Prize Fighters Of Wales

New studies on Welsh boxing trailblazers.

- Alex Daley

WHILE grainy, colourless footage shot with archaic cameras can never do justice to the likes of Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney and Joe Louis, at least we have glimpses of their fighting lives preserved on film. So spare a thought for the countless boxing heroes who preceded the age of film and photography. Without visual proof of their existence, from a modern perspective their careers can seem like fairytale legends, akin to the stories of Greek mythology. Unlike the protagonists of those ancient Greek fables however, these men were real.

To know about them we rely on written accounts. But how many modern fights fans have the time or tendency to leaf through decaying centuries-old newspapers in search of nuggets of information about bare-knuckle boxers?