo. 4 April 1935. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  20. ^ "Dick Dibley's Best Promotion". Lincolnshire Echo. 10 April 1935. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  21. ^ "Cuthberts's Roadhouse". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 8 June 1935. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  22. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert...". Hull Daily Mail. 18 April 1934. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  23. ^ "Johnny Cuthbert". Leicester Daily Mercury. 31 January 1939. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  24. ^ "Interview with former World Cruiserweight Champion Glenn McCrory Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine", britishboxers.co.uk, 13 June 2010. Retrieved 27 August 2015
  25. ^ "Club History[permanent dead link]", Boston Amateur Boxing Club. Retrieved 27 August 2015
  26. ^ "A Grand Boxing Tournament". Grantham Journal. 11 August 1944. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  27. ^ Sheffielders Born or Bred Archived 20 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Sheffield City Council, 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2015

External links