Former Commonwealth champion Joe Bygraves expires – Boxing news
Joe Bygraves, former British Empire heavyweight champion, expired on January 16, 2012.
Joe Bygraves held a record of 22 wins, a draw along with 28 losses. His 22 victories came in by knockouts. With his achievements, he became one of the best Jamaican boxers of all time.
Joe was born in Kingston on May 26 in a family of 12 children. However, he soon left Jamaica when he was 15 and settled down in England in 1967. According to sources, Joe’s childhood dream was to become a boxer and so he started practicing boxing during
his childhood in Jamaica. He participated in school competitions pertaining to the sport.
By the age of 17, he started practicing the sport in England. His amateur career is reported to be among the best. He won several English Northern Counties titles throughout his amateur career. He started off with boxing as a light heavyweight but later
on went to heavyweight.
Joe’s debut fight took place on February 12, 1953, against Don Maxwell. Joe successfully knocked out Don in 65 seconds giving a quick boom to his professional career. Later on, he went on to create a streak of five initial unbeaten fights after defeating
Don.
His best fight to date has been the one against Henry Cooper. He knocked out Henry in the 9th round. Cooper back then was considered among the pioneers of the industry and defeating him with a knockout.
Among his most notable achievements is his victory over Jack Gardner. Jack Gardener was the former heavyweight champion who was knocked out by Joe in just two rounds. The bout took place in 1956 and soon became one of the best fights of the decade.
Unfortunately, despite a booming career, Joe was not permitted to fight for the British title since he was not a British national. However, he did fight for the British Empire title and won it with honour. He defeated Kitione Lave, Tongan fighter, to grab
the British Empire title.
News of Joe’s death is a shock to the boxing industry especially to Jamaica’s boxing world since Joe was their icon who made their nation proud.
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