Child Gavilan, aka “The Cuban Hawk,” had been a prime ranked boxer for years earlier than he gained the world welterweight title, having bested such tough clients as Tommy Bell, George Costner, Ike Williams, Tony Janiro and Beau Jack earlier than changing into champion. In truth, his first probability for a world title was towards Sugar Ray Robinson, a rematch after their considerably controversial non-title conflict in 1948. On that event, the group in Yankee Stadium went berserk when Robinson was awarded a unanimous factors win. Whereas most at ringside felt the judges received it proper, the followers had been gained over by Gavilan’s aggressive surge within the late going.
Their showdown for the championship a yr later in Philadelphia was extra decisive. Everybody knew Robinson had a particularly troublesome time making 147 kilos, so Gavilan tried to take benefit, setting a quick tempo and sweeping the primary 4 rounds. However after that, the champion asserted himself and dominated the Cuban within the latter levels of the bout. If Sugar Ray didn’t appear to be an all-time nice in his first battle with “The Keed,” he definitely did within the second.
However then Robinson moved as much as middleweight, finally successful his second divisional crown when he stopped Jake LaMotta within the well-known “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” in 1951, whereas Gavilan defeated Johnny “Honey Boy” Bratton to develop into the brand new king at 147. For the subsequent few years “The Hawk” maintained a busy schedule, mixing in a superb variety of non-title wins with championship defenses towards Billy Graham, Gil Turner, Chuck Davey and Carmen Basilio.
By 1954, he had just about cleaned out the division, so naturally Gavilan’s sights turned to the middleweights; in spite of everything, Robinson had retired, hanging up the gloves after his traumatic defeat to Joey Maxim in June of 1952. Ray would return in 1955, however within the meantime Carl “Bobo” Olson had secured the vacant 160 pound title together with his win over Randy Turpin. Like Gavilan, Olson’s document additionally featured a pair of losses to Robinson. In 1950 he was knocked out in twelve rounds and in ’52 he stunned some by giving Ray a little bit of bother earlier than the champion rallied to safe a unanimous resolution. However since then Olson had put collectively a twelve struggle win streak; he was a transparent favourite to retain his title towards Gavilan.
The 2 champions had been a examine in contrasts within the days main as much as the match. The smile by no means appeared to depart Gavilan’s face, whereas a perpetual grimace by no means left Olson’s. The press beloved the good-natured Gavilan and the papers had been stuffed with photographs of the glad Cuban’s pearly-white grin.
“I really feel higher for this struggle than ever earlier than,” mentioned the favored battler with the well-known “Bolo Punch.” “Previously I’ve been troubled by weight. Now I can eat and drink something I would like. Individuals imagine Olson’s weight benefit shall be an excessive amount of. It gained’t imply a factor. I’ll beat Olson on velocity and talent. ”
In the meantime “Bobo,” aka “The Kalihi Child,” wasn’t speaking a lot to reporters and his handlers admitted he was extra irritable than normal. “That’s an actual good signal,” mentioned his supervisor, Syd Flaherty. “When he will get crabby, I do know he’s within the temper to do some actual powerful combating.”
As quickly because the match was signed, Olson vs Gavilan was a sizzling ticket. In any case, again then there have been solely eight weight divisions in professional boxing and every one had a single champion. Bizarre, eh? So a match between a pair of legit world champs was robotically a significant attraction. A crowd of some twenty thousand stuffed Chicago Stadium for a showdown between two boxing kings and none left upset. Gavilan and Olson each set a quick tempo and gave struggle followers a tightly-contested and extremely entertaining battle.
Each spherical was shut, however the distinction was Olson’s pure edge in energy as he utilized regular strain and persistently backed up the smaller man. The fighters took turns touchdown flurries of heavy blows and in spherical 9 Gavilan suffered a reduce over his proper eye. Within the following spherical they engaged in a protracted toe-to-toe alternate described by The New York Occasions as “some of the livid and grueling in ring historical past.”
The vicious tempo of spherical ten could have sapped the challenger’s vitality as he coasted within the subsequent three stanzas and so Olson seized the initiative, driving residence thudding left hooks to physique and head. Gavilan fought again together with his well-known flurries nevertheless it was the champion doing the extra significant work. The challenger made a gallant stand within the remaining spherical, beautiful Olson together with his personal left hooks, nevertheless it was too little, too late. The referee and one choose gave it to Olson by six and eight factors, whereas the third official referred to as it a draw. There have been some who later swore they really noticed “Bobo” smile when the choice was introduced.
Afterwards, it was no shock to listen to Child Gavilan declare that he thought he had gained the struggle, however some had been startled when the Cuban and his supervisor claimed that “The Keed” had competed with an injured proper hand. He asserted that he had broken it in his tune-up match the month earlier than and it had bothered him all through coaching camp. When requested about that, Olson scowled some extra and identified that the challenger had handed his required medicals with no problem.
Gavilan misplaced his welterweight title to Johnny Saxton the next October in a extremely controversial bout, it being well-known that Saxton was managed by Blinky Palermo and the Philadelphia mob. Bookies suspended betting on that match weeks earlier than it occurred. The extremely powerful Cuban continued boxing for one more 4 years, however by no means once more fought for a world title.
In June of 1955 Olson took a cue from Gavilan and tried to maneuver up in weight; gentle heavyweight champion Archie Moore accommodated him and knocked him out in three. And by the top of that yr he was again within the ring with a resurgent Sugar Ray Robinson, who relieved Olson of his middleweight title, scoring a clear KO over “Bobo” within the second spherical. Gavilan and Olson quickly light away, however the Sugarman journeyed on. — Michael Carbert
