Revisiting 1958 Boxing

Boxing in 1958: by Brian Zelley

As we travel back to '57/58 time period in

Professional boxing, the world champions 

as of January 1958 included:

Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Carmen Basilio,

 Joe Brown, Hogan "Kid" Bassey, 

Alphonse Halma and Pascual Perez.

Some top ranked fighters

Heavyweights

Eddie Machen, Zora Folley, Roy Harris,

Pat McMurtry and Mike DeJohn.

Eddie Machen on the front page.

In the light heavy and middle we had:

Harold Johnson, Yvon Durelle, Tony Anthony,

Gene Fullmer, Rory Calhoun,

Joey Giambra and Bobby Boyd.

Welterweights and Lightweighta

Gil Turner, Isaac Logart, Virgil Akīns,

Kenny Lane, Ralph Dupas, Joe Lopes

and Orlando Zulueta.

The lighter divisions had a grat mix

of talented boxers suchas:

Ike Chesnut, Ricardo Moreno,

Peter Keenan, Pone Kingpetch

and Paul Jorgensen.

One of the outstanding boxers in '58

was Vince Martinez whose victory 

over Gil  Turnerput him in contention

for the vacant welterweight title

along with  Virgil Akins and 

Isaac Logart but there was

also Tony DeMarco.

Some new faces and names that

folks would pay attention to wou'd be

Joe DeNucci and Denny Moyer, 

Denny Moyer, from Portland, Oregon.

Some interesting fights were

Joey Giardello over Tiger Jones ,

Paoli Rossi over Johnny Busso

and lightweight title fight that 

had champion Joe Brown stopping Joe Lopes.

British Empire  Boxing

At the start of 1958 some of 

the top boxers were:

Joe Erskine, Joe Bygraves,

Yvon Durelle, Gordon Wallace,

Wilf Greaves, Dick Tiger, George Barnes,

Dave Charnley, Armand Savoie,

George Bowes,  and Terry Spinks.

Wilfie Greaves, Edmonton's own

An Important Canadian fixture

was televised amateur boxing

in Ontario that began in 1953.

Noted pro fight promoter

Jack Allen felt televised amateur

boxing in Toronto kept pro 

boxing and amateur boxing

alive in Toronto.'s George Chuvalo

George Chuvalo