Abe Attell: The Little Hebrew

“We have been Jews residing in an Irish neighborhood. You’ll be able to guess the remaining. I used to combat 4, 5, ten occasions a day.”

Abraham “Abe” Attell was born in San Francisco in 1884 to a poor household whose patriarch abandoned them when Abe was simply 13. To assist put meals on the desk, younger Attell bought newspapers on avenue corners and on a type of corners was situated the well-known Mechanics Pavilion, an historic venue which often hosted boxing matches. After occurring to witness the featherweight title combat between the legendary George “Little Chocolate” Dixon and Solly Smith in 1897, Abe determined that the ring was calling him and he’d attempt his luck as a prizefighter. Doing so concerned apparent dangers,  however Abe noticed the possibility to make far more cash combating than he ever might promoting papers.

Abe wasn’t the one one in his household to decide on pugilism as a occupation, as his brothers Monte and Caesar made the identical profession selection. Their choice to ply their commerce within the ring proved a very good one as Abe and Monte would later change into the primary brothers to carry world titles concurrently.

Attell’s profession acquired underway in 1900 and from the outset he was profitable, knocking out all however one among his opponents in his first full 12 months of punching for pay. “Once I began I used to be solely sixteen,” recalled Attell years later, “and I assumed that the straightforward method was to knock ’em out. I used to be a immodest fighter. I assumed I might lick anyone. For a very long time, I used to be proper.”

However Attell later reworked his fashion to 1 extra cerebral and technical by emulating James J. Corbett and Dixon, two of pugilism’s early scientific practitioners. As an alternative of on the lookout for the knockout, Attell started to weave protection and footwork into his recreation, making him a way more versatile and unpredictable combatant.

“The sunshine dawned,” recollected Abe. “A fellow may very well be a prizefighter and never get harm, supplied he was sensible sufficient. I realized that lesson method again in 1900, and I remembered it till I stop boxing in 1915.” And through that fifteen 12 months stretch, Attell constructed a legacy as one of many best featherweights to ever step by means of the ropes.

Simply 9 months after Attell’s profession commenced he confronted the person who had impressed him to change into a fighter, taking up the nice “Little Chocolate” in Denver in solely his sixteenth professional bout. The relative novice held Dixon to a draw and a rematch two months after yielded the identical end result. However every week later Attell, who was nonetheless 4 months shy of his eighteenth birthday, battled Dixon a 3rd time and received by fifteen spherical choice to assert the world featherweight title.

Nonetheless, within the early twentieth century it was not unusual for a number of fighters to concurrently declare to be the rightful champion in a given division. It was not till 1906, when Attell squared off with Jimmy Walsh, that the undisputed world featherweight championship was at stake. However within the interim Attell had been very lively, as prime professionals all the time have been in these days. Between his win over Dixon and his showdown with Walsh, Abe had answered the bell greater than forty occasions, within the course of going through such formidable battlers as Aurelio Herrera, Tommy Sullivan, and Battling Nelson.

Thus Attell wasn’t about to let his probability at whole featherweight supremacy slip away as, based on The Los Angeles Instances, he “performed with [Walsh] as a cat would a mouse [and] when he acquired by means of with the milling on the conclusion of the fifteenth spherical, he didn’t have a mark on him and was good for a lot of extra rounds.”

Whereas the precise variety of title defenses registered throughout Abe’s prolonged reign as featherweight king varies relying on the supply, what can by no means be questioned is the very fact he was a combating champion and all the time keen to check his elite abilities towards the fiercest rivals out there. In his prime, “The Little Champ” defeated a bunch of actually glorious pugilists, together with all-time greats Pete Herman, Owen Moran, Tommy Sullivan, and Johnny Kilbane.

However Attell was not content material with conquering all of the out there competitors in his weight class. In quest of extra daunting challenges, he often moved as much as light-weight to tackle the highest contenders there, together with Ad Wolgast, Battling Nelson, Jim Driscoll, and Freddie Welsh, all of whom are enshrined within the Corridor of Fame. That he was keen to show himself towards the most effective, no matter weight, demonstrates Attell’s fearlessness and why he’s rightfully acknowledged as one of many best ringmen of all-time.

As famed combat scribe Lester Bromberg wrote: “Attell’s pure weight was 117 [but] he gloried in being small. There have been cases when he gave away as a lot as twenty kilos. However he appreciated being ‘The Little Champ’ … to him there was added honor to it.”

Legendary boxing promoter Tex Rickard acknowledged that Abe Attell was the best boxer he had ever seen. Creator Allen Bodner asserts Attell is second solely to the legendary Benny Leonard within the pantheon of nice Jewish boxers. No critical checklist of the all-time best featherweights can omit his title and most put him within the prime 5, shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow immortals Willie Pep and Henry Armstrong.

Nonetheless, by 1912 the frenetic tempo of Abe’s profession had caught as much as him and he misplaced his world title by choice in a rematch with Kilbane. A report from the Los Angeles Herald states that “Attell didn’t put up his standard elegant exhibition and failed to point out inside 50 % of the identical nice boxer who so often drew with Owen Moran and defeated Advert Wolgast and different nice fighters.”

Notably, throughout spherical sixteen of this bout, the referee needed to wipe an unknown substance from Attell’s physique. Kilbane insisted it was chloroform supposed to make him groggy; Attell refuted the accusation, insisting the substance was cocoa butter. Whatever the veracity of Kilbane’s accusation, this was removed from the one time Attell was suspected of bending the principles. The actual fact is, the story of “The Little Hebrew” can’t be full with out mentioning his shady facet.

At one level, the New York State Athletic Fee even banned Attell from competing for six months as a result of he had barely put forth an offensive effort towards one Valentine Braunheim, aka “Knockout Brown,” in January of 1912. Attell’s fame preceded him and his reluctance to combat satisfied all that the repair was in. Abe insisted that his efficiency was affected by an damage to his thumb for which cocaine had been injected, however years later he admitted not all the time giving forth his finest effort for the needs of securing a much bigger payday in a potential rematch.

However after all essentially the most nefarious scheme during which Attell was allegedly concerned got here after his profession had led to 1917. As a member of gangster Arnold Rothstein’s entourage, Abe was accused of serving to to facilitate one of many greatest scandals in sports activities historical past, the well-known “Black Sox Scandal” of 1919 when eight gamers on the Chicago White Sox allegedly threw the World Collection towards the Cincinnati Reds. Attell was by no means delivered to trial as he managed to persuade a New York jury that it was all a case of mistaken id and that he was not the identical Abe Attell that the Chicago Grand Jury was after. However even when he was by no means convicted, the mere affiliation provides one other black mark to Attell’s fame.

Ultimately Abe put the scandal behind him and settled down, opening a preferred tavern in New York’s East Facet. And he by no means strayed too removed from his sport of selection, usually attending combat playing cards at Madison Sq. Backyard. Abe would spend his last years in a nursing dwelling earlier than passing away at age 85 in 1970.

Regardless of all of Attell’s antics and the accusations that adopted his profession, nothing can overshadow his plain ring greatness and accomplishments. Abe Attell, a real ring legend, constructed a boxing legacy that may ceaselessly stand the check of time, his last file an unbelievable 125-9-21 with eight no contests. Not unhealthy for a poor Jewish child who used to promote papers on the nook simply to get by.         — Jamie Rebner