Jackie Fields


Jackie Fields was an American professional boxer who won the Undisputed Welterweight Championship twice. Statistical boxing website BoxRec lists Fields as the #19 ranked welterweight of all-time. Fields was elected to the United Savings-Helms Hall of Boxing Fame in 1972, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004.

Early life and career

Jackie Fields, who was Jewish, was born Jacob Finkelstein on Maxwell Street, in Chicago, Illinois, on February 9, 1908. His father was a Jewish Russian immigrant who worked as a butcher. His younger brother was Sam Fields, who was a film editor. In 1921, when he was 14 years old, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, California. He attended Lincoln High School, but dropped out.
Some of his initial boxing instruction came from the legendary Black boxing trainer and former lightweight boxer Jack Blackburn, who would later train Joe Louis. When his family moved to Los Angeles in 1921, Fields continued boxing at Jack Dempsey's Gym. He boxed as an exceptional amateur for the Los Angeles Sporting Club, under the instruction of George Blake, a master trainer who recognized Jackie's potential as early as the age of thirteen. An exceptional boxer in Blake's stable, future world flyweight champion Fidel LaBarba, sparred with the young Fields after he arrived in Los Angeles and would spar with him on other occasions to improve his technique and speed.
As a young fighter, Fields was told by promoters that his birth name presented "the wrong image" because Jews weren't considered tough, physical guys. In looking for a suitable ring name, Finkelstein selected "Fields" after Chicago businessman and philanthropist Marshall Field; "Jackie" was selected as an Americanized form of his first name, Jacob.

Amateur career

Over the course of Field's amateur career, he participated in 54 fights, winning 51 of them. Fields won a gold medal in featherweight boxing at the age of only 16 in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, becoming the youngest boxer to ever receive such an honor.

Olympic results (1924)

Early career loss to Jimmy McLarnin, 1925

Intrigued by a $5000 purse, but acting against the better judgement of skilled matchmakers, Fields took on the far more experienced Jimmy McLarnin, on November 12, 1925. With only six fights and nine months of professional boxing to his credit, Fields lost badly in a second-round knockout at Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. McLarnin floored him four times in the brief match, with Fields suffering a broken jaw in the humiliating defeat. Dubbing him the "future lightweight champion", the Los Angeles Times recognized the mastery of McLarnin, who carefully studied Fields's style, letting him take the lead in the first, before knocking him down three times in the second with successive overhand rights. Never having been down before, Fields unwisely rose immediately from his first knockdown, only to be knocked to the canvas again. In his fourth knockdown, he remained on the canvas for the full count. Learning from the experience, and listening more carefully to his handlers, Fields never lost a match by knockout again.
Fields suffered a rare early career loss to Jewish boxer, and former world featherweight champion Louis "Kid" Kaplan on June 15, 1927, in a ten round points decision at New York's Polo Grounds. Kaplan's two handed attack was unrelenting, and though the taller Fields scored with straight left jabs and a rapid right cross, they did not come frequently enough to gain a margin in points. Kaplan poured far more blows into Fields, taking the decision.
He defeated Jewish boxing great, reigning world junior lightweight champion, Mushy Callahan in a non-title bout on November 22, 1927. Callahan was nearly knocked out in the second, ninth, and tenth, having difficulty remaining on his feet. Fields continually poured rights and lefts to the body and face, and was credited with six of the ten rounds. Callahan, possibly lacking conditioning, was returning to the ring after an illness of several months.
In a rare early-career loss, Fields dropped a ten-round unanimous decision to reigning world lightweight champion Sammy Mandell on February 3, 1928. Fields led the first few rounds with a strong body attack, but Mandell found his range in the third with long lunging lefts to Fields's left eye. Fields's injury put him on the defensive, and in the late rounds he was forced to do more infighting and clinching. He tried to turn the tables in the ninth, but it was too late to even the points differential. In their first meeting on April 4, 1927, before a disappointing crowd of only 5,000, Fields had fared far better against Mandell in a twelve-round newspaper decision at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, winning handily according to the Los Angeles Times. The paper awarded Fields eight of the ten rounds, with only two to Mandell. Fields staggered Mandell in the sixth with an overhand right to the jaw. The no-decision bout, however, was not for a title and Fields was over the lightweight limit, letting Mandell walk away with his championship intact. The San Francisco Examiner believed Mandell had won by the slightest of margins, but noted that the younger and less experienced Fields easily took the second and tenth rounds with harder punching, though he failed to follow up his advantage.

NBA World welterweight champion, March 1929

Fields won the world welterweight title in 1929 and 1932.
He defeated Young Jack Thompson before 9,000 fans on March 25, 1929, in a ten round unanimous decision in Chicago for the vacant NBA welterweight title. The Akron Beacon Journal wrote that Fields was "unstoppable in his offensive, unswerving in his determination, and completely the master of his foe". In the first two rounds, Fields nearly knocked out Thompson. Thompson courageously remained on his feet throughout the bout, repeatedly trying to throw his signature right cross, though he usually missed. Fields blocked a number of Thompson's blows with his gloves and forearms, and stopped a few in mid-air. His best and most frequent blows came from left handed jabs and hooks. In the third, Thompson made a brief showing when he scored with a few vicious right crosses, but he failed to carry his momentum into the next round. The eighth was interrupted by a riot that spilled into the ring, and the fighting was more even in the last two rounds with both fighters exhausted. The tenth found Thompson trying to score a knockout but most of his blows were blocked by Fields, who kept the round even. Fields won decisively and was awarded seven of the ten rounds with only one to Thompson and two even.
Prior to the bout, the world welterweight title had become vacant as the National Boxing Association stripped Joe Dundee of the title. California, and the National Boxing Association, but not the powerful New York State Athletic Commission, officially recognized Fields as the champion on April 19, 1929. The NYSAC would not recognize Fields as champion until July when he faced Dundee.
Image:Joe Dundee LOC.jpg|upright=.8|right|thumb|Champion Joe Dundee
On July 25, 1929, Fields faced Joe Dundee before a large crowd of 25,000 in a unifying match for the welterweight championship in Detroit. Fields was awarded the fight in the second round after Dundee, having been knocked down four times, delivered a foul blow while still down which left Fields incapable of continuing the fight. Dundee claimed that the foul was unintentional. Fields stated he believed Dundee, but noted that it was the only bout he had ever won on a foul. The win gave Fields unified recognition as world welterweight champion.
Fields defeated black boxer William "Guerilla" Jones, future world "Colored" welterweight champion, on October 21, 1929, in San Francisco before a crowd of 10,000. In an action filled ten rounds, Jones took the early lead and rocked Fields several times with straight rights to the jaw, but Fields's stamina and aggressiveness wore Jones down in the closing rounds. Fields's clearly took the ninth and tenth, and had a clear edge in five rounds, but could not defend against repeated rights from Jones throughout the bout. In a match two months later on December 13, referee Joe O'Connor stopped the bout, complaining that Jones was not giving his "usual exhibition" and ordered the promoter to pay the purses for both fighters. The Boston Globe felt the fight was legitimate, however, and that Jones's long arms against Fields's desire to fight at close range made the boxers look as though they were trying to avoid coming to blows.
In their fourth meeting, Fields scored a decisive victory in a non-title bout on January 24, 1930, over Vince Dundee, brother of Joe, in a ten round unanimous decision at Chicago Stadium. Dundee was down four times in the third round, but weathered the full ten, making a comeback in the late rounds. In the third, Dundee was down once for a count of eight, once for a count of nine, and was saved by the bell as he went down at the end of the round. Fields was awarded five rounds with only three for Dundee, and two even. Fields had defeated Vince Dundee in three previous ten round points decisions in Chicago on October 2, 1929, and in two meetings in Los Angeles on April 17, and February 14, 1928.
Fields lost his first bout in two years on February 22, 1930, against Young Corbett III in a ten round decision in San Francisco. Thrown off by his opponent's left hand stance, Fields fell behind in the early rounds and though he came back strongly late in the bout, the referee believed Corbett still held a margin on points. Since Corbett was two pounds over the welterweight limit, Fields's title was not at stake. Fields recovered his form two months later with a fourth round TKO against future welterweight champion Tommy Freeman before 8000 fans in Cleveland. Though Freeman had the edge in the first two rounds, and dazed Fields with a right to the nose in the third, Fields shot a right in the early fourth that cut Freeman's lip so badly he could not continue.