Ted "Kid" Lewis

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Ted "Kid" Lewis (1894 - 1970) was an English boxer.

Born Oct. 24, 1894, in a gas-lit tenement in the Aldgate Pump section of London’s East End, Gershon Mendeloff would go on to become acclaimed as Britain’s greatest pound-for-pound fighter.

It was as a member of London’s Judean Athletic Club that Mendeloff assumed the name Ted “Kid” Lewis. At 14 he fought for sixpence and a cup of tea. He later won the Club’s flyweight title and took home a cup of imitation silver.

It was a modest beginning for the man who would go on to win nine official world and national titles, lay claim to three others, and be called, affectionately, “The smashing, bashing, crashing, dashing Kid.”

On Oct. 6, 1913, 18 days before his 18th birthday, Lewis won the British featherweight crown with a 17th round knockout of Alec Lambert at London’s National Sporting Club. A year later, on Feb. 2, 1914, at London’s Premierland, he won the European featherweight title from Paul Til via a 12th round foul.

Still in 1914, campaigning as a lightweight cum welterweight, Lewis left London and toured Australia. He won great acceptance by Australian fans in Melbourne and Sydney for his intense — some called it “dirty” — style.

In 1915 Lewis traveled to the United States, fighting Phil Bloom in New York’s Madison Square Garden. He won an easy decision. In Boston’s Armory, on Aug. 31 of that same year, he fought the man known as the “Boxing Marvel”, Jack Britton, for the welterweight crown.

Lewis won in a 12 round decision. It was the beginning of boxing’s greatest rivalry.

From 1915 to 1921 Lewis and Britton fought 20 times, a total of 224 rounds. This feud — they despised each other — was good for the moribund welterweight division, reviving it and making it viable for Mickey Walker, Jimmy McLarnin, Barney Ross, Henry Armstrong and other great welterweights to come.

On Apr. 24, 1916, in New Orleans, Lewis lost the title to Britton. He reclaimed it on Jun. 25, 1917, at Westwood Field, Dayton, Ohio. He lost the title for the last time on Mar. 17, 1919, in Canton, Ohio, when Britton knocked him out in the ninth round — the only knockout of the series.

The roundup of his matches with Britton: Lewis won 3, lost 4, and had 1 draw. There were 12 no decisions.

Lewis started his career as an evasive boxer with a long left that struck like a snake. During the six years he spent in America he changed his style, becoming a swarming, combination boxer-fighter, his approach aggressive, his punches deadly.

After his last loss to Britton, Lewis returned to England, his boxing career allegedly finished. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

On Jun. 9, 1920, at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre, he beat clever Johnny Basham to win the British and European welterweight titles. He relinquished these in Dec., the same year, due to his difficulty in making the weight.

His drive to fight Georges Carpentier, World and European Light Heavyweight Champion, came to fruition on May 11, 1922, in the Olympia. Lewis, fighting at 150 pounds to Carpentier’s 175, spent most of the first round giving the heavier man a drubbing. Then referee Joe Palmer put a hand on Lewis’s shoulder to warn him against holding. Carpentier took advantage of this distraction and snuck in a vicious right. The Kid went crashing to the canvas and was counted out.

The Olympia crowd erupted furiously, crying, “foul”, but to no avail. The Kid remained nonplussed. “I felt cheated, but I didn’t bear any grudge,” he would later say.

On Jun. 6, 1922, at Holland Park Rink, London, Lewis KO’d Frankie Burns to win the British middleweight title. On Nov. 11 of the same year—also at Holland Park Rink—he beat Roland Todd to win the European middleweight title.

He did not hold either title long, losing both at the Royal Albert Hall on Feb. 15, 1923, after a grueling rematch with the always dangerous Todd.

Lewis won his last two titles, the British and European welterweight crowns, on Jul. 3, 1924—again at London’s Royal Albert Hall—by defeating Hamilton Johnny Brown. Two years later, on Nov. 26, 1924, at Waverley Market Hall in Edinburgh, he lost these championships to the much younger Scotsman, Tommy Milligan.

Though he continued boxing until 1929, adding 20 more fights to a long and distinguished list, the loss to Milligan was, by all measurements, the end of Lewis’s spectacular career.

His boxing record: 279 bouts, 170 won, 30 lost, 13 draws, 66 no decisions, 70 knockouts.

Lewis died on Oct. 20, 1970, in London, England, leaving behind an important legacy as the man who introduced the mouthpiece to boxing.

The East End boy, who began his career earning sixpence a fight, was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1964, to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, and to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.

Fight historians think highly of, “The smashing, bashing, crashing, dashing Kid.”

Bert Randolph Sugar, in his authoritative book, The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time, ranked Lewis number 33, ahead of such quality fighters as James J. “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, Jake LaMotta, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Georges Carpentier—the man who had denied him the world light heavyweight crown in 1922.

[edit] References

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