boxinggloves

The athletic body before steroids?

In December 1911, William Thomas Wells fought Fred Storbeck at Covent Garden for the British Empire Heavyweight Title, scoring a knockout in the eleventh round to gain his second title in one year.

Fred Storbeck (1889-1970) was a South African heavyweight. Most of his career he fought in the U.K., in Australia, or in his native country. Here's his bout list page at boxer.com. The only American fight listed is his July 8, 1912 bout against Jim Stewart at Madison Square Garden (Storbeck lost.) My guess would be that this photo probably dates from that time.

Kinda looks like Paul Storbeck who taught English at Purdue in the sixties.

With many thanks.
www.flickr.com/photos/hills_alive/2566252445/

This is Frau Rose Edwards (in the strap dress), the wife of the welterweight German boxer Paul Maschke from Berlin, who went by the alias of "Joe Edwards".

"Joe Edwards" was the light-weight champion in London in 1900, and in addition to an active fighting schedule, "Joe Edwards" authored a book on boxing in 1912, entitled "Boxen. Ein Fechten mit Naturwaffen" (translated: "Boxing. Fencing with nature weapons”). He also taught at the Berlin Boxing Club and ran the "Berlin School of Boxing", ("American-Athletic-Club") in Berlin. [1] [2]

This photograph was likely taken from Joe Edwards' 1912 book. [3]   Shown below is another LOC photo-illustration on Flickr, that was taken from this book, as well as a link to two other photo-illustrations (not on Flickr) that were taken at the same time. From the series it is likely that all four photo-illustrations are posed, mock-boxing, rather than an actual match.

 
"Mrs. Edwards & Frl. Kussin [boxing]" by LOC

"The opponent of Mrs. Edwards moves away from the left jab"

 
Other illustrations in series: History of Contemporary Women Boxing, from Female Single Combat Club.

 
There are several LOC photos on Flickr of "Joe Edwards", including this one:


"Boxing class in Joe Edward's School, Berlin" by LOC

 

I think this must be the American lightweight boxer Joe Mandot (1891-1956), aka the New Orleans Baker Boy, who was active in the ring from 1909 to 1921. Among his many ring opponents (he fought more than 100 bouts) were Joe Rivers and Joe Thiel, both of whom are depicted in other Bain photos posted today. Another boxer named Joe Mandot was a featherweight born in Mexico who had about two dozen bouts in Southern California, from 1922 to 1928, but given the time frame of photos in this collection, I'd say he's not likely to be the boxer depicted in this photo. BoxRec's website is down this evening, so I can't check for more details of his career right now, but Here's a link to "Baker Boy" Joe Mandot's bout list there for when the site starts working again.

I started a biography for him in Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marceline_Mandot

This is the new orleans boxer. He's my great uncle. I have the original photos