Maybe he wasn?t badder than old King Kong or meaner than a junkyard dog. But, however you define it, Big Boy Brown was bad?
?The baddest man in the whole damn town.??Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, by Jim Croce
Perhaps not, but he may well have been cousin to the man who was: ?The Brown Bomber? himself, Joe Louis.
Not Leroy, but Big Boy. Brown, that is, whose chest was even bigger than that of hard-hitting Turkey Thompson. ?He always had a huge chest,? said boxing historian Herb Goldman of Thompson. ?His schoolmates called him ?Turkey Chest,? and the nickname was eventually shortened to ?Turkey.?? But Big Boy?s was as wide across as a beer barrel.
Born in 1922, heavyweight Big Boy Brown fought from 1942 to 1950, winding up with a record of 14 wins, nine by knockout, 22 losses, six by knockout, and two draws.
He beat some toughies, including Clarence Burman and Lee Oma, both by stoppage, and Pat Comiskey, twice. He also stopped the unheralded Tony Cira, who had the gross impertinence to adopt ?Two-Ton? as his ring moniker, that hyphen fooling absolutely no one. But he also twice lost to Comiskey, and twice to Harry Bobo and Curtis Sheppard. The alliterative Big Boy Brown also came up short against Lee Q. Murray, Johnny Shkor, Pat Valentino, Oakland Billy Smith, Roscoe Toles, the remarkable Alabama Kid, who fought 261 times over the course of 22 years at weight levels ranging from fly to heavy, Vern Mitchell, and Joey Maxim, in his last fight.
One of only two men to draw against tough guys Elza Thompson and Larrupin? Lou Brooks, Big Boy won a version of the heavyweight title by beating Brooks for the Maryland Commission Heavyweight Championship (Duration) while Joe Louis was serving in the Army. He lost the title, as well as his shot at the Ohio version, to Harry Bobo.
Brown lost his last eight fights, four by stoppage, winning his last bout four years before quitting the ring.
Assuming Louis and Brown were in fact blood, they weren?t nearly as delicate about it as were the Klitschko brothers, fighting five exhibition matches in November and December 1945. It was at their second meeting, on November 29, in Sacramento, California, that Big Boy well and truly lived up to his moniker, coming in at 256 pounds. Prior to their December 12 ?mitt-mat? show in Eugene, Oregon, the Eugene Register-Guard reported that ?Louis is not expected to toy with Brown, but put the fistic giant away as soon as possible.? Their last bout, on December 13, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was the Bomber?s final ring appearance before his rematch with Billy Conn, a championship bout that took place on June 19, 1946, at Yankee Stadium. Louis stopped ?The Pittsburgh Kid? by eighth-round KO, Conn not at all living up to the promise of their first encounter five years before almost to the day. The fight garnered the Associated Press? ?Flop of the Year? award. As for Brown, his next fight took place on February 1, 1946, at National Hall in San Francisco, where he stopped Leroy Evans by sixth-round KO. He never won again.
Another case of amnesia pugilistica. Nobody remembers Joe Louis? maybe cousin. But that ain?t hardly fair. Maybe he wasn?t badder than old King Kong or meaner than a junkyard dog. But, however you define it, he was bad. Follow us on Twitter@boxing_com to continue the discussion
Tags: big boy brown Joe Louis jim croce Herb Goldman clarence burman Lee Oma pat comiskey tony cira harry bobo Curtis Sheppard lee q. murray johnny shkor pat valentino Oakland Billy Smith roscoe toles vern mitchell Joey Maxim elza thompson larrupin’ lou brooks Wladimir Klitschko Vitali Klitschko Billy Conn leroy evans clarence george
