Al McCoy (boxer)

Al McCoy
McCoy leading with his left
Statistics
Real name	Alexander Rudolph
Nickname(s)	Southpaw
Rated at	Middleweight
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Born	(1894-10-23)October 23, 1894 Rosenhayn, New Jersey
Died	August 22, 1966(1966-08-22) (aged 71) Los Angeles, California
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	157
Wins	73
Wins by KO	27
Losses	51
Draws	33

Al McCoy (born Alexander Rudolph, October 23, 1894 – August 22, 1966) was a boxing World Middleweight Champion from 1914 to 1917. He had a total of 157 bouts. Of those determined officially by boxing judges, he won 44 with 27 by knockout, and had 6 losses, and 6 draws. Around 107 of his fights were no decision bouts.

Referees and judges in this era could not render a decision for fights in New York and most other states except in the case of a disqualification or knockout. McCoy's BoxRec record on the right has newspaper coverage determining the winner for his large number of no decision bouts. Newspapers could also determine the outcome of a fight as a draw.

McCoy was born Alexander Rudolph in the Rosenhayn section of Deerfield Township, New Jersey on October 23, 1894. When he was a child, his family made a move to the Brownsvill neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where his father found work as a kosher butcher. At the age of only fourteen, he helped his struggling family make ends meet by filling in as a boxer for preliminary fights at local boxing clubs, when the scheduled boxers failed to show. Ken Blady speculates that Charley Goldman, a former New York Jewish light and bantam weight boxer, who became his manager, had him change his surname to McCoy to hide his boxing from his religious parents who would have objected. Ken Blady made the stunning observation that for his first nine years and 139 fights, roughly from 1908 when he began fighting at fourteen to 1917, when he lost the Middleweight World Title, McCoy was undefeated. This made his winning streak second only to English boxer Hal Bagwell, although the fact that a no-decision bout did not officially count as a loss, probably aided McCoy's record.

McCoy started boxing as a bantamweight, but in 1912, fighting as a 138-pound lightweight, he began to attract attention. He defeated Young Erne, a competent Philadelphia lightweight, on November 9, 1912 in Philadelphia, winning in six rounds. The newspaper that gave him the edge noted that Erne was too out of condition to match well with the fit sixteen year old.

Fighting as a welterweight, on March 2, 1912, in a ten round newspaper decision, he defeated the more accomplished boxer Terry McGraw who he outweighed. Fighting on July 3, 1916 in Queens, he defeated Dave Kurtz in a ten round newspaper decision. Not surprisingly, the seventeen year old's luck took a turn when he fought Young Otto, a more accomplished Jewish lightweight boxer from New York's lower east side, nine years his senior, who would hold a record for most consecutive first round knockouts. McCoy lost to the lighter Otto, though fighting at 155 in the light middleweight range.