Joe Samuels (Liverpool)

by Miles Templeton

Joe Samuels is one of the few top notch Jewish boxers who came out of Liverpool. In later life the effects of his boxing
career were to tell very heavily upon him. He could not work and he was nursed through his latter years by his wife and his
family. As a youngster, however, he quickly aspired to fame and glory and he very nearly rose to the top of the boxing tree.

I would like to preserve the details of his boxing career and through this preserve his memory. To me, his story epitomises
a world which has long gone.

Samuels is unusual in that he put together a reasonably lengthy unbeaten string at the commencement of his career.
This was very rare in those days. He was clearly a Stadium favourite, and old Pa Taylor probably recognised in Samuels
a genuine crowd-pleaser who was willing to get involved in a lot of toe-to-toe stuff. Just what was required to get the
Stadium crowd worked up before the main bout. This enthusiasm for a scrap was to cost Samuels dear.

Many of the reports for his early contests refer to the scientific nature of Samuels' boxing skills but he was also known
as something of a puncher.

In his first 15 rounder he takes on Billy Shepperd of Sheffield. This comes within 18 months of the start of his career,
and Samuels is probably around 17 or 18 when this fight takes place. Samuels beat Shepperd and it looked as if he,
and not Shepperd, was on the way up. Within three months, however, Shepperd was allocated one of the eight places in
the official British Featherweight title elimination series. In my view this place was undeserved and clearly he had
some influential contacts who were 'in' with Peggy Bettinson and the rest of the NSC officialdom.

Shepperds career was to end early after a series of brutal defeats.

In his next fight Samuels came up against someone who would prove to be something of a problem to him, Young Bull
of Castleford. I can find 5 fights between the two and Samuels didn't win one of them. Bull, like Samuels, became one
of the leading Northern Featherwights of the day. Like Samuels, he was a second rater when it came to the Championship
class. Men like Johnny Cuthbert, Nel Tarleton and Dom Volante were superior.

Liverpool seemed to breed Featherweights at this time, for as well as Tarleton and Volante, others like Billy Colebourne,
Fred Tilston, Frank Carberry and Tom Bailey spring immediately to my mind.

I suspect that Young Bull also suffered as a result of his boxing career, for he fought hard and often around the Northern
rings. His real name was Lumb and he was the brother of Jimmy Lumb who was another very successful boxer at that time.

Over the next 8 months Samuels took on and beat a number of leading Northern lights and then he travelled down to
London to make his debut in the capital. He was matched against someone of real class, Lambeth's Johnny Curley, at
The Ring, Blackfriars. To understand the root cause of Samuels later misfortune, one need only read the opening
paragraph of the report of his contest with Curley :

"Joe Samuels, of Liverpool, came up to town with quite a record. We noted by
the programme that he has scored a number of victories over quite reputable
Northern opponents, and are able to recall the fact that he has actually
recorded certain of these by the k.o. route. How ever he managed to achieve
these latter feats we are at a loss to understand, since in no single round
of his bout with Johnny Curley did we once succeed in catching even the
glimpse of anything like a real punch.

He is game - dead game. Of that there can be no possible shadow of a doubt.
He took sufficient punishment on the left ribs last Monday to have broken
these. He was uppercut severely at times and was also the recipient of a
number of drives to the mark to make even the observer gasp in sympathy"

The observer was probably John Murray, the editor of 'Boxing' and a seasoned ringside observer and not one to wince
at the sight of a boxer taking punishment. The fact that he had to gasp in sympathy for Samuels is telling. He refers
to Samuels k.o. ability but I find scant evidence for this, by this time Samuels was going the distance in all of his
contests.

Broken ribs or no broken ribs, Samuels was back in his home-town ring five weeks later against Fred Tilston. On this
night Phil Scott was matched with Kid Moose of Southport at the top of the bill. Moose was a great Stadium
favourite, and Scott was a very well-known heavyweight prospect in 1924. As a result, the Stadium was "crammed
to the roof, and it is estimated that round about 3,000 would-be spectators were unable to gain admittance."

The atmosphere in and around the Stadium must have been electric. And just before the Scott-Moose contest,
Samuels and Tilston enter the ring. The report states :

"This was a rubber contest, and it proved a hummer, each boy going at it for
all he was worth. The local was a little ahead in the points department by
the middle round, but he fell away later under the persistent attacks, and
heavier punching of Tilston, who earned a points award."

Once again, one can start to see the signs of a man whose enthusiasm for a fight would lead to future problems. His
contests become wars and Taylor must have been very pleased with the way in which he consistently pleased the crowd.

The house refs at this time, Tom Gamble, Jack Mitchell and WJ Farnell, were not noted for their sympathy towards any
boxer taking heavy punishment, nor did they have any sympathy for a boxer who entered the ring and did not give his all.
In such cases as these the boxer would not receive his purse, or probably his train fare home.

Following an 'astounding decision' rendered by Gamble in the Phil Scott v Gipsy Daniels contest in October 27 1924,
the Stadium introduce a new policy whereby all contests are to be judged by the referee and by two judges. This
appears to me to be a very public humiliation for Gamble and one can only guess at his reaction to Pa Taylor's decision.

One the opening night of this new scoring regime Samuels was matched against Charlie Stone of Taffs Well, whom he
beat on points. The report states that "the local is coming on apace at the game, and it is a certainty that many future
successes await him".

During this period 1924 and early 1925 Samuels beat some genuine top-notchers, notably Mick Hill, Bugler Harry Lake
and Ernie Kid Symonds. He was now pushing bis way into Championship reckoning and despite the ambitions he may
have had he had already reached the pinnacle of his career.

In 1925 he journeyed back to London, and to the Royal Albert Hall, to box on the Tommy Milligan v Ted Kid Lewis
undercard. He was up against a real banger in Phil Bond of Lambeth. Bond is a character in whom I am greatly
interested. Like Curley, he was from Lambeth, indeed the two were deadly rivals in the Featherweight division.
Samuels was very unlucky to lose the decision against Bond but lose it he dids and from now in his career went
into sharp decline.

A month later and Samuels was matched against the ex-British Featherweight champion, George McKenzie of Leith.
In this contest mention is made of Samuels tendency to hit with the open glove. This is a theme picked up on by
more than one provincial reporter. Despite the fact that he is near to the top of the tree it appears that Samuels
had not yet mastered the very basic rudiment of the game, how to deliver a scoring blow :

"Samuels still has to learn how to use the correct part of the glove in
delivering a punch. Time and again he flailed away hitting with the inside
of the glove, and while it may have looked flash, few referees would be so
foolish as to award him points for this form of hitting, which Samuels
should learn is merely wasted energy. He had another bad time in the sixth,
and at the close of the round presented a gory appearance, through
sustaining a badly cut lip. This injury was made worse in the seventh, and
at the close of the round the referee stopped the bout"

Twelve days later, and despite his damaged lip which can hardly have healed, he was back in London in a return with Phil
Bond at The Ring. "The form of the Liverpool boy was disappointing, when one has in mind some of his achievements,
for he showed an entire lack of initiative, of judgement, of distance, and of ability to punch correctly. When stating that,
it must not be overlooked that Samuels has recently suffered from a disability, and is not yet, perhaps, back to form.
Samuels showed gameness in sticking it through passages in which he was unable to avoid a deal of punishment".

In July Samuels was matched with Jack Kid Berg at Premierland, and another bad sign for his future welfare is apparent.
The report states that "9st 2lb does not suit a boy whose natural weight is nearer the lightweight limit, and it was very
'dried up' Samuels who took a severe pummelling from a stronger youngster ...... Samuels more than amused everybody
by patting Berg on the shoulders at the end of each round - by way of showing his appreciation of getting a hiding we
suppose ..... From the tenth round Berg had a walkover, as Samuels was dog-tired even if still full of pluck, and in
the eleventh and twelfth rounds Samuels could hardly keep his feet and was sent staggering across the ring from several
fine left hooks from Berg"

A man debilitated by weight reduction, becoming dog tired in the later stages of a long contest against a noted puncher,
taking many heavy blows and yet lasting the distance. It was bouts like these that did the damage.

By 1926 and 1927 Samuels is getting belted out by men of far lesser ability, typically Jim Dagnall of Middleton who,
in March 1926 :

"met Joe Samuels in the main bout of 15 rounds. Samuels started a red hot
favourite, but a shock was in store for the 'fans'. Dagnall is only 17 years
old and just getting out of the 10 round ranks. Samuels opened out in great
style, and hit Dagnall with everything he had in the first minute. The
Middleton lad then came into the picture, and punched hard and straight, and
just before the gong he sent over a right to the jaw, which shook Samuels to
the toes. In round two both came to the centre to have a fight, and swapped
jaw punches for about a minute, when Dagnall stepped back and shot over a
right to the jaw and Samuels dropped like a log out to the 'wide' ".

Hrere is Samuels meeting an 'up-and-comer', a young blood thirsting for success, like Samuels himself had been only
three short years before. In those three years, however, his career had been turned upside down and his lack of technique
exposed brutally.

He continued to fight on for four more years despite being well past his best. He was still in his early twenties but he was
burnt out. In 1927 he is kayoed in one round in consecutive fights by Billy Streets and by Eddie Hunt.