Boxing record compiling... when and how did it start? And how did it develop?

by Miles Templeton

For the modern fight fan it is remarkably easy to get up-to-date stats on any active British professional boxer. The website boxrec.com contains career stats of every active professional, and this resource has become the dominant source for such data. In fact, with the recent cessation of Barry Hugman's excellent boxing yearbook, there are now no record books published in the UK at all.

To get one's hands on up-to-the-minute data on every professional in Britain at the click of the mouse is probably taken for granted by most current fight fans. But things weren't always that easy.

Prior to the advent of the internet, fight records were only available in print. Since the Second World War there has been a consistent run of reliable record books, and two in particular stand out.

Barry Hugman's Boxing Yearbook was published every year between 1985 and 2010. It was the primary source for up-to-date records, and took over where the Boxing News Annual left off.

The Boxing News Annual was published each year between 1945 and 1984. This and Barry Hugman's record book were a must for anyone following the game. They were the only source of reliable fight records.

Since the mid 1960s these volumes have contained the career record of every active British professional, and so, for anyone with a complete set of these Annuals, the career records of every British fighter of this period are available.

Before the Second World War the picture was very different. Most of the many thousands of professionals active before 1945 never saw their career record in print. There were fighters who had 100 and more professional contests, men who boxed for British titles and men who were household names whose records have never been published. Only the very best were lucky enough to have had their contests listed within the few record books that were available up to 1939.

This article charts the development of the boxing record book in Britain and pays tribute to that small band of statisticians who produced the records. It is intended to complement the forthcoming publication on boxinghistory.org.uk of the career record of every British Champion between 1909 and 1945 - the first time this has ever been done.

In the opening years of the 20th century there were no specialist boxing magazines at all. The Mirror of Life was the only weekly newspaper dedicated mainly to the noble art. This publication reported on most of the big contests from up and down the land and it frequently carried pen pictures of the leading boxers of the day. These articles often contained lists of the contests the boxers had taken part in, although precise dates and venues were usually excluded. They were, I believe, the first example of boxing records that were made available to the followers of the sport.

The Sporting Life, primarily a racing paper, also carried a large number of reports of boxing matches, and it was this publication that led the way when it published the first record book in 1910. This book contained records of the leading boxers up to October 1909. There were 106 boxers who were described as 'English' which, oddly enough, included Welsh, Scottish and Irish fighters, as well as some Americans who were active at the time in the UK. The records were by far the best published up to that time but were also far from complete. Records for some of the leading American and Australians were also in the book, which was available in softback for twopence and hardback for sixpence direct from The Sporting Life at St Bride Street, London. It's publication was well received and the following year a second book was produced containing fighters records up to October 1910. This appears to have sold less well and surviving copies are harder to find than the 1909 edition.

Continue reading: http://www.boxinghistory.org.uk/recordbooks.html

As always - many thanks

Hi Alex, good to see you posting.

Such an interesting read, and the amount of work that must have gone into the compilation of record books is astounding.

Certainly a much easier task in the age of the computer!

Thanks for sharing.

Had begun to think that we had seen the last of your excellent contributions, alex, and so I am very pleased to see that this isn't the case.

Very interesting article, and a worthy addition to your catalogue. Thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Fascinating stuff Alex, has whet the appetite for your book, which I am assured is arriving in the Rowley household this christmas.

HumanWindmill wrote:Had begun to think that we had seen the last of your excellent contributions, alex, and so I am very pleased to see that this isn't the case.

Thanks very much, HW. Been a bit busy lately with a new job but will try to post more often.

rowley wrote:Fascinating stuff Alex, has whet the appetite for your book, which I am assured is arriving in the Rowley household this christmas.

Cheers, Rowley! Although that was a piece by Miles rather than me.

Hope you enjoy the book.

Great stuff Alex/Miles, keep em coming.