Lonsdale Belt

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The Lonsdale Belt was a boxing prize introduced by Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, to be awarded to British boxing champions. It is still awarded to British champions today.

1 National Sporting Club
2 British Boxing Board of Control
3 List of outright winners (partial)
4 Sources
5 See also

[edit] National Sporting Club

Lord Lonsdale organised boxing matches and was the first president of the National Sporting Club. In 1909, he introduced the Lonsdale Belt as a new trophy for the British champion at each weight division. The belts were crafted from porcelain and twenty-two carat gold and were only to be held by a fighter as long as he was British champion. However, a British champion was allowed to keep his Lonsdale Belt if he defended his title successfully two times. Later belts were made from nine carat gold rather than twenty-two carats as the first ones were. A total of 22 Lonsdale belts were issued by the National Sporting Club, and of these 20 were won outright.

The holders of the first Lonsdale belts were:-

Flyweight — Sid Smith, 1911
Bantamweight — Digger Stanley, 1910 (retained)
Featherweight — Jim Driscoll, 1910 (retained)
Lightweight — Freddie Welsh, 1909 (retained)
Welterweight — Young Joseph, 1910
Middleweight — Tom Thomas, 1909
Light-heavyweight — Dick Smith, 1914 (retained)
Heavyweight — Bombardier Billy Wells, 1911 (retained)

The three above belts that were not retained by the holders were eventually held and retained by Jimmy Wilde (flyweight), Johnny Basham (welterweight) and Pat O’Keefe (middleweight).

[edit] British Boxing Board of Control

The National Sporting Club became virtually defunct in the early 1930s and lost control of the sport to the British Boxing Board of Control. The latter body began issuing Lonsdale belts from 1936 onwards.

The first holders of the B.B.B.C. belts were:-

Flyweight — Benny Lynch, 1936
Bantamweight — Johnny King, 1937
Featherweight — Johnny McGrory, 1936
Lightweight — Jimmy Walsh, 1936
Welterweight — Jake Kilrain, 1938
Middleweight — Jock McAvoy, 1937
Light-heavyweight — Jock McAvoy, 1937
Heavyweight — Tommy Farr, 1937

Henry Cooper (heavyweight) is the only man ever to win three Lonsdale belts outright. Besides Henry Cooper the following boxers have won two Lonsdale belts outright:-

Nel Tarleton (featherweight)
Ronnie Clayton (featherweight)
Peter Keenan (bantamweight)
Howard Winstone (featherweight)
Brian Curvis (welterweight)
Clinton McKenzie (light-welterweight).

In 1987 the B.B.B.C. decided no longer to award any fighter more than one belt in the same weight division. This still allows a fighter to win belts outright at two or more different weights.

The Lonsdale Belt won by Bombardier Billy Wells in 1911 is now kept at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, South East London, and is not on display to the general public.

Recently, the belt awarded to Randolph Turpin was auctioned for £23,000. Although several champions have won two belts outright, Henry Cooper is the only one to win three belts outright.