Let’s Hear It For the Boxers with the Nickname “Kid” – Part II
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By “Hammerin” Harry Otty
In part one of this article I introduced a roll-call of fighters with over 200 recorded, professional fights who went by the ring name of “Kid” and introduced the first two–Arnold “Kid” Sheppard and Ted “Kid”’ Lewis. In this, second part, we will look at the remaining six fighters on the list, their achievements and how they all compare to each other with regard to total fights, most knockouts, KO percentages, draws, and percentage of stoppage defeats.
Most Knockouts – 114
Kid Azteca
Kid Azteca—whose real name was Luis Villanueva Paramo—was born in Tepito, Mexico, in either 1913 or 1917 (depending on whose account you believe). If his own account (1917) is to be believed, he would have been 12 years old when he had his first professional fight. The tender age might explain the results—two defeats in his first two fights. By the 1930s Azteca was taking on (and beating) US veterans Kenny LaSalle, “Wild”Bill McDowell, Eddie Cerda, Leon Zorrita and Fritzie Zivic. In the 1940s he was battling it out with Bobby Pacho, California Jackie Wilson, and Cocoa Kid. He later fought Sammy Angott, Charley Salas, and Juan Padilla. He had his last fight in February 1961—a career lasting 30 years and four months, and stretching over five decades. An outstanding feat that puts him into a select group of fighters which includes also includes Jack Johnson and Roberto Duran.
He was a World Boxing Hall of Fame inductee in 1992. Kid Azteca died in 2002 at the age of 88.
Most knockouts – 113 (or 115)*
Greatest Knockout % (60% as calculated from bouts won)
Alabama Kid
Clarence Olin Reeves was born in Concord, Georgia in 1914. He started fighting as a professional shortly after his 14th birthday and while his first bout recorded on BoxRec is a KO win over Mickey Iler on March 1, 1928, there is evidence to suggest that he had his first fight the month before. Additional research (for a book I am writing on Alabama Kid) has uncovered a number of early bouts not listed on BoxRec, including a three-round KO win over Jessie James (at the Knights of Columbus Club, Columbus, Ohio April 21, 1929) which would tie him with Kid Azteca for most KO wins, plus a report from the Columbus Dispatch (October 25, 1928) which states “Alabama Kid punched Jackson for a kayo in one.” which would put him ahead of Kid Azteca on the most KOs.
Alabama Kid proved to be a dangerous, hard-hitting southpaw who appeared to win as many by KO via body shots as he did via punches to the head. Between 1928 (his debut) and 1938, when he travelled to Australia, he engaged in 181 fights in places such as Columbus, Newark, Eirie, Pittsburgh, Denver, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Muncie, Springfield, Terre Haute, Saint Louis and Quincey. Some of the fighters he met along the way were; KO Kelly, Henry Firpo, Jimmy Belmont, Bucky Lawless, Tommy Freeman, Joe Sekyra, Sammy Slaughter, Allen Matthews, Red Bruce, Gus Lesnevich and Gorilla Jones.
The Kid’s Australian sojourn was divided into two parts (split by three fights in New Zealand in 1940) and consisted of a total of 71 fights. The more widely-known of his opponents in Australia would have been Gus Lesnevich (whom he lost to again), Atilio Sabatino (a globe-trotting Puerto Rican with close to 100 official fights), Aussie favorite, Ron Richards (a win, a loss, and a No Contest) and Richie Sands (won KO). After 10 years in Australia, Alabama Kid returned to the USA and, although his best years were behind him, he was still a decent test for the likes of Arturo Godoy (won points), Bob Amos and Lee Q Murray (drew) and Archie Moore, who stopped him twice.
Clarence Reeves—AKA “Alabama”Kid—died in Columbus, Ohio in April, 1970 aged 56.
Not only does this “Kid” qualify for the ‘over 200 fights’ category and the all-time list for most KOs, he is also one of the few fighters to compete (as a professional) at every weight category from flyweight to heavyweight.
Most Draws – 80
Best Chin/Defense
Kid Beebe
This Kid is a bit of a mystery. Born in Pennsylvania in 1883 (exact date unknown) he had a documented career record of 134-88-80 (13 KOs). Depending on the source, Kid Beebe was born Frank Brono, Frank Bono, Frank Bieber, or Frank Beaber. Boxing Historian, Hank Kaplan had Kid Beebe’s birth name as Isadore Bieber (which gets you wondering if he could be any relation to Justin).
Due to him competing during boxing’s ‘No Decision’ era, Beebe had only 25 ‘official’ wins (20 via KO), 13 losses (2 via KO) and 7 draws. The rest of his numbers are made up from published newspaper decisions of the day. His two defeats via stoppage is extraordinary when you consider he had over 282 fights (putting him 25 fights behind Arnold Kid Sheppard for the most in a career).
While he tops the table for most draws, Kid Beebe’s real achievement is that of ‘Kid’ with the greatest chin—stopped just 0.7% of the time—Joe Gregg (November 30, 1907) and Johnny Lewis (June 28, 1913) being the only two fighters to prevent Kid Beebe making it to the final bell.
Fewest Kos – 19
Kid Williams
Born Jonathon Gutenko in Copenhagen, Denmark December 5, 1893, Kid Williams fought from 1910 to 1929. Between January 1912 (when he lost a newspaper decision to Johnny Solzberg in Brooklyn) to March 1917 (when he lost a newspaper decision to Johnny Kilbane in Philadelphia) Kid Williams put together an unbeaten run of 47 fights.
It was during this run that the quick and aggressive Williams won the world bantamweight title, via a 12-round KO of Eddi Campi (January 31, 1914, Vernon, California).Others he defeated during his career were Frank Bradley, Young McGovern, Harry Smith, Young Ketchell, Charley Goldman, Johnny “Young” Solzberg, Eddie Campi, Jim Kenrick, Charles Ledoux, Johnny Coulon, Pete “Kid” Herman, “K.O.” Joe O’Donnell, Benny Kaufman, “Little” Jackie Sharkey, Andy Chaney, Charles “Dutch” Brandt, Johnny “Kewpie” Ertle, Sammy “Young” Sandow, Earl Puryear, Packy O’Gatty, Joe Dundee, Young Montreal, Eddie O’Dowd and William “Midget” Smith.
During the final year of his career (1929) Kid Williams—who by then was 35 years old—won three and lost three. His last fight being a TKO defeat to Bobby Burns.
Williams died in 1963 at the age of 69. He was elected to the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1970 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.
Cocoa Kid
Cocoa Kid, born Herbert Lewis Hardwick (or Harwick) in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, May 2, 1914. During a 19-year career (1929-1948) he fought just about everyone who was anyone in the welterweight and middleweight divisions. He faced the slick-boxing Holman Williams 13 times—winning eight, losing three and drawing twice. That statistic alone should convince anyone just how good he was. He also had a win and a loss against Charley Burley, beat Eddie Booker, Jack Chase, Carl Dell, Kenny LaSalle, Tony Martin, Jimmy Leto, had a loss and a draw against Kid Azteca, dropped close points decisions to Izzy Jannazzo, California Jackie Wilson, and Georgie Abrams, split several bouts with Joe Carter and lost to Aaron ‘Tiger’ wade and Archie Moore—though there were a lot of miles on the clock by then.
In 178 wins (from 247 fights) Cocoa Kid won 48 by KO and was stopped seven times (in 58 losses). Between 1933 and 1947 he was ranked among the top-ten fighters in the world by the Ring magazine in three different divisions—lightweight, welterweight and middleweight.
As a member of the famous group of African American middleweights known as ‘Murderers’ Row’ Coca Kid was avoided by many of the champions of the day and, along with Charley Burley, Holman Williams, Lloyd Marshall, Bert Lytell, Aaron Wade, and Jack Chase, he tried in vain to secure a title fight. Just like a number of his ‘Murderers’ Row’ brethren, Louis Herbert Harwick appeared to vanish into thin air following his retirement.
The sad truth was that fighting so often, against many of the world’s best, left its mark. By the 1960s he was living in a fog, panhandling in the shadows of New York’s Broadway. He died in December 1966 and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.
For the whole tragic story of Cocoa Kid, see Springs Toledo’s “Murderers’ Row: In Search of Boxing’s Greatest Outcasts” (Tora, 2017).
Kid Socks
Kid Socks was born George Joseph Stockings on August 14, 1904 in Bethnal Green, London. He turned pro just after his 18th birthday (August 27, 1922), winning via TKO over Charlie Trainer. His career is full of ups and downs with decent, unbeaten streaks consisting of 15 or more fights interspersed with runs of form where he couldn’t buy a win in 5, 7 or 10 fights. For example; between January and December 1927 Kid Socks had one draw, followed by four defeats, followed by three draws and then another three defeats.
To be fair to him though, the first draw (January 27, 1927) came against the unbeaten (13-0-6 KOs) Emile Pladner—the Frenchman, who was having his first fight outside of his own country, later went on to be world flyweight champion. It would also be unfair to omit the fact that Kid Socks, during the very same streak, also tangled with Panama Al Brown (world bantamweight champion 1929-34), Domenico Bernasconi (future European bantamweight champion and world bantamweight challenger), and Nel Tarleton (future British and Commonwealth featherweight champion).
Other fighters the Kid tangled with were Len Harvey, Elky Clark (on one occasion for the British, European and Commonwealth flyweight titles), Charley van Reedon, Nipper Pat Daley and Young Perez. George ‘Kid Socks’ Stockings died on 24 September, 1972 aged 68.
**The table shows the Kids ranked from 1 to 8. For each of the categories highlighted in green, each fighter was allocated points ranging from 10 (best in category) to 3 (last in category). The points were then totaled to produce the rankings table.
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