Fidel LaBarba, flyweight boxing champ

Avalon, CA: Crescent Photo, Circa 1927. Collection of 3 vintage black-and-white double weight publicity photographs of Fidel LaBarba, flyweight division boxing champing of 1927. Also featured in two of the photographs is Major Jordan Lawrence Mott, with his name in manuscript ink at the bottom edge of one photograph. On the verso of one still are several lines of notes in manuscript ink, describing the time and place of the photograph, identifying LaBarba and Mott, and dated 1927.

Fidel LaBarba (1905-1981) was a US boxer and, later, a sportswriter, born in New York and grew up in Los Angeles. He was an amateur boxer until about 1925, when he won the American Flyweight title, defeating Frankie Genaro. In 1927, he won the world flyweight championship from Elky Clark, knocking Clark down five times and winning all twelve rounds. It is likely that, during his championship reign, he met Major Mott (1881-1931), a radio man, writer, and sportsman himself. Mott founded KFWO AM radio station, with headquarters in Mott's living room in his house in Avalon on Catalina Island, California.

LaBarba’s career was cut prematurely when he suffered a detached retina in training for a fight against Kid Chocolate. The surgery to repair his eye was unsuccessful, and he eventually had to have the eye removed.

8 x 10 inches. Very Good plus overall, with toning, a few small stains, creases, and a few short tears.

[Book #135858]