Randy Turpin

Randy Turpin
Data
Birth Name	Randolph Adolphus Turpin
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	British
birthday	June 7, 1928
place of birth	Leamington Spa
Date of death	17th May 1966
style	Left delivery
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	75
Victories	66
Knockout victories	45
Defeats	8th
draw	1

Statue in Warwick in honor of Turpin

Randy Turpin (born June 7, 1928 in Leamington Spa as Randolph Adolphus Turpin , † May 17, 1966 ) was an English boxer. His father came from Guyana and was the victim of a gas attack on the Sommefront during World War I. He died of the long-term effects after Randy's birth. His brothers Dick and Jackie Turpin were also professional boxers.

amateur

As the first "black" (strictly speaking, mulatto ) and youngest boxer, he won an amateur welterweight championship of the "Amateur Boxing Association" in 1945. His record was 95-5.

professional

Turpin turned pro in 1946. After a series of 18 wins in a draw, his first personal crisis occurred in 1948, which also resulted in two ring defeats. However, he won the rematches in both cases. He beat the Belgian Cyrille Delannoit in 1949, the American Tommy Yarosz in 1950 and won the European Middleweight Championship in 1951 with a first-round knockout against Luc van Dam.

On July 10, 1951 there was a fight that should define his career. He beat Sugar Ray Robinson , who had lost only once in 131 fights at this point, and won the world middleweight title. Robinson had been on a European tour and had not trained specifically for this fight. Just two months later, Robinson won the rematch in New York in front of over 60,000 spectators by technical knockout in the tenth round.

Turpin then beat Don Cockell in the fight for the British light heavyweight title in 1952 and won the European Championship again in 1953 in front of 54,000 spectators against Charles Humez .

But that should be his last triumphs, he got big weight problems and in October 1953 he lost to Carl Olsen in the fight for the middleweight world title, which became vacant after Robinson's resignation. A little later he was also accused of rape in New York. The case was settled out of court with the payment of $ 3,500 before a trial.

In May 1954 he was knocked out against the Italian Tiberio Mitri in the first round and thereby lost his European title. In 1956 he was defeated by Hans Stretz . In 1958 he ended his career, but returned to the ring for two more fights at short notice in 1963 due to financial problems. In 1966 he committed suicide.

In 2001 Turpin was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Randy Turpin in the BoxRec database