Eric Armit profiles one in all the early heavyweight destroyers, raised in an period of racial segregation, who was pressured to combat the similar males time and once more.
Elmer “Violent” Ray
Born: 3 March 1911 in Federal Point, Florida
Died: 20 May 1987 in Hastings, Florida, aged 76
Division: Heavyweight
Record: 133 fights, 96 wins (69 by KO/TKO), misplaced 23 (9 by KO/TKO), 11 attracts, 3 No Decisions. Ray’s early report is incomplete. The first combat recorded by BoxRec was a ten-round draw with Walter King in October 1933.
Scored wins over: Lee Savold, Jersey Joe Walcott**, and Ezzard Charles**
Lost to: Jersey Joe Walcott**, John Henry Lewis**, Ezzard Charles **, John Holman
The story of Elmer Ray
Ray was a member the so-called “Black Murderers’ Row”. A gaggle of black fighters who due to restrictions on combined race fights in some states, and to the risk they posed, as high quality fighters with a punch, have been pressured to regularly combat one another. He fought Obie Walker 14 instances (together with a spell once they fought one another 5 instances in three months), Dixie Oliver six instances and Willie Bush 5 instances.
To finish 1939, his traceable report was a poor 11-13-9, however from October 1943 to March 1947 he scored 50 consecutive wins, 46 of them by KO/TKO, together with a run of 20 consecutive inside-the-distance wins.
In March 1947, he was ranked No. 1 heavyweight by Ring Magazine with a very good likelihood of difficult Joe Louis however misplaced a majority choice towards Jersey Joe Walcott. He rebounded to rating plenty of wins, together with a break up choice over Ezzard Charles (pictured beneath) in July 1947 to climb to No. 2 in the scores.
However, a ninth-round KO loss to Charles, in May 1948, ended his hopes of a title shot and he retired in March 1949 at the age of 38. After retiring, he lastly obtained into the ring with Joe Louis, however solely in exhibition bouts.
In 2003, Ring Magazine rated Ray No. 44 of their checklist of the 100 biggest punchers in the historical past of boxing. Ray was inducted into the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Source link
