Tommy Farr

On 30 August 1937, Farr fought world heavyweight champion Joe Louis at the height of his career at Yankee Stadium, New York City. He earned respect despite losing a controversial points decision after 15 rounds. Louis, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, had knocked out eight of his previous nine opponents and proceeded to knock out his next seven, but was fearlessly attacked and hurt by Farr. The 50,000 crowd booed when Louis was awarded the decision[3][4][5] after referee Arthur Donovan, Sr. had seemingly raised Farr's glove in victory. Seven years later, in his published account of the fight, Donovan apologised for the 'mistake', claiming he had only meant to shake Farr's hand to congratulate him for what he saw as an impressive and courageous fight.[6] "Mistakes" hardly ended there, however. Donovan's own scorecard, had 13 rounds going to Louis. Though mixed accounts in main tell us Louis deserved the nod, 13 frames out of 15 prompted these words from a British sportswriter: "The verdict is that of a man either blindly partisan or afflicted with astigmatism. It is a verdict that justifies the beliefs that nothing short of the annihilation of Louis would have given Farr victory. That Louis won may not be disputed, but as I read the fight, there was only a fractional difference in his favour at the finish."[7] However in Donovan's account of the bout he stands by his scoring of the fight, claiming that while Farr's punches may have appeared to have done more damage than Louis's from the crowd's point of view, from his perspective and that of the ringside judges the opposite was true. [6]

Contrary views of the fight's result continued for many years. In The Encyclopedia of Boxing, as compiled by Gilbert Odd in the 1980s, Tommy's listing concludes its thumbnail on the championship bout with "...Louis came back strongly and clinched a narrow points verdict."[8] The actual ferocity of the battle and its level of competition, seldom contested, may be summed up by Tommy Farr, later on in life: "When I talk about that fight, my nose still bleeds."[9]

After the Louis fight, Farr was unsuccessful in several contests at Madison Square Garden, New York. These included a ten-round fight on 21 January 1938, against former heavyweight champion James J. Braddock, "the Cinderella Man".[10][11] Farr returned to the UK early in 1939, enjoying a run of victories that year. He retired in 1940, but personal tragedies saw him lose his fortune and he ended up bankrupt, having to return to the ring at the age of 36 to make a living. Farr later ran a pub in Brighton, Sussex in final retirement, and died on St. David's Day, 1986, aged 72. He is buried at Trealaw Cemetery.

A musical based on Farr's career, Contender, was composed by Mal Pope and premiered at the United Nations building in New York, followed by a season at Swansea's Grand Theatre.[12] A theme of the musical is that Farr's lack of success in the USA resulted wholly from his refusal to co-operate with fight-fixing mobsters and bookmakers.

• Lonkhurst, Bob Man of Courage: The Life and Career of Tommy Farr Book Guild 1997, ISBN 1-85776-167-7. 250 pp.
• Myler P Ring of Hate: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling: The Fight of the Century Arcade Publishing (2005) This source contains a detailed report of Louis's fight with Tommy Farr, at page 113.

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