Who Got It Right: Fighter of the Year 1961
Beginning a new series looking at historical debates about fighters and fights of the year
The pages of The Ring have stood for over a century as one of boxing’s primary, enduring historical records. Launched in 1922, the publication evolved its profile through its first decade by issuing belts to champions, launching rankings in 1925, and in 1929 issued their first year end awards with Gene Tunney named Fighter of the Year. In 1946, with star fighters returning from World War II, they added an award for Fight of the Year.
While The Ring was the most prominent monthly boxing publication in the United States, they weren’t the only source of annual recognition.
In 1938, the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) began naming their own Fighter of the Year, though they wouldn’t begin to select a Fight of the Year until decades later. Other magazines cropped up through the years, including Boxing and Wrestling in the 1950s.
In 1959, with former Ring Magazine illustrator and contributor Stanley Goldman initially at the helm, what would become a publication that survived in various forms for most of the next sixty years entered the equation - Boxing Illustrated.
Beginning at that point, the purpose of this series will be to take a look at the year-end awards of The Ring, Boxing Illustrated, and the BWAA, later adding assorted publications of the Victory Sports Series and incorporating additional publications and websites in the twenty-first century. The focus will be on the years when there were disputes about who the fighter and fight were in a given year, asking a single question:
Who got it right?
For 1959 and 1960, The Ring, Boxing Illustrated, and the BWAA were unanimous in their selections for Fighter of the Year, naming Ingemar Johansson and Floyd Patterson respectively in those years. For those two years, only The Ring identified a Fight of the Year, selecting Gene Fuller-Carmen Basilio I (1959) and Patterson-Johansson II (1960).
This inaugural voyage arrives at its first dispute in 1961.
While Boxing Illustrated did a thorough review of the year, the January 1962 issue does not identify a single fighter of the year. Their year-end review does add to the debate between the men selected in the pages of The Ring and by the members of the BWAA. The choice being evaluated is between:
Joe Brown - Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year 1961, and
Gene Fullmer - BWAA Fighter of the Year 1961.
In selecting Brown, then the reigning lightweight champion of the world, Dan Daniel of The Ring wrote (Cover Date Feb 1962, p. 20):
Notably, the Charnley win was also Ring’s choice for Fight of the Year.
The year-end review in Boxing Illustrated provided summaries for the year of each standout in its divisional breakdowns (Cover date January 1962, p. 20, 22).
Let’s take a deeper dive into the case for both men.
The Case for Fullmer: While Boxing Illustrated recognized Fullmer as middleweight champion, The Ring recognized Paul Pender. In terms of the lineage of the title, Ring had it right with Pender winning his rights to the crown from Sugar Ray Robinson in January 1960. Pender held on to the title with a rematch win in June 1960.
Fullmer won the vacant National Boxing Association (today known as the WBA) crown in 1959 with a stoppage of Carmen Basilio. The NBA vacated their title when Robinson and former champion Basilio were unable to come to terms on a rubber match. It was part of a stretch of nearly two years where Robinson was inactive and did not defend his claim to the throne.
The division moved on without him.
Robinson’s name meant more than his two losses over Pender and, in December 1960, Fullmer and Robinson met for the third time. The contest ended in a hotly debated draw with many feeling Robinson had done enough to win the NBA crown.
It set the stage for a fourth and final fight to kick off Fullmer’s 1961 campaign. This time, there would be no controversy with Fullmer handing the 39-year old Robinson one of the worst losses of his career.
Fullmer ultimately went 3-0 in 1961. Heading into the three fights, here’s where The Ring and Boxing Illustrated (Note: Boxing Illustrated was using the NBA rankings as their official rankings that year until the September 1961 issue when they began issuing their own rankings alongside the NBA’s) ranked his opponents during the year:
UD15 Sugar Ray Robinson (Ring #2, Cover Date 04/61; BI #2, CD: 04/61)
SD15 Florentino Fernandez (Ring #4, CD: 09/61; BI #4, CD: 09/61)
KO10 Benny Paret (World Welterweight Champion)
Fernandez entered the fight on a 3-0 run following a ten-round decision loss to Emile Griffith in 1960. Following Fullmer, he would be stopped in three of his next four fights by Dick Tiger, Joey Giambra, and Rubin Carter. Paret entered off a disputed decision win for the welterweight crown in his second of three fateful fights with Griffith. Paret was 2-3 in his previous five fights before Fullmer with decision losses to Denny Moyer and Gaspar Ortega and a stoppage loss to Griffith in their first fight.
The Case for Brown: Like Fullmer, Brown went 3-0 in 1961 and there was no dispute to his claim as lightweight champion. Brown won the title from Wallace “Bud” Smith in 1956. While never unbeatable in non-title fights during his reign, Brown was at his best when the lights were brightest and the title was on the line.
His opponent rankings for the year were as follows:
UD10 Joey Parks (Unranked)
W15 Dave Charnley (Ring #1, CD: 05/61; BI #1, CD: 05/61)
UD15 Bert Somodio (Unranked)
Parks, with a record of 12-10, was little more than a tune-up in March 1961 following a decision loss for Brown in a non-title fight to Giordano Campari in December 1960. The rematch with Charnley was long-awaited and hotly contested. Brown won the first fight in 1959 on a cut and Charnley had earned a second chance by going 5-0 with two knockouts between cracks at the title.
Their first fight happened in Houston.
Chapter two would take place on Charnley’s turf in the UK with some 18,000 fans packing Earls Court in Kensington.
Frank Butler, writing for The Ring (June 1961, p. 3), described Charnley’s effort as a “desperate bid for the title in the closing rounds of the contest after being outboxed for twelve rounds by the American champion. In the last three rounds, Charnley threw everything he had into a mighty effort to knock out the champion but lacked sufficient weight in his punches to save the fight.”
Charnley would follow the loss with another five-fight win streak in pursuit of one more shot at the crown before consecutive losses in 1962.
Brown closed the year with Somodio. While unranked by The Ring or Boxing Illustrated heading into the fight, the 17-5 Somodio was ranked sixth by the NBA (BI December 1961, p.6). Ring rated only a top ten at lightweight, but it is notable that Boxing Illustrated featured a top 26; Somodio was nowhere to be found.
The disconnect between sanctioning body top ten rankings and press lists is nothing unique to today.
Somodio entered the bout on a three-fight win streak following a November 1960 loss to the tough Solomon Boysaw. The best win in that 3-0 run was a split decision over perennial contender Cisco Andrade. Like Charnley, Somodio got his opportunity at home with Brown traveling to the Philippines to drop the game contender twice en route to his eleventh consecutive lightweight title defense.
Somodio would be stopped two fights later and never challenged for the title again.
Given the case for each fighter, we return to the central question.
Who Got It Right?
The Ring’s case for Brown had merit. He went on the road twice to defend his title and defeated the consensus number one contender to his crown. While Joe Brown can be credited with the most title defenses at lightweight (14) without losing his title in the ring, historians regard him as having split his reign in two. Brown’s recognized record of 11 consecutive defenses would stand until Roberto Duran defended the WBA (and lineal) crown 12 consecutive times in the 1970s.
It was a hell of an achievement.
Artur Grigorian would defend the WBO lightweight belt 17 times from 1996-2004 but unlike Brown and Duran was never regarded as history’s champion.
The case for Fullmer was deeper.
While Robinson had lost twice to Pender in 1960, the decision in the first fight was considered controversial at the time as was Robinson’s draw with Fullmer the same year. He wasn’t who he had been but Robinson, a popular choice for the greatest fighter who ever lived, was still competing at a high level.
In defeating Robinson to end their rivalry at 2-1-1 in Fullmer’s favor, Fullmer effectively ended what had been the better part of 15 years of Robinson near or at the top of the title picture, first at welterweight and then middleweight. Robinson would fight on until 1965 but never contested for another world title.
Fernandez, who spent most of his career at welterweight before Fullmer, had strong wins over Gaspar Ortega and Ralph Dupas in 1959 and 1960. The fight was only a split decision win for Fullmer, unlike the unanimous calls for Brown, but doesn’t appear to have been considered controversial; just close given a late surge from the challenger.
The totality of their careers suggest Fernandez should be argued as a tougher out than Somodio. Despite his losses following the Fullmer fight, Fernandez still had enough left to hand future light heavyweight champion Jose Torres his first defeat, and only stoppage loss, in 1963. Somodio had no similar success following his loss to Brown.
Finishing the year with a knockout of the reigning welterweight champion added further value to Fullmer’s year. Fullmer had three quality wins on the year. Brown had two.
While the selection may have been considered tight at the time, the correct choice today looks far more obvious. For 1961, given a choice between Brown and Fullmer, the BWAA got it right.
Gene Fullmer was the Fighter of the Year.