Freddie Mills

Freddie Mills
Data
Birth Name	Freddie Mills
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	British
birthday	June 26, 1919
place of birth	Parkstone, Poole , England
Date of death	July 25, 1965
Place of death	London
style	Left-hand boom
Combat Statistics
Struggles	101
Victories	76
Knockout victories	49
Defeats	18th
draw	7th

Freddie Mills (born June 26, 1919 in Parkstone, England , † July 25, 1965 in London ) was a British boxer . He was world and European champion of professional boxers.

Career

After a short amateur time, Freddie Mills began his professional career at the age of 18. His first manager was Jack Turner. He later moved to Ted Broadribb. Freddie Mills was not a technically outstanding boxer throughout his career. But he compensated for his boxing deficiencies with an enormous fighting heart, iron hardness against himself and great resilience. These funds were enough to make him an excellent boxer who even made it to world champion.

His career began on December 1, 1937 in his hometown of Bournemouth , Dorset , with a knockout victory in the 6th round over Fred Clemente. By 1942, Freddie Mills played a number of light heavyweight construction fights in England . He won most of them, mostly briefly by knockout. In those years he also suffered a few defeats, which he did not allow himself to be set back. In 1941 he then achieved several victories over English ranked boxers such as Jack Powell , Jack London and Tom Reddington.

On February 23, 1942, Freddie Mills won the elimination match at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the right to claim the British light heavyweight champion over Jock McAvoy , who had to give up in the first round of this fight due to injury. On June 20, 1942, the fight for the British Light Heavyweight Championship, the British Empire Light Heavyweight Title and the World Championship (according to the version of the British Boxing Board of Control) took place in the White Hart Lane Stadium in Tottenham Hotspur in London. held in light heavyweight. Freddie Mills won this fight against his British compatriot Len Harvey by KO in the 2nd round.

Due to the war, Freddie Mills fought only six times until 1945, where he lost his title to the challenger Jack London on September 15, 1944 in Manchester , Lancashire , by losing points.

On May 14, 1946, Freddie Mills got the chance to box against reigning world champion Gus Lesnevich from the United States in London for the world light heavyweight championship. In this fight, Freddie Mills was knocked down twice by Gus Lesnevich in the 2nd and 10th round. In between these downfalls, however, he showed excellent fighting morale and kept the fight open. After the knockdowns in the 10th round, however, he was no longer able to box and was taken out of the fight by the referee. The well-known American boxing journalist Johnny Sharpe wrote about this fight in The Ring magazine , issue for the month of August 1946, page 21, that this fight was one of the greatest fights in the history of British boxing.

On September 9, 1947, Freddie Mills won the European Championship in London against the Belgian Pol Goffaux with a knockout victory in the 4th round. After some development fights, including a point victory over the French champion Stefan Olek , it came on July 26, 1948 in the White City Stadium in London for the revenge fight Freddie Mills against Gus Lesnevich for the world title in light heavyweight. In this fight, Freddie Mills showed once again his toughness and his will to assert himself. Already in the first round Gus Lesnevich suffered a cut over his left eye, which made the whole fight a bloody affair. Gus Lesnevich also had to be counted to "9" twice, but he made ends meet. But the superior point winner after 15 rounds and thus the new world champion was Freddie Mills.

Freddie Mills only fought three times after this victory. On November 6, 1948 in Johannesburg , South Africa , he defeated Johnny Ralph by knockout in the 8th round. On June 2, 1949, the fight against the rising Bruce Woodcock took place in London . The fight was about four titles: the British Heavyweight Championship, the European Light Heavyweight Championship and the Heavyweight Championship and the British Empire Heavyweight Title. But it was not about Freddie Mills' world title. In a true ring battle, Freddie Mills lost this fight by knocking out in the 14th round.

On January 24, 1950, Freddie Mills defended the world light heavyweight title against the American Joey Maxim in London. The younger Joey Maxim dictated this fight and won in the 10th round by knockout. This was Freddie Mills' last fight because after that he resigned.

Championship fights from Freddie Mills

• June 20, 1942, KO victory in the 2nd round over Len Harvey in the fight for the British Light Heavyweight Championship, the British Empire Light Heavyweight Title and the World Light Heavyweight Championship according to the version of the British Boxing Board of Control,
• September 15, 1944, point defeat to Jack London in the fight for the British heavyweight championship and the British Empire Heavyweight Title,
• May 14, 1946, knockout loss to Gus Lesnevich , USA , in the fight for the world light heavyweight championship,
• 8th September 1947, knockout victory in the 4th round against Pol Goffaux, Belgium , in the fight for the European light heavyweight championship,
• February 17, 1948, knockout victory in the 2nd round against Paco Bueno, Spain , in the fight for the European light heavyweight championship,
• July 26th 1948, points victory over Gus Lesnevich in the fight for the world championship in light heavyweight,
• June 2, 1949, knockout loss in the 14th round against Bruce Woodcock in the fight for the British heavyweight championship, the European light heavyweight and heavyweight championship and the British Empire Heavyweight Title,
• January 24, 1950, knockout loss to Joey Maxim , USA, in the fight for the world light heavyweight championship

Life after the boxing career

After finishing his boxer career, Freddie Mills worked for some time as a consultant and assistant to his former manager Ted Broadribb. He then went into business for himself as an innkeeper and night club owner in London. During this time he is said to have been friends with the London gangster brothers Reg and Ronnie Kray . In 1948 he married Chrissie, the divorced wife of a former boxing friend.

death

On July 25, 1965, Freddie Mills was found shot dead in Soho . The police assumed a suicide. However, many rumors about the death of Freddie Mills developed in a very short time, culminating in the fact that he was mistaken for the serial killer Jack the Stripper , who murdered eight prostitutes in London between 1958 and 1965 and threw them into the Thames . None of this has been proven. Freddie Mills was buried in a Camberwell cemetery.

Web links

• Boxing record by Freddie Mills
• http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/Freddie_Mills