Randolph Turpin
Randolph Adolphus Turpin, better known as Randy Turpin, was a British boxer active in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1951 he became world middleweight champion when he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001.
His life story was a classic tale of, from rags to riches and back again. In which he managed to fight his way out of poverty and become a wealthy man. However, he was unable to hold on to the money he earned and ended up living in impoverished circumstances, whilst being hounded by the Inland Revenue for unpaid tax.
File:Randolph Turpin statue -Warwick.JPG|thumb|Statue of Randolph Turpin in Market Square, Warwick, Warwickshire, England
Early life
Randolph Turpin was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, to a black father, Lionel, who had been born in British Guiana in 1896. He came to England to fight in World War I. He met Randolph's mother after coming out of hospital following treatment for his injuries sustained towards the end of the war. During his service, he fought at the Battle of the Somme. He died within a year of Randolph's birth, having never really recovered from the lung damage caused by a gas attack. This left Randolph's mother Beatrice, to raise five children on her own.Being a widow with five children to look after, Beatrice struggled to make ends meet on a small war pension and had to work from morning to night as a domestic cleaner to earn money. As a result, she sent two of her children to live with relatives.
However, she remarried in 1931 to a man named Ernest Manley, who became stepfather to the children and the family were reunited. Beatrice was the daughter of a former bare-knuckle fighter and was by all accounts a feisty woman who would tell her children to stand up for themselves when they were subjected to abuse.
Randolph was the youngest of the five children. Lionel Jr was the eldest followed by Joan, John, Kathleen and Randolph. Although he was born in Leamington, he actually grew up and went to school in the nearby town of Warwick. He nearly drowned when he was a child, when he became trapped underwater whilst swimming. The accident resulted in a burst eardrum which left him partially deaf in one ear, due to this disability, some people assumed he was 'aloof'. He also nearly died from double pneumonia and bronchitis.
Contrary to popular belief, his nickname the 'Leamington Licker' did not come from the fact that he was a professional boxer. It originated from his childhood, when Randolph, Jackie and Joan were all born in June: Randolph on the 7th, Jackie on the 13th and Joan on the 19th. When the month of June came around, because Randolph's birthday came first, he thought that made him the eldest of the three. Joan told tell him that he was the littlest. He got angry and screamed "I'm not the lickerest". Following a bit of goading, Randolph charged at her with both fists flailing. As a result, 'Licker' became the family nickname for him.
Amateur career
He started boxing exhibition bouts during the interval, at local boxing shows when his brother Dick was fighting. Then at the boxing booth when the fair was in town, with his brother Jackie. In a double act called 'Alexander and Moses', where they fought for nobbins.His amateur boxing career commenced at the Leamington Boys Club and continued when he joined the Royal Navy. He actually lost his first amateur contest by decision but then went on to only lose another two contests in a total of 100 fights.
He won three national junior titles and won the senior ABA championship in 1945 at welterweight and in 1946 at middleweight. In 1945 he won both the junior and senior ABA titles in the same season. The only person to have completed such a feat and the second black boxer to win a senior ABA championship, following Cuthbert Taylor, who won at flyweight in 1928. The rules have been changed over the years and junior boxers can no longer enter the senior championships; meaning that no one will be able to match his feat. He also fought for Great Britain in the annual televised match against the US in 1946, scoring a first-round knockout in his contest.
Professional career
He was approached by many top professional managers but decided to turn professional with George Middleton, a local man who managed his brother Dick.He made his professional debut in London on 17 September 1946 stopping Gordon Griffiths. He scored another 14 victories before drawing over six rounds with Mark Hart in 1947. He suffered two defeats in 1948: the first a points decision to Albert Finch over eight rounds and the second a stoppage defeat to Jean Stock. Turpin was knocked down four times and retired on his stool at the end of round five.
It was said that the two defeats were as a result of marital problems that he was experiencing at that time. On the day of the Stock fight he had been notified that his wife had been given custody of their son and he had told his brother Dick that he didn't feel like fighting and wouldn't be at all surprised if he lost. After the Stock fight he took a five-month break from the sport to try and sort his personal life out.
He had embarked on a weight training regime designed by a man called Arthur Batty and built up his physical strength. Weight training was frowned upon in boxing circles because it was thought that it made fighters muscle-bound and inflexible in their movements. Turpin proved to be the exception to this rule and many of his future opponents including Sugar Ray Robinson would comment on his immense physical strength. Turpin developed a knockout punch with either hand and became a formidable force for any fighter to deal with.
He went on a winning streak where he avenged the two defeats that he had suffered and, in the process, picked up the British Middleweight Title and the vacant European Middleweight Title. Incidentally his brother Dick had been the first non-white fighter to win a British Title when he had beaten Vince Hawkins in 1948 for the British Middleweight Title, following the removal of the colour bar that had been in place since 1911.
In 1951 Sugar Ray Robinson, who is considered by many to be the greatest boxer of all time, embarked on a European tour. The final leg of his tour was a fight for the world title with Randolph Turpin in London. Few people gave Turpin a chance of winning against Robinson and in fact many people thought that it was a mismatch and that Turpin could be badly hurt. Robinson had been unbeaten as an amateur and had only lost one fight out of a total of 132 as a professional, and that was to Jake LaMotta. He had subsequently avenged the loss to LaMotta, beating him a total of five times.
On 10 July 1951 a crowd of 18,000 turned up at Earls Court to watch Turpin fight Robinson. Many people listened to the fight on the wireless to see if Turpin could beat Robinson. Turpin was not overawed by the occasion and took the fight to Robinson from the first bell. Robinson had trouble dealing with Turpin's awkward style of fighting and was manhandled by Turpin in the clinches. By the 15th round Turpin was ahead on points and only had to survive the round to win. At the end of the fight Turpin's glove was raised by the referee in victory. He was the first British fighter to hold the world middleweight title since Bob Fitzsimmons in 1891. He had become an overnight sporting hero. Two days later he was given a civic reception before a crowd of 10,000 people in his home town of Leamington with the mayors of both Leamington and Warwick present.
Boxing in the 1950s was a mainstream sport alongside football and cricket and with the advent of television it was increasing in popularity. Britain was still recovering from the impact of the war and was a bleak place to live for a lot of people, with rationing of food still in place. As such, the victory of a British fighter over an American fighter who was already being regarded as a superstar in the sport of boxing, was something for the whole nation to cheer about.
In order to get the fight with Robinson, Turpin had to sign a contract that contained a 90-day return clause. Meaning that if he won, he had to give Robinson a return fight within 90 days of the original fight. The return fight took place on 12 September 1951 at the Polo Grounds, New York before a crowd of 61,370 people.
Turpin again gave Robinson a hard fight and it was fairly even going into the 10th round. Robinson sustained a bad cut and in desperation went for a knockout. He managed to knock Turpin down with a big right-hand punch. Turpin got up at the count of seven and was then trapped against the ropes and taking a sustained beating when the referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight. Some people said that the stoppage was premature but by today's standards it was not. Turpin's reign had lasted only 64 days.
In an article, written in April 1952, quoted Randolph as wanting to retire in 'one or two years' and go into business with Leslie T. Salts, and teach youngsters across Britain to fight in the 'ideal surroundings' of Gwrych, instead of the school of hard knocks he experienced as a youth. He planned on building a gymnasium at the castle for young boxers to train in.
During his time at Gwrych, he picked up on a few Welsh words from dating Gwyneth Price and he would sign his autographs with 'Hên lwc', 'Pob lwc' and 'Lwc Dda', although it is not known how proficient he was at speaking it.
Turpin fought Don Cockell in 1952 for the British and Commonwealth Light Heavyweight Titles. He stopped Cockell in the 11th round. Cockell would later go on to give Rocky Marciano a good fight for the heavyweight title.
Turpin regained the European Middleweight Title in 1953 with a points victory over Charles Humez, and was recognised as world champion in Europe. However, Turpin's world title was not recognised in America. Following the retirement of Sugar Ray Robinson Turpin was nominated to fight for the vacant World Middleweight Title against Carl 'Bobo' Olsen.
The fight against Olson took place at Madison Square Gardens in 1953. Turpin had not trained properly for the fight. He won the first three rounds but then faded badly and was outpointed over 15 rounds having been floored in the ninth and tenth rounds. Turpin spent much of the fight trapped on the ropes taking punches at close quarters to the head and body. After the fight Turpin was urinating blood indicating that he had suffered damage to his kidneys from Olson's sustained body punches.
The Olson fight was the turning point in Turpin's career. He was never the same fighter after the punishment he absorbed in that fight and thereafter became a diminished fighting force. In addition, he was having trouble making the middleweight weight limit of 11st 6lbs.
Turpin suffered a first round stoppage loss to Tiberio Mitri who was not known as a big puncher. In Rome in 1954 when he was caught by a left hook and half punched and half pushed to the canvas. He fell heavily and hit the back of his head on the ring floor, staggering to his feet only to collapse into the ropes before again regaining his feet. The referee decided he was in no fit state to continue and stopped the fight.
Mitri had exploited a flaw in Turpin's boxing technique whereby he dropped his right hand which was supposed to protect his chin, leaving him exposed to a left hook. In his younger days his reflexes had been fast enough to prevent such a thing from happening. But as he aged his reflexes began to slow and his punch resistance diminished. In addition, he was suffering from eye problems. His eyes had become misaligned and his peripheral vision was starting to deteriorate. The British Board of Boxing control made Turpin have a full medical, but decided that he was fit enough to continue his career.
Following a nine-month break, Turpin returned as a light heavyweight 12st 7lbs, but could no longer be considered a true world title contender in this weight division. Although there was talk of matching him against Archie Moore for the world title. He was fighting bigger men, who were just as strong as he was and could absorb his punches whilst punching, as hard as he did. Thus, taking away some of the advantages he had enjoyed whilst boxing as a middleweight.
He still dominated at a domestic level and in 1955 he beat Alex Buxton to take the British and Commonwealth Light Heavyweight Titles. However, in October of that year he was knocked out by the unheralded Canadian dock worker Gordon Wallace. Suffering four knockdowns in the process and announced his retirement.
He came out of retirement in 1956 and scored two wins before losing on points to Hans Stretz in Germany. In November of that year he beat Alex Buxton again for the British Light Heavyweight Title.
The BBBC stopped a proposed fight between Turpin and Willie Pastrano from going ahead because they thought that it was not in the best interests of boxing. In other words, they thought that Turpin might get hurt, which would damage the image of boxing.
He had his final fight in 1958 when he was badly knocked out by Yolande Pompey. Turpin was knocked flat on his back by a right-hand punch to the side of the head. He gamely tried to get up four times but each time stumbled whilst trying to regain his feet and fell back onto the canvas before being counted out. He had knocked Pompey down in the first round but instead of trying to finish him off had touched gloves in a gesture of sportsmanship, which may well have cost him the fight.
The BBBC stopped him acting as a sparring partner for Terry Downes in 1961. Because of their fears concerning the cumulative effect on his physical health of the punishment he had absorbed during the course of his boxing career. He had two unlicensed fights in 1963 and 1964 against opponents who were making their professional debuts and he stopped both of them.