Jimmy Carruthers

Jimmy Carruthers
Carruthers after defending World Bantamweight title against Gualt on 13 November 1953
Statistics
Real name	James William Carruthers
Rated at	Bantamweight
Height	5'6
Reach	67"
Nationality	Australian
Born	5 July 1929 Paddington, New South Wales
Died	15 August 1990 Sydney, New South Wales
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	25
Wins	21
Wins by KO	13
Losses	4
Draws	0
No contests	0

James "Jimmy" William Carruthers (5 July 1929 – 15 August 1990) was an Australian boxer, who became world champion in the bantamweight division.

Jimmy was the 2009 Inductee for the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame Veterans catergory.

Carruthers's boxing career started as an Australian representative at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. In his first-round match of the bantamweight competition, he fought Fred Daigle of Canada and won on points. He defeated Arnoldo Parés of Argentina in his second match. However, he had sustained an eye injury during his bout with Parés, and had to withdraw from the quarter-final match with the eventual gold medalist Tibor Csík of Hungary.

Carruthers joined the professional ranks in 1950, and was an immediate success. By then, he was being managed by Dr. Jim McGirr, and trained by "Silent" Bill McConnell.

He won the Australian Bantamweight title in 1951 and then the British Commonwealth and Bantamweight Championship of the World the following year. Carruthers became Australia's first universally recognised boxing World Champion. Great Australians of the past—including Young Griffo, Mick King, and Les Darcy—had all won world titles, but they had not received international acceptance at the time of winning their respective crowns. After defending his newly-won World bantamweight title against Vic Toweel in Johannesburg, and then against the American Henry "Pappy" Gault in Sydney, it was found that Carruthers was carrying a 30-foot-long tapeworm.