Tommy Gibbons

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Tommy Gibbons boxer
Tommy Gibbons LOC.jpg
Data
Birth Name Thomas Joseph Gibbons
Weight class Light heavyweight
nationality US-american
birthday March 22, 1891
place of birth Saint Paul
Date of death November 19, 1960
Place of death Saint Paul
style Left delivery
size 1.84 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles 106
Victories 94
Knockout victories 48
Defeats 5
draw 2
No value 5

Tommy Gibbons (born March 22, 1891 in Saint Paul , † November 19, 1960 ibid) was an American boxer . He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.

Professional career

The Irish Gibbons followed in the footsteps of his older brother, world class middleweight Mike Gibbons , who fought and lost against Harry Greb just like him . Both were defensive artists.

Gibbons began his career as a welterweight in 1911 and then fought against the world class middleweight division. From today's point of view, they are difficult to classify because many took place in the so-called “no-decision era”, where official punctual judgments were prohibited.

In addition to Greb, he fought George ("KO") Brown, Joe Herrick, George Chip, Gus Christie, Silent Martin, Billy Miske, Clay Turner, Burt Kenny, Georges Carpentier and Chuck Wiggins.

The Shelby fiasco

Gibbons became famous for his failed heavyweight title fight in 1923 against Jack Dempsey . Shelby, a 2500-strong community in the deepest province in Montana wanted to fish for a supposedly lucrative fight and approached the Dempsey management. Jack “Doc” Kearns , the manager of Dempsey, demanded the then immense guarantee of $ 310,000. He also wanted to bring his own referee, James Dougherty. This was granted and a huge arena with 40,208 seats was built, but only 6,000 to 7,700 (depending on the source) paying spectators came. Two weeks before the fight, things had looked even grimmer when only about 1,500 tickets had been sold. Gibbons had agreed to be paid from the winnings. Since it was the biggest flop in boxing history, he didn't see a penny. After all, he only lost on points in a boring fight. Shelby was ruined and three banks went bankrupt because they guaranteed the amount.

End of career

Against Gene Tunney Gibbons went KO for the first time in June 1925 and then ended his career.

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personal data
SURNAME Gibbons, Tommy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gibbons, Thomas Joseph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American boxer
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Paul
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1960
Place of death Saint Paul