From Desperate Dan's Harringay haymaker to a new boxing Hall of fame

Woodcock at the end of Round 4

A nice piece in The Guardian today that gives a good flavour of boxing at Harringay Arena. Whilst the article gives a quick overview of the recent history of boxing in London, it focuses on the author's memory of a grisly fight between Brit Bruce Woodcock and the American Joe Baksi.:

The whole metropolitan boxing scene changed significantly in 1936, however, when the ambitious Greyhound Racing Association built itself – in the space of six weeks – a hangar-like indoor stadium, the Harringay Arena, which at once proved excellent for boxing.............

..........Baksi had swaggered at a lick across the ring and thrown a brutal left hook which (we learned later) traumatically splintered Woodcock's jawbone as well as causing lasting damage to an eye. That one blow finished the entertainment for the evening … except it was allowed to continue for 20 more harrowing minutes.........

.........he had with that single haymaking stroke at Harringay, of course, destroyed not only a childhood hero, but childhood innocence itself.

Read the full article in The Guardian