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Jock McAvoy: The Rochdale Thunderbolt


BoztheMadman
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With a nickname like "Thunderbolt", it is easy to guess that this man was a puncher. And what a puncher. He scored 88 knockouts in his long career and belongs to the few boxers in history with over 80 knockouts. Jock McAvoy was a capable, hard-hitting scrapper. He was a compatriot and rival of Len Harvey, who was perhaps the best British boxer of the 20's and 30's. But Jock gave him stiff competition. They fought four times, Harvey winning three of the fights and McAvoy one, but they were all very competitive. Fighting till his late 30's, McAvoy posted a very fine record of 132 wins, 14 losses and 1 draw. He has only been stopped twice, once due to a back injury and once due to a broken nose.

 

Born 20 November 1908 as Joseph Patrick Bamford in Burnley, Lancashire, he changed his name (so his mother didn't know he was boxing) to the Scottish-sounding Jock McAvoy and started his boxing career in Rochdale, Lancashire, hence the nickname The Rochdale Thunderbolt. He was discovered there by Joseph Tolley, owner of the famous Tolley's Gym. He was almost 19 when he had his first pro fight, on 6th November 1927, knocking out Billy Longworth in 2. In his third fight in January next year, his nose was broken in a bout against Billy Chew and he had to retire after 8 rounds. He avenged the loss a year later by outpointing Chew in 10 rounds. He went undefeated between March 1928 and March 1930, winning 25 and drawing one. He then lost a couple fights on points in 12 rounders. He was brought up slowly for a while but on 10 August 1931 he captured the British Northern Area middleweight title by retirement in 8 against Joe Lowther. After winning 10 more fights, he was finally given the chance to conquer the British as well as Commonwealth title against the best fighter in the country, Len Harvey. The fight happened on 21 March 1932 at King's Hall in Manchester. Harvey already had 115 fights under his belt, McCoy 70. Simply said, it was just too much too soon for McAvoy and he lost on points after 15 completed rounds. On 18 July that year he again fought for the Northern British title but was disqualified after 14 rounds against Jack Kid Casey. He did however beat the Algerian-French Carmelo Candel, who once drew against Marcel Thil, on points.

 

He went back to fighting lesser fighters for a while before landing a rematch against Len Harvey on 10 April 1933, again at King's Hall in Manchester. This time it would be different and McAvoy would be crowned the new Commonwealth and British champion after 15 rounds. He made his first defense on 9 October by knocking out Archie Sexton in 10. He then had several non-title fights, beating solid Cuban contender Kid Tunero by TKO 7 and knocking out the seasoned Belgian Jack Etienne in 1 round. He then went up in weight to challenge Marcel Thil himself, who then held the European light heavy title. Thil was both a good technician and a strong fighter and he prevailed at Palais des Sports in Paris on that 14 January 1935, by UD15. Rochdale Thunderbolt then made one more defense of his titles against Al Bourke, on points. At the end of the same year, he went for the first time to fight in USA and first beat Al McCoy on points after knocking him down once. It was a light heavyweight fight, like his next one against Babe Risko, who then held the world title at middleweight. He put down Risko with the first punch he threw, a round house right, and then decked him five more times before the fight ended at 2:48 of the first round. But he had performed too well for his own good and the boxing politics never allowed him a rematch with the world title at stake. But he would be given a chance at another world title, the light heavyweight one, against the great John Henry Lewis. After the Risko fight, he won two more fights in US, knocking out Jimmy Smith in 2 and decisioning Anson Green. This made Lewis and his management offer him a fight with the world title at stake. 13 March 1936, in front of 15 thousand at Madison Square Garden, McAvoy made a brave performance but was outboxed by Lewis, who took no chances and boxed cleverly, leaving no openings for the hard-hitting Englishman. Naturally, the decision went to Lewis but not the sympathy of the crowd, who booed the verdict and cheered for McAvoy. Unfortunately, that couldn't get him the belt.

 

Only a month later, he fought in a heavyweight fight against Welshman Jack Petersen. Petersen was weighing 190 and McAvoy 178. The fight was in Kensington, London and Petersen got the decision. Getting the message, McAvoy returned first to light heavyweight, winning the British belt there also by KO 14 against Eddie Phillips. He then decided to go back to middleweight briefly and defended his Commonwealth and British titles once again Jack "Froggy" Hyams by TKO 11. After that, he went back to light heavy again to fight his domestic rival Len Harvey for the third time, 7 April 1938. The fight was televised, although the signal could not be seen by general public. Once again, McAvoy dropped a 15-round decision to the naturally more slick Harvey. He defended his middleweight titles for the last time against Arthur "Ginger" Sadd by UD15 and then it was time for the fourth showdown against Harvey, at White City Stadium in London. Fight was more dramatic this time, as McAvoy briefly floored Harvey in the second round and gave him a terrific beating in the fourteenth, but Harvey rallied in the fifteenth and last round to catch him with a series of right crosses which in turn badly beat McAvoy. Harvey would again get the decision in front of no less than 90 thousand fans. That fight pretty much spelled the end for his successful career. He had two fights against the up and comer Freddie Mills, who would become the world champion later, losing the first on points and then suffering a back injury in the second and withdrawing in the first round. After winning three more fights, McAvoy finally retired in late 1945, aged 37.

 

Jock McAvoy died on his birthday in 1971 at the age of 63. The cause of death was at first unclear, but later it was found out that he had committed suicide. For the last 20 years he had been confined to a wheelchair due to polio, so it is not that hard to see why. Boxrec rates him as the tenth best British boxer of all time, the second best British middleweight of all time (behind Randy Turpin) and the 39th best middleweight ever. He was included in the list of 100 hardest punchers ever by The Ring magazine. I chose to write about him because, after seeing his impressive record and some of the fighters he has fought, I wondered how come nobody ever speaks of him.

Edited by BoztheMadman
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