Fidel La Barba

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Olympic medal record
Men’s boxing
Gold	Paris 1924	Flyweight

Fidel La Barba (September 29, 1905 — October 3, 1981) was a United States boxer and sportswriter. He was born in New York City, but grew up in Los Angeles, California. As a boy he sold newspapers and learned to fight on street corners. La Barba was discovered at age 14 by manager George Blake who embarked him on an amateur career. As an amateur he won the flyweight division at the national Amateur Athletic Union tournament in Boston and he qualified for the United States Olympic team..

La Barba won the gold medal in the flyweight division at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Although still in high school, La Barba turned professional that same year.

On August 22, 1925, La Barba defeated Frankie Genaro in a convincing 10 round decision to win the American Flyweight title. In 1927, he won the World Flyweight championship from Elky Clark. La Barba dominated the fight, knocked Clark down five times and won all twelve rounds.

Seven months later La Barba retired to enter Stanford University. Less than a year later, however, he returned to the ring as a featherweight. He won his first five fights, and in 1931 split two decisions with Kid Chocolate. On May 22, 1931 he was given an opportunity to win the world featherweight title, but was out pointed by Battling Battalino.

La Barba’s career was prematurely curtailed when he suffered a detached retina in training for a fight against Kid Chocolate for the New York featherweight title. On December 9, 1932, La Barba not only lost the fight in a close decision, but went blind in his eye. After the fight, he underwent surgery to repair the tear, but it was unsuccessful and he eventually had to have the eye removed.

In 1933, he was forced to retire, and returned to Stanford, where he earned a degree in journalism. After graduating from Stanford he worked as a sportswriter, and later worked in public relations, as a screenwriter, and as a technical advisor in Hollywood for boxing movies.

Fidel La Barba died in Los Angeles, California.