Larry Gains
| Larry Gains | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Statistics | |
| Nickname(s) | Larrupin' Larry |
| Rated at | Heavyweight |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Reach | 77 in (196 cm) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Born |
12 December 1900 Cabbagetown, Toronto |
| Died | 26 July 1983 (aged 82) Cologne, Germany |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 143 |
| Wins | 115 |
| Wins by KO | 61 |
| Losses | 22 |
| Draws | 5 |
Lawrence Samuel "Larry" Gains (12 December 1900 – 26 July 1983) was a Black Canadian heavyweight boxer who was champion of the Dominion of Canada and the British Empire. One of the top heavyweights of his era, he was denied the opportunity to become World Champion due to the bar on black boxers competing for the title.
Gains was born on Sumach Street in Cabbagetown, Toronto on December 12, 1900. He took up boxing at around the age of twenty, after being asked to act as a sparring partner by Charlie Clay, and boxed out of Toronto's Praestamus Club, an organization for Black boxers.
After a successful amateur career, Gains made the decision to go professional, traveling to Britain on a cattle ship and making his professional début in London as "The Toronto Terror" in June 1923. Many of his early fights were in France (where he befriended Morley Callahan and Ernest Hemingway who at the time were working as newspaper reporters) and Germany, where he beat Max Schmeling in 1925. On Feb.28, 1927 he became Canadian Heavyweight Champion when he stopped Horace "Soldier" Jones in 5 rounds at Toronto. He later defended it against two of the biggest names in Canadian boxing at the time, Jack Renault and Charlie Belanger. He settled in Leicester, England in 1930, where many of his fights over the next few years were held. Noted primarily as a slick boxer he KO'd Phil Scott in front of 30,000 spectators at Leicester Tigers' Welford Road ground in 1931, taking the British Empire title, although the colour bar was still in place. The colour bar was lifted in 1932, and he cemented his hold on the title with a victory over white South African Donald McCorkindale at the Royal Albert Hall (Gains becoming the first black boxer to fight there), the fight ending in an unpopular points decision for Gains, with Gains' trainer Jack Goodwin collapsing and dying during the fight. He went on to beat Primo Carnera in front of 70,000 people at White City, London in May that year (a British record attendance for a boxing match), despite Carnera having an advantage of 60 pounds in weight and a four inches in height. He lost the British Empire title in 1934 to Len Harvey, and failed to regain it later that year, defeated by Jack Petersen in front of a crowd of 64,000 at White City.
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