Jimmy wilde biography

Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney lauded Jimmy Wilde as "the greatest fighter I ever saw." The frail-looking Wilde, whose skinny limbs and protruding ribs belied the power of his punches, became the first flyweight champion to be recognized in the United States as well as in Britain.

The flyweight class was established in England in by the National Sporting Club, but American recognition of the division did not come until , the year Wilde took the world title.

Wilde was born in Wales in the same area that produced Freddie Welsh and Jim Driscoll.

The son of a poor coal miner, Wilde worked as a pit boy as a child, hacking coal from channels too narrow for a grown man.

Mickey walker

When he began boxing in at the age of sixteen, he weighed just 74 pounds. He competed in boxing booth tournaments in his home of Tylorstown, taking on all comers. His first recorded professional match was a knockout of Ted Roberts in

Wilde won the British pound title in when he recorded an eighteen-round t